Game Description

Based on the I SPY book series, I SPY Challenger! offers more than 100 levels of play in four specific games featuring elements of skill, luck, timing, and observation. Match Attack has 15 progressively harder rounds, Grid Grab focuses on pattern recognition, Riddle Round-Up consists of 36 riddles based on 12 unique pictures, and gameplay in Hoop Drop is based on quick reaction in grouping objects with similar characteristics.

Designed for children in the six to ten year age range, I SPY Challenger!, the first game in the "I SPY" franchise for the Game Boy Advance, features faster-paced mini-games, bonus rounds, and secret riddles. Games can be saved to four cartridge save slots at anytime during play with no passwords required, and players can take advantage of the "change level" function to replay any of their favorite levels once they have been completed during regular play. If desired, music can be toggled off in the options screen. ~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide

Roots & Influences

I Spy Challenger! is the first Scholastic "I Spy" franchise product for the Game Boy Advance and is based on the I Spy book series. ~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide

Review: Enjoyment

Initially, gameplay is fun and fascinating, but with only four games, long-term action takes a hit. Players will reach the limits of their individual skills fairly quickly, and the rest of their game time will be spent trying to eke out the next level by repeatedly playing the same levels. ~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide

Production Credits

Company 1: Scholastic

Producer: Amy Birnbaum

Executive Producer: Susan Gargiulo

Interactive Designer: Sharon Bilman

Production Manager: Sharon Bilman

Art Director: Eleanor Shelton

Senior Graphic Designer: Eleanor Shelton

Associate Technical Producer: Nicklas Weich

Audio Line Producer: Nicklas Weich

Animator: Orlando Robles

Production Coordinator: Orlando Robles

Graphic Design: Laura Williams

Quality Assurance Lead: Danny Tunick

Music & Sound Design: Bong & Dern Inc., Chris Burke, Haeyoung Kim

Usability Consultant: Penny Bauersfeld

Photographer: John Bessler

Vice President & General Manager Scholastic Software Group: Alan Waldman

Director of Development: David Fratto

Senior Technical Producer: Bill Metzger

Vice President Marketing: Mark Kirschner

Marketing Manager: Jennifer Morris

Director of Marketing and Sales: Juli Lennett

Sales Manager: Dorothy Weintraub

Associate Marketing Manager: Nicole Rund

Sales and Marketing Coordinator: Amabel Fulgencio

Director of Finance: Leo Saulle

Package Design: CCM Inc.

Cover Illustration: Eleanor Shelton

Company 2: Black Hammer Game Inc.

Lead Programmer: Nikita Mikros

Technical Director: Nikita Mikros

Executive Producer: Matthew Schlanger

Programmer: Bob Meissner, Haska Su ~ Mark Hoogland, All Game Guide

Review: Overall

While the four games offered in I SPY Challenger! provide an interesting mix of gameplay, long-term enjoyment is unlikely due to their inherent limitations. This, coupled with the sparse selection of games, makes the title a fleeting diversion at best. As with many arcade-style games, the user will reach a certain level of success, at which point any further advance becomes a matter of blind luck rather than skill, and continued attempts become a source of frustration.

Three of the four games, Match Attack, Grid Grab, and Hoop Drop, are arcade like, but Riddle Round-Up is actually closer to the concept of the original I SPY. Riddle Round-Up is most likely the only game of the four that kids will complete without too much of a strain, although the small-screen makes recognition of some of the riddle components tougher than it would be on a larger display.

With only 12 pictures containing all the objects to "spy" and three riddles of multiple objects per picture, the game takes a measured amount of time to complete but isn't too difficult. Actual gameplay is simply a matter of scrolling the screen vertically and horizontally until you pick out all the objects mentioned in the riddle, most of which center on a specific theme, like sports or cars, but have similar objects like numbers, dice and letters throughout. The game does demand a certain level of observation, though, and fortunately, users can switch from picture to picture if they get stumped on one in particular. The only locked picture is the Secret Riddle, which becomes available after all 36 riddles in the other pictures are solved.

