We all know and many of us love the classic film E.T. Many of us also remember and loathe the original E.T. game of 25 years ago that has been blamed singlehandedly for causing the videogame crash of the 80's. Of course that's quite an overstatement but I am pretty sure the game didn't help things. Well Ojom has brought the lovable alien back to us from the far reaches of the galaxy in E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. All the way from the Star War Universe if you watched closely in those senate scenes. But can they overcome the pain and suffering we felt at the hands of the first game?

  Ojom's new E.T. Party for mobile games did what the original ET game couldn't which is be interesting. It's basically a series of mini-games that test your reflexes, logic and brainpower. The variety of games is quite good and overall the game was entertaining. The game is really aimed at a far younger audience than I make up, but what the heck, I still thought it was fun.

So E.T. falls to Earth and Elliot finds him. Mayhem ensues and he has to enlist the help of his sister Gertie and brother Mike to allow E.T. to return home. Each chapter consists of a small series of games you must successfully pass to get to the next chapter of the story. You have limited lives so you have to pass the games reasonably well. The problem is that sometimes the instructions are too vague and you have to learn by trial and error. But still it's not enough to be frustrating and even the main target audience of the game should be able to successfully progress through the game. Of course many of them are too young to remember the original film of 25 years ago.

There are 47 different mini-games that take place in a variety of environments and make the game diverse and interesting. When you successfully play and unlock games they are then playable in the playroom which is separate from the story mode. Ojom says there are up to 6 hours of story mode play which is as long as Bioshock was on the Xbox 360. I find that an interesting fact.

Aside from the often vague instructions for the mini-games there is only one other drawback that I should mention, the sound. I have never in my life heard a more annoying song than in this game. Sure after some frustrating levels in games like Super Mario Brothers and such the music began to grate on my nerves, but from the very moment I heard the music in this game I was glad for the option to turn it off because it was just simply, annoying. The music itself is very well done and I think what annoyed me is that it played nearly continuously through every mini-game and every level. The other thing that bothered me was that you had to leave the game to go to the options and change the settings instead of being able to pause the game and do it. The good thing is you can turn off the music.

Overall the game is well done. It keeps moving you forward in story mode and with 47 mini-games they are infrequent enough to keep the player interested. While the music gets on my nerves as always I would have turned the sound off if I had been in public anyway. There is also a vibration feature you can turn on and off. I never used it as I imagined it to really just be a draw on the battery and not really add to the gameplay. The game is fun and light and I think children would really enjoy it and maybe even some nostalgic adults. If you need to entertain your kids on the go sometimes, this is a sure-fire way to do it.

More information: E.T. at Ojom

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