When Science Papa was announced, the crowd readied their torches and cried “Copycat! Sexist!” due to their devotion to a popular franchise known as Cooking Mama. Sexist? While not something that ever crossed my mind before hearing the never-satisfied bunch we call the Internet speak, it’s hardly that. Men, and boys, for our case at hand, do not want to play as a woman, much less Mama, when performing simulations of real household activities and tasks. When playing Cooking Mama, I enjoy it, I love a good mess of mini games and I respected the ideas of meals I could put together with my own two hands. But Papa? Yes, there was a tug at the name which may be considered unfair play, but it works. And it feels like the right title with a genderless appeal for the very same market.

Our days of toiling and begging for our parents’ dear assistance on our science fair projects made me feel as if Science Papa was a must try for me. Papa does a good job at making science fun while touting a challenging variety of experiments to experience. At first glance the initial audience Science Papa is targeting would be elementary to secondary school kids, though ramping your way through the competitions you enter throughout the game are no easy task to be scoffed at. The game demands precision and speed as you work alongside Papa as his new laboratory assistant as he hopes to see you prevail and become the greatest scientist ever.

You begin by getting used to the world of science by completing a few simpler tasks in order to familiarize yourself with your lab equipment. Starting off with simple tasks to get you ready for your first upcoming competition, get ready to start making soap for the bathroom, because in these harsh economic times, why buy a bar when you can brew one in your lab? Once you’ve got the hang of things, rake up some reward money and ranking skill points, you’re ready for your first competition against one of Papa’s old students. Before a competition you create a bomb type of your choice (once you’ve created each type in the lab) and then it’s on to the 1 on 1 science deathmatch. The bombs can be unleashed at any time during your face off with your opponent to drop a smoke cloud or globs of bubble gum on their screen to slow them down. It’s a race against the clock for both quality and speed as you’re judged at the end.

Throughout the game you will experience a variety of experiments that relate to paleontology, botany, and much more, introducing a lot of interest to be piqued from the player and generate a potential love for science. What I like about Science Papa is aside from the entertaining tasks you do to complete an experiment, the game never makes science out to be a nerd’s realm where being interested in science is portrayed stereotypically as a bad thing. It’s depicted as something that everyone can be good at and that there is so much to learn.

The motion controls are easy to get used to and do not feel too gimmicky, they go on par with the action you are completing. Be prepared to hold a flask over the bunsen burner, grind materials by heaving up and down, and tweaking your microscope by turning your remote every so slightly to reveal a few samples of DNA. What Science Papa also does well is that to avoid mundanely repeating different tasks over and over by moving about your lab, as you succeed through each competition and rank up a bit, new equipment and upgraded machinery will become available. Upgraded devices only make your life easier as processes can be streamlined and processes can be sped up. Purchase new materials to unlock new experiments that other scientists will call upon you for help on. It’s a great system because even experiments that have been done multiple times become a whole new experience when you garner a whole new set of tools and upgrades.

A quick mention of the multiplayer capability is also in order. The game allows for a two player mode in which players face off in the same fashion as they would against the CPU scientists in the single player competitions. You both go off to craft your bombs, select an available experiment (play through the single player to unlock more experiments and different bombs in the two player mode) and duke it out like Bill Nye to find out who’s the biggest Einstein in the family.

Easily recommendable to parents with children of either gender from ages 7-12, boys will probably lose interest around the latter ages, while girls will probably enjoy the simulation type gameplay for a bit longer if you’re not forcing them to play games about cute boys and dresses for a change. As an adult, I was able to enjoy it just because I find a well-crafted set of mini games to be a deserving and worthy experience. For the low price tag of $29.99 on the Wii, I can’t find a reason otherwise to recommend Science Papa above all the rest of the shovelware and poorly crafted titles that currently clutter the stores’ shelves of Wii titles.

Doin It RIGHT: - High scores are actually challenging to achieve. - Avoids repetitive gameplay by altering methods of executing experiments by upgrading and adding new tools. - An incredibly vast array of experiments and equipment to work with.	Doin It RONG: - A difficulty option should be available to appeal stronger to the youthful audience that is targeted. - No option to skip cutscenes of competitions even if you’ve seen it and lost before.
FINAL SCORE: 8 / 10

A big thanks to PR Agency Sandbox Strategies for providing a copy of Science Papa for Spawn Kill to review!

Tags: Activision, Educational, Science Papa, Simulation

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 19th, 2009 at 3:28 pm and is filed under Reviews, Wii. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.