Grid Grab requires the highest level of concentration, as well as quick reactions and the ability to recognize patterns of unrelated objects vertically, horizontally, and diagonally within a grid, both forwards and backwards. Think "Word-Find" with objects instead of letters. The earlier levels are just as easy as those in Match Attack, but get progressively tougher as the grid grows in size along with the target pattern of objects to pick out. As the number of sets required for identification and the size of the grid increase, the time allotment also changes. The mitigating factor is the requirement to rotate the highlighted pattern of tiles from vertical to diagonal to horizontal with the B Button and then move it to match the target tile set by using the control pad.

Despite the charm of Grid Grab, the game likely to attract the most attention is Match Attack, the most arcade-like and challenging of the bunch. Individual columns of objects vertically scroll, up or down on the left of the screen, while the whole target area slowly moves to the right. The idea is to shoot an object from the right side of the screen to eliminate matching items as they line up horizontally in the target area -- if you miss the intended target, the shooter object becomes part of the target area. By eliminating multiple objects with one shot, you earn "free matches" that become invaluable as the objects in the target area increase in speed and number.

Match Attack is the fastest moving of the arcade games and is the most fun, until you reach your level of ability. There's no timer per se, but the inexorable movement of the target area encroaches on your "shooter" in the same way as Space Invaders vertically descended on your shooter nearly a quarter of a century ago. The similarities are inescapable -- the number of objects increases, the speed of encroachment increases, and the level of reflex increases, which, coupled with luck, makes the level of success for each user a self-fulfilling game of limitations.

The challenge of Match Attack can be both a blessing and a curse, with the sheer diversity of the types of matching items creating far and away the best learning tool for kids. Matches can be a mix of letters and objects (match a B with a baseball, bear, or bee), rhymes (dog with frog), shapes (baseball and balloon), colors (a red C with a red apple), mixes (the number "8" and a skate), and so forth. Unfortunately, the small screen once again creates a potential problem, as not all objects are recognizable at first glance, making good lighting a must when playing Match Attack.

By the time you reach level 22, there are 42 objects filling the screen and matching rows becomes a matter of luck as much as skill; the use of the same object in different ways can be disconcerting as well, though challenging. Fortunately, the number of objects per level build up steadily by a factor of seven, giving you time to acclimate, up to a point (14 objects in Levels 1-3, 21 in levels 4-9, 28 in levels 10-15, 35 in levels 16-21, and so forth).

The most boring of the four games is Hoop Drop, made so by the sluggish movement of the screen and the inability to reverse direction when new objects pop up. The screen continually scrolls to the left, although you have a very limited chance to navigate with each specific object via the control pad. The game is simplistic, requiring you to drop specific items into the correct circle (or hoop) filled with like objects (e.g., drop a fish into a circle with other animals, a ball into a circle of sports equipment, and so on). The only real challenge becomes the time limitation and the overlapping circles, and the artificial double-points award you get when dropping objects into glowing or pulsing hoops is simply too contrived to be meaningful.

Progress in each game can be saved at the end of each level, eliminating any frustration of having to replay levels to retake ground already gained. With the exception of Riddle Round-Up, the games are timed and players who can complete a challenge within the specified time limit earn double points. While not a mandatory element of game-solving, the timer ramps up the challenge and offers some incentive to replay for the highest point totals. I SPY Challenger! is fairly entertaining and offers decent gameplay, but with only four games, players will have no choice but to abandon it after reaching their individual levels of skill. ~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide

Review: Graphics

The smallness of the GBA screen works against a couple of the games like Match Attack and Riddle Round-Up where detail is important. Good lighting is necessary to ease the strain of recognizing objects quickly -- having to spend time to figure out what an object is before matching it against another item is an unnecessary constraint. ~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide

Review: Sound

Uninspired tune and meaningless sounds. ~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide

Review: Replay Value

The only two reasons to continue play are to reach higher levels and gain more points. Unfortunately, gameplay isn't compelling enough to guarantee continued long-term play. ~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide

Review: Documentation

Nicely detailed manual with color screen-shots covers the basics and bonuses of each game. ~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide