The Collection Chamber: DISNEY'S ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE

THE MISSION TO TOP ALL MISSIONS!

Discover a world of action and adventure in Disney's Atlantis The Lost Empire - The Lost Games. Drive a caravan of specialized vehicles, fly on a dangerous rescure mission, navigate a sub pod through treacherous waters, and build a lean, mean fighting machine. Print and e-mail your favourite moments from the film to family and friends. With Disney's Atlantis The Lost Empire - The Lost Games you can experience all the fun and excitement of the animated feature film on your own computer.

Features:
Unroadblock That!: Strategically assemble a caravan of vehicles to break through a series of roadblocks on your way to Atlantis.
Subergency Ugency!: Help locate the entrance to Atlantis by piloting a sub pod through treacherous waters.
Air Escapade: Fly your classic airplane through a dangerous volcano shaft to gather the king stones and rescue Princess Kida.
Machine Arena: Design your very own dream machine and challenge a friend to an arena clearing mechanical jousting match.

~ from the back of the box

Disney's Atlantis has always been considered as a lesser animated classic. Not for me! The tale of adventure, daring do a long-lost civilization is an exciting one and in my opinion they aced the execution. It wasn't exactly a hit, being an early entry in the company's second dark age (also known as their Post Renaissance) and the current state of things appears that we're smack bang in the middle of a third (this time known as the Streaming Era). Wish underwhelmed and Strange World was a stranger to most. History repeats it seems. As do Disney Interactive's Activity Centres!

Given its own unique subtitle with The Lost Games, this edutainment tie-in isn't anything you haven't seen before. While it doggedly sticks to the series' conventions such as the signing in page at the beginning and a featureless print studio, it is on the lower end of the scale in terms presentation. There is not video sequences to sell you on the movie, and any animated moments are limited to explaining each of the four mini-games. Luckily, the games are on the upper end on the edutainment spectrum but as always with these games, don't go in expecting anything more than a simple time waster.

Avoid the falling rocks in Submergency Urgency (left).
Fight through fire and flames to get to the exit in Unblock That (right).

We start with Submergency Urgency. It looks like a shoot-em-up with some side-scrolling screens and floating ship to pilot, but it's really more of a dodge-em-up. And a slow one at that. The closest you'll get to an enemy are electric eels or sea kelp which go down with a torpedo to the face. You only get four of 'em per level, so it's best to reserve them for things you actually cannot dodge. Like falling rocks.

Unblock That requires a little more brain power. Guide a caravan of trucks and make your way past a series of obstacles to get to the end. These trucks are specialized, such as The Spanner which can place bridges over rivers of lava, The Tanker which shoots water or The Captain Jack which has a nice cannon. Between rocks, lava and monsters, you'll need to use every one of the 8 vehicles before you complete all of levels. And there's a surprisingly large amount of them too!

Air Escapade is the only mini-game that uses the mouse instead of the keyboard. It has you controlling an Atlantean craft in an Asteroids-like black field collecting King Stones. They have to be collected in order which doesn't really add anything to the difficulty. Nor do the enemy planes which can be disabled with a nicely aimed shot or two. By using the mouse to control the sprightly vehicle, it can easily weave out of harms way with a quick swipe of the wrist but it is still surprisingly enjoyable to control.

My randomised creation in Machine Arena is complete (left).
Now... FIGHT! (right).

The most involved game in the package is the Machine Arena. It is basically Robot Wars but just distinct enough to avoid litigation. You choose a base vehicle, its front weapon and top weapon before heading off into an arena to duke it out with an AI controlled opponent or one of your friends. If you get hit, a limited number of spanners will fix you so you can keep on fighting. You can attack quite the arsenal to your killing machine including a flame thrower, a giant flail or an oil slick dispenser. It's not incredibly deep, but it is more varied and involved that most other entries in this series.

In fact, you can say that all four of the games here are more varied and involved that usual. It's just a shame that they're so blandly presented. My favourite of this pack is Unblock This which requires more thought than the others, but none of them are out-and-out duds. Just don't compare them to big-boy games and you - or more likely the kid inside you - will be in for a treat.

To download the PC game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses dgVoodoo to run on modern systems with with IMG Drive Portable, for CD ISO mounting. Help file included. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.

File Size: 251 Mb. Install Size: 506 Mb. Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

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