Seek and ye shall discover

Discovery! A Seek and Find Adventure

Game Category: Casual - Hidden Object
Developer / Distributor: Mumbo Jumbo
Release Date: 17 Jun 2008
Rating: ESRB - Everyone



As I played Discovery! A Seek and Find Adventure (DSFA) tonight, I happened to chance a look at my TV and noticed that this casual game from Mumbo Jumbo looks and feels almost like the game of Wheel of Fortune that was on the air. In fact, I kept wishing that Pat Sajak and Vanna White would make a guest appearance in DSFA to spice things up, but had to contend with the reality of seeing only a virtual host and hostess.

Instead of spinning that famous wheel and getting cash for correctly identified consonants, DSFA throws in a hidden object slant - I get the cash amount for every hidden object I find.

Hosted by the ever smiling Jerry Landers and the always beautiful brunette, Jill Summers, DSFA takes you through seven countries as you seek and find common everyday objects hidden all over the stage. You also get to spin the game's very own wheel to determine which mini-game you get to play to break the monotony of the seek and find routine.

A rather interesting game show

After creating your profile and choosing from 24 pictures to represent yourself, the game starts off like any other game show, introducing the hosts and the players for the night. The descriptions of your two opponents are usually very humorous. For example, Jerry Landers quips, Give it up for Cynthia "Blackjack" Wernout, a very busy mom who runs an Internet gambling business from home... here's hoping you don't fold playing today.

PS - some of the profile pictures are locked from the start and require that you unlock them by winning the game for a particular country. 

Let's begin the game show

After meeting your opponents, you get to spin a great wheel to determine how much each hidden object costs if you find it. You will note that there are four colors on the wheel - red, blue, green, and gray. The significance of the color will be explained shortly.

You are then taken to the fist game and are taught the basics of the game.

Just like other hidden object games, DSFA has a cluttered picture with about 90 objects hidden on it. There is also a short list of objects that you must seek and find and of course, a hint button. At the same time, you have your two AI opponents that you are competing against shown at the bottom right.

My progress in the game

You must remember to keep your eye on your opponents from time to time. Whenever an opponent finds an object from the list, a red or green light appears next to the item. Your objective is to find all objects before they do. Your opponents are typically not a threat at the start. If you prefer not to be stressed, you can always enter the options to choose to play a relaxed game.

The hint button is a useful tool that doesn't really penalize you, and it also recharges at a reasonably fast rate, which means you can keep on using it

Will I be next week's big winner too?

After you complete the first round, you get to spin the wheel again. Depending on the color that you get with your spin, you will get to play a mini-game. There are four types of mini-games:

• Red - Prize Tag Challenge is a concentration style match game with a little twist. You must first match small red tags, with every matched red pair revealing a large yellow tag. Once you are left only with yellow tags, you can start to match these to win the mini-game.

Fun mini games

• Blue - Trivia Takeoff is a five question trivial pursuit game with difficult questions that you must answer. You can stop at any time and leave the game with whatever you have won. If you answer wrongly, you lose everything. I counted at least 256 questions in their question bank; here's an example to get you warmed up: Edison Arantes do Nascimento is better known as famed soccer star Pelé - True or False?
• Green - Scene Match Safari is a match the difference game with another little twist. There are two pictures placed side by side. One of the pictures is missing items that the other one has. You must grab the missing objects and place them back into their proper places.

Jill Summers, who? I miss Vanna White!

• Grey - Blizzard Bucks is a fun little action sequence that has you clicking like crazy with your mouse to grab as much cash as you can as they fall from the ceiling. There are three grades of cash - $20 (green), $50 (blue), and $100 (yellow), so keep your eye out for the dearer ones.

After completing the mini-game, you will progress through a round of Scavenger Hunt where you need to seek and find objects from a certain category. Take for example, find 15 tools in a garage. This is followed by another spin of the wheel and a mini-game before you enter the final round to play through three scenes. The first is a classic search mode, followed by a category search mode, and the third scene features a classic search mode through a bonus backdrop for the country that you are playing in.
Once all that is done, the highest winner (which is you) proceeds into the Jackpot round. Also known as the US. Road Trip bonus round, you are given a starting cash figure that counts backwards. Your job is to find ten items located in six US cities as fast as you can. Each city requires you to find one specific item. If you give up, you can always click on the Pass button; there is no penalty. This keeps on repeating until all ten items have been found. Whatever cash remains is your to take.

On my US Road trip

Every time you complete a night's game, you unlock that country in Gauntlet Run mode. Gauntlet Run mode is accessed from the Achievements option at the main menu of DSFA. This mode allows you to play through all unlocked levels finding every single object on each of the levels. Each country has three maps of about 90+ objects. And if I did my math right, you can get to find and seek at least 1000 objects in the entire game - that's a plus point!

Gauntlet Run unlocked for Spain

One of the cool things about the game is the catchy music, and I love how the theme music matches the country. All this is courtesy of Vasily Shestovets. Of course, the other would be the voicework and sound effects which are not too bad nor irritating to the ears.

I had a few gripes about DSFA:

• the game play is too repetitive, although the different level artwork makes up for this deficiency, 
• the mini-games are not too interesting to sustain interest, and there's only four of them, 
• the objects are reused several times across levels,
• and I also needed to click several times on some of the objects to declare a match. To give it the benefit of the doubt, perhaps my mouse was not pointing at the correct place.

Onwards into the Champion's Tourney

There is a Champion's Tourney waiting to be unlocked if you play all the way through. Your opponents are now much more harder to beat. So, let your eyes quickly do the walking, and don't dally or your opponents (who incidentally look like caricature of movie stars) will beat you. Incidentally, you get to play through the levels all over again.

If only DSFA was real; it's contestants would all be billionaires by the end of the season. But alas, it is just a game. Mind you, it's a game with just a bit too much repetition. If you like Hidden Object games, I suggest you give this game a try first before you buy it.

Daily PC Game Review Score: 7 / 10

Review Date: 10 Mar 2011