by Daniel Alden

Created on: August 28, 2010

The Oregon Trail is a game that dates back to the mid 1970s. For some children, playing The Oregon Trail in school was as much a part of the day as math, writing, or recess. It “taught” the history of traveling the Oregon Trail and made players learn to survive cold winters, grave sickness, and even lack of food. It offered such an experience, few children realized they were actually playing an educational game. The game has been remade many times since its initial release in the 70s, but the same (or a similar) experience was offered. The most recent release of the classic was for the Nintendo DSi through their DSiWare Store. The game offers a fresh look, mini-games, and even the ability to have the player take their picture and put it in newspapers within the game.

Graphically speaking, the game looks great. It has received a cartoon style and sports very fitting 16-bit graphics. The animations are very fluid and colors are vibrant and fitting of the material. At times, the player can meet historical figures, such as Abraham Lincoln and Wyatt Earp. The drawings of these figures are are exaggerated, but stays with the style of the game and works well.

The music is heavily western themed and goes perfectly with the game. The music really helps move the game along. While mostly one melody plays throughout the game, it rarely gets annoying. The other sounds in the game are nothing special – gun shots, oxen walking, wheels moving, etc – but sound as one might expect.

The game is totally touch screen controlled and it works great for things that need to be controlled. However, most of the control consists of tapping a button to continue on the trail and watching. The mini-games are where control comes more into the game, but again it is used sparingly. Most mini-games consist of tapping an object, little more. When used, the controls are extremely responsive.

Now probably most important is the gameplay. This is, sadly, where the DSi version of The Oregon Trail starts to falter. Many of the options from previous versions of the game were removed. The player can no longer decide the specific supplies they want (number of oxen, bullets, etc) or set meal rations, or even choose when to hunt. Hunting can only be done at certain set points throughout the game. The ability to trade has also been removed, except at set intervals. There are also fewer random events and the whole party has a set health instead of the individual party members. Individual members can still get sick, but the whole party is set to “Good”, “Fair”, etc. One can still choose their profession and the time of year to start the journey, but there are fewer professions than older versions. The mini-games do add to the gameplay, without being too deep or long. The mini-games are for certain activities – hunting, fishing, fixing the wagon, and more. All are entertaining in their own way. Like the original game, much time is spent just watching the party make their way to Oregon, but with less micromanagement in this new version, more time is spent just watching.

Overall, The Oregon Trail for DSi delivers a solid experience and has plenty of reasons to play through again and again. It just feels like there were numerous missed opportunities and many of the basic features of 20 year old versions of the game were left out. With just a little more work, this good game could have been great. Perhaps a sequel can deliver what was missing in this version of the game.

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