Jambo! Safari: Animal Rescue Review

It's not often that people get a chance to go to Africa, let alone become a Safari Park Ranger. Fortunately, Sega have released a game called Jambo! Safari which allows players to do both of these things, which is actually very considerate of them. It's a game that's clearly aimed at children though, as it hopes to teach them about the different environments and wildlife that's present in Africa.

There isn't really any kind of narrative to go along with the game as players simply take control of a rookie Park Ranger and have to perform various tasks that are assigned by personnel that are found in the various areas. By performing tasks, they are able to progress through to new areas and the game essentially develops by using this formula. There are a few characters that actually have names, but knowing them isn't really all that important. The structure of the game serves its purpose and encourages players to continue into new areas, but none of the mission briefs are overly engaging and some of them are actually quite weird. Why a small movie crew are filming in the middle of the desert is quite baffling, especially when a huge Rhinoceros is rampaging around next to them.

There are actually quite a lot of missions to do, but there aren't that many different varieties. They generally involve catching an animal or driving from a to b. The game does try to add some kind of purpose for the mission taking place, but as previously mentioned, it's rarely overly engaging. It's important to note though, that the animals are only captured for their safety, or other non-harmful reasons. Perhaps the Rangers needs to perform some research, relocate an animal or simply help nurse an injured animal back up to full fitness. Some missions do actually become a bit more challenging though, as they test the player's knowledge. For example, the head ranger will ask a player to capture an animal, but he will only offer a clue as to which animal needs to be captured. It's this aspect of the game which makes things much more about learning. In the interest of fairness though, while it's possible to fail missions, they generally get easier after each failure. Extra clues will be given, or time limits will be extended. It stops the game from becoming too tedious and repetitive and will give it a nice flow for children who aren't the best gamers, but still want to enjoy it.

The game features two difficulties and when playing on the harder one (designed for people over the age of 10), it can actually become challenging later on. Players will spend their entire time driving around in a four-wheeled vehicle of some sort. They each have their own different capabilities, so choosing the correct vehicle for each location is actually quite important. To capture animals, players must first initiate a rodeo loop, and then once they have the animal lined up, they can attempt to lasso it by gesturing with the Wii Remote. Then it becomes a game of tug-of-war, as the animal tries to escape the Ranger's clutches. It can become quite frustrating sometimes due to the obvious lack of manoeuvrability of the Ranger's vehicle and it's very hard to imagine a real Ranger capturing an animal in this kind of fashion. Some of the animals later on will actually make life very difficult, even trying to attack the Ranger's vehicle, so it means actually capturing animals can take considerable time and effort.