Afrika – Gotta Snap ‘Em All

I have only come to love Pokemon in the last year or so.  Previously, I could never understand players’ obsession with collecting as many of the little creatures as humanly possible.  Then I realized that this obsession was strikingly similar to MY obsession with getting every little thing in RPG’s (eg. defeating Emerald Weapon and getting the Gold Chocobo in Final Fantasy VII).  It’s probably worth noting that RPG’s are the only games where I actually give a rat’s ass about achievements or trophies.  So when I found out about Afrika, I was intrigued.  Instead of cute little monsters with battle abilities, your objective is to photograph all the real wildlife in the African wild.  The game was made in collaboration with National Geographic, so there is detailed information and real-life pictures of the animals in the game.

The first thing I noticed about the game when I started it up was that it looks absolutely beautiful.  The sweeping landscapes with orchestral music in the background is relaxing, although I did not feel as though I were being lulled to sleep.  As I watched the screen with animals grazing, running, or just standing around, I definitely felt as though I were watching a nature show on PBS or the Discovery Channel.  I do love the photorealism that the PS3’s graphics can achieve.

When you begin the game, you can choose between playing a male or female, as well as give them a name if you don’t like the default.  A brief explanation of basic controls ensues and you are introduced to your laptop.  This is where you receive all your missions.  The e-mail will ask you to photograph a certain animal and based on the quality of the photo you send, you will be ranked from E to A, with A being the highest.  You receive money for doing these jobs and can use this money to upgrade your equipment or even repaint your jeep.  Also, as you complete missions, you will unlock new items in the shop.  There are also audio missions where you have to record animal sounds.  As you complete those, you will unlock animal calls.

The controls are pretty basic, although I have a tendency to forget what to press for what.  Most of the time, though, there’s on screen indicators to let me know that I can get in or out of the jeep, etc.  This helps me out a lot.  My biggest challenge with this game is that there is no audio dialog.  It’s all on screen.  (I’m guessing that they needed all the disk space they could get for the graphics.)  Fortunately, if you can translate the animal, it’s pretty easy to complete the mission.  Your jeep has an A.I. driver until you unlock the ability to drive it yourself, so he will just take you where you need to go for each mission.

I have to admit that I’m playing this game rather slowly.  I’m enjoying just standing around and looking at things.  Even when I’m getting frustrated because I moved and the animal noticed me and scampers off, thus making me wait for it to eventually come back, there’s something oddly relaxing about this game.  I am also taking my time because I am obsessed with getting A’s on all my photographs.  Again, I think my rather low Japanese language skill is causing me to miss out on stuff like the detailed information about the animals from National Geographic.  Thankfully, though, (and surprisingly) this game is actually easier to play without being able to understand than Captain Rainbow.  I do hope that this gets released in North America because I’m sure that there are a lot of people who would really enjoy going on a virtual safari and learning about wildlife.

Afrika – Official Japanese Site