Epic Adventures: La Jangada

Despite serious gameplay problems, this classic has enough charm to make it an enjoyable experience for fans of hidden-object games.

The story is an adaptation of Jules Verne's lesser known novel, Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon. It is beautifully narrated, rather than acted, by a voice actor. The drawings, music, and sound selections for the most part fit the mood very well. You will be transported to the time and place.

The gameplay is almost entirely hidden-object scenes. There are puzzles, too, but they are very few and simple. Unfortunately the hidden-object scenes are often frustrating. They are difficult not because of cleverly chosen hiding locations, but because many of the objects are just very tiny. With the resolution being as low as it, it means that often you are looking for just a handful of pixels! Combine that with having to click very precisely on the object's pixels and you can see this not being very fun. There is a "hint" button to make the frustration stop, but nobody who is dedicated to these kinds of games would appreciate having to use it.

Also, I must point out the jarring, glaring design errors. The story takes place along the Amazon River, but at some point we see several animals that you would not find in America. A giraffe? In the Amazon? Nobody who was involved in making this game knew this was wrong?!

There are also several spelling mistakes in English. And the voice actor, while good at acting, makes cringe-worthy pronunciation errors, which could easily have been avoided by some directive coaching. All in all, this game is inconsistently polished.