'Pen Pen TriIceLon' fills 'cute game' niche

Pen Pen TriIceLon

Dreamcast

HHH

The Sega Dreamcast does not have many "cute" games right now. There's Sonic Adventure of course, but that's about it except for the quirky racer "Pen Pen TriIceLon."

You're on an alien world, ready to participate in its wintry games, known as the TriIceLon. As the name implies, there are three events in the game; ice walking, belly flopping and cold water swimming. Every course has at least one of each of these types of competitions.

Different contestants have different attributes and different looks. With players ranging from happy penguin types to bad attitude shark characters, the look of the game takes a little from San Rio and a little from Hanna Barbera. You can even dress them up with items you win in races.

The game involves steering, jumping and stroking at the right time and nicely enough attacking your opponents at an opportune moment. This is not the model of racing we've come to know, but more on the order of a track meet. Of course, it's not like any track meet you've likely seen; huge fans try to blow the runners off track, fish try to butt heads with the swimmers, and flying bats buzz the belly floppers. Sure, occasionally you'll get a sniper in an Olympic stadium, but that's still the exception in most of the world.

Gameplay does not take advantage of the Dreamcast's vast powers, but it does not need acrobatics to fulfill its function; one of the problems with many Dreamcast games is that there is overuse of the console's capability to the detriment of the games. The worst of these is constantly shifting camera angles at unfortunate times and in unfortunate places, making you fall off a cliff or not see an enemy you are about to get stepped on by. "Pen Pen TriIceLon" is pretty simple and keeps fairly simple camera work while play is on, making it controlled easily. In addition to only having two working buttons, there are few options of where you can flop, walk or swim.

This may not be enough for some people. The environments are limited in their scope, but that's endemic to lots of racing games. The trouble is that "Pen Pen" is not aimed at the average Nascar fan. It's going to appeal more to the "Mario Kart" crowd, and these courses are not as varied and the ability to trash your friends is not as evolved. While still a good game, it might disappoint those expecting a fast and changing thrill fest.

- Ted Watts

09-24-99