Pink Panther's dangerous mission
| Pink Panther's dangerous mission | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Pink Panther: Passport to Peril |
| Studio | Wanderlust Interactive |
| Publisher | Ravensburger Interactive |
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
1996 |
| platform | Windows |
| genre | Point-and-click adventure |
| Game mode | Single player |
| control | mouse |
| language | German English |
Pink Panther's Dangerous Mission is a point-and-click adventure released in 1996 that is controlled by the mouse . His main character is Paulchen Panther , who now works as a secret agent and has to solve strange incidents in a holiday camp. The game also teaches children about foreign countries. Two years later, Pink Panther and the Magic Formula appeared as its successor.
action
Paulchen Panther , who works as a secret agent, receives a new assignment from Inspector Clouseau in New York : he is to take care of the safety and well-being of a group of children from different nations in a holiday camp called Chili-Wa-Wa. Despite their young age, these are important activists for world peace. When he arrives at the camp, he meets his old friend Professor Von Smarty again, who designed the camp and its leisure activities. But soon after his arrival, the mood clouded over: representatives of the “Federal Camping Supervision” (BCB for short) appeared and threatened to close the camp if certain requirements were not met. Since the children are increasingly showing strange behavior, Paulchen is sent to their home countries to investigate this matter. His path leads him to England , Egypt , China , Bhutan , India and Australia . Paulchen finds out that the leader of the BCB is the notorious dog who unscrupulously usurps real estate in order to set up branches of his fast food chain . He also kidnapped the children and replaced them with robots in order to ruin the amusement park and turn it into one of its restaurants. When Paulchen has collected enough evidence, he confronts Dog, who calls his henchmen for help. Paulchen finally succeeds in overpowering the villains. He finds the kidnapped children and Professor Von Smarty in a large air bubble under the camp's lake and frees them. Everyone is overjoyed to have got out of the matter unharmed, but Paulchen realizes that he has to spend a lot of time with the children as part of his original task.
Game principle and technology
Pink Panther is a point-and-click adventure . From Sprites composite characters act before hand-drawn, some animated scenes. The player can use the mouse to move his character through the locations and use the mouse buttons to initiate actions that allow the character to interact with his environment. Paulchen Panther can find objects and apply them to the environment or other objects and communicate with NPCs . As the story progresses, more locations will be unlocked. Unlike in other point-and-click games, Paulchen does not run directly to the clicked location, but only to certain points.
The player is given an insight into the culture of the respective countries. For example, Paulchen visits a traditional English pub , an Egyptian farm or an Indian village. People present there often represent good-natured stereotypes, such as the English football fanatic or the haggling Arab trader. For solving puzzles in the game, Paulchen often has to rely on understanding special characteristics of the respective culture as a stranger.
The game also has socially critical elements: in an Indian village, for example, Paulchen is informed about the ongoing discrimination due to the caste system and the disadvantage of women, and in China the overpopulation and one-child policy there is pointed out. A Chinese rice farmer whom Paulchen visits is also pleased that his son is undergoing a Western education, as he will bring both cultures closer together in the future. In Bhutan, Paulchen suggests to the king that the country might open up more to tourism in the future . In the accompanying music video, the residents' doubts about the effects this could have on the country's traditional culture are addressed. When Paulchen parachuted to land in Australia, a native did not want to fish him out of the water at first, as he had become suspicious of strangers since the arrival of the Europeans and the negative consequences for the indigenous population.
In addition to simply playing through the humorous plot, the game also offers children the opportunity to learn more about the respective cultures in the six countries Paulchen visited. With many objects in the game it is possible to call up spoken information by right-clicking the mouse. The so-called PDA (Pink's digital assistant) can also be called up at any time during the game . This contains a wealth of information about the respective countries under the categories of Art & Entertainment, Clothing, Food, History, Nature, People & Language, Places & Maps and Religions. However, this is only information to satisfy the curiosity of the children, but the information found there is not important for the course of the game.
Songs
At certain moments of the action, music video sequences are inserted, with each of which Paulchen is given a more detailed explanation of cultural facts:
- England: Act of Guy Fawkes
- Egypt: mummification
- China: population development
- Bhutan: tradition and modernity
- India: Nature of the Caste System / History of the Building of the Taj Mahal
- Australia: Importance of Dream Time
The songs are all in English and can also be found in the German version.
reception
| ||||||||
The German game magazine PC Joker praised the “pretty colorful” game environment, the voice output and the educational character of the game. A lack of gaming entitlement was criticized.
Web links
- Pink Panthers dangerous mission at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Pink Panther's Dangerous Mission . In: PC Joker . February 1997, p. 98.
- ↑ Roland Austinat: Pink Panthers Dangerous Mission . Adventure for beginners. In: PC Player . No. 2/97 , February 1997, p. 107 ( kultboy.com [accessed August 17, 2019]).