Codename: KND MINIGAMES Review

Anannya Sen’s Review

One aimed at the younger generation but still fun nonetheless.

Codename :KND or Kids Next Door to use their full title is a series of mini games based on the popular kids TV series. In fact, you can play some flash games of theirs online already. But onto the mobile version.

There are 5 games here, all different enough to play. The graphics are nice and colourful and reminiscent of the cartoon. The animation is fairly smooth and crisp but there's nothing too difficult to do here. Each of the kids has a different game to play and they involve either reactions or speed or brainpower.

The sound is pretty cool too with some heavily loaded polyphonic tunes when you're in the menu section and another one when you are playing in game. No sound effects as such but the tunes more than make up for it.

The controls differ depending on the game you play so let's discuss them as there's no real plot or story to speak of. OK, there is, something about teddy bears turning evil, but there are no plot developments or twists or anything like that. Just 5 mini games to play.

The first one is probably the easiest to play but can be tricky to get good. The bears advance to the bottom of the screen and you have to move your kid left or right to enable him to hit a baseball at the bears. He will hit automatically so all you have to do is get the kid behind the baseball. The baseball will bounce off the bears leading to some pinball style combos. You can also hit the bears back a little but you lose a life if you miss the baseball or a bear advances past the line. Who said sport wasn't fun?

The second game is one purely based on speed and the size of the keys on your phone key pad. The object is again advancing bears but in order to zap them back you have to tap in the number they are sporting. So if a bear is waddling towards you with the number 1138 underneath then tap in 1138 on the key pad to zap it into oblivion. This obviously lends itself to being very dependent on what keypad you have and how fast you are with it. The one on the K600 is small and awkward whereas the Nokia 6680 is big and easy to manage. The other thing about the game is that if you type in the wrong number you can't delete numbers, you have to type more numbers in to end the 4 digit code (sometimes 3) and then start again and this often wastes precious seconds. 3 strikes and you're out.

The third game is the old fairground game where a head pops up and you have to bat it back down. Or in this case you'll see a bear appear in a 1-9 grid and you have to press the corresponding key quickly to get rid of him. Take too long or press the wrong number and you lose one out of you three lives on this game.

Game 4 is about 3 directions, up, left and right. It reminds me of the old aztec challenge game where you had to either jump or duck so it's pretty simple. Bear heads will come at you from one of the 3 directions and you have to press that direction to fist it away. They come at different speeds and so can be quite tricky.

The final game is by far the hardest and is very similar to the lock break game from I-Plays hit 24 game. You have 9 bears in cages and some cages will be open. Pressing a button will close that cage and adjacent cages only. So, if you imagine a 3 X 3 grid and squares (cages) 1,4,5 and 7 are open then pressing 4 will close them as 4 is adjacent to all of them. You start off with simple variations that require one press but as you get further you have to do combinations by closing certain cages which will open others and then allow you to close them. The number of turns you need to close the cages usually goes up as you increase your level.

Ok, that's all the games and you can do the usual by beating your score, suspending and resuming and the like.

All the games are different enough to be fun, especially for the kids who will find it educational as well. Learning quick reaction times and move combinations will serve them in good stead when they graduate to playing Tekken and end up losing to me.

Worth a look if you're young enough to watch the cartoon.