Cabela’s Adventure Camp by Activision lets you experience the thrill of summer camp through a variety of sports and fun activities for the whole family.
The Wii Cabela’s Adventure Camp game might seem like a poor release at first glance, but it surprisingly manages to pull off quite an enjoyable experience, especially when compared to most titles in the family sports genre. Although not necessarily groundbreaking, Adventure Camp has all the right ingredients to keep players from yawning and provides quality entertainment for the whole family.
In Cabela’s Adventure Camp Wii game, you play as one of six kids off to summer camp to participate in a variety of fun activities. You can select any of the campers, and each comes equipped with a mini background story so as to differentiate them from each other and add a little personality to the lineup. Before starting out, however, you’re forewarned by the councilor about a certain kid named Greg. It seems Greg is somewhat of a troublemaker and will do whatever it takes to halt your progress. After this brief intro, you’re set to take on the camp challenges.
The main objective is to play through the different sports and activities and attempt to achieve gold medal status in order to unlock extras and win the coveted Cabela’s Cup. The adventure games consist of bear hunter ninja, thrill hill biking, wild river kayaking, full throttle wave riding, skeet shooting, castaway fishing, archery arcade, and hogwhacked. Most of the games are pretty self explanatory except for bear hunter ninja, which is a variation of rock-paper-scissors, and hogwhacked, a whack-a-mole type game timed to a specific pattern.
The games are pretty well made and were clearly created with deliberate effort. Biking, kayaking, and wave riding are all timed events wherein you have to make the fastest time possible while collecting coins during your run to the finish line. The coins increase your score and allow you access to extras as well as bragging rights. To increase the challenge, Greg, the troublesome kid, suddenly makes appearances throughout the events and creates obstacles such as felled trees or boulders to block your path. The other games are also excellently designed and the controls are fluid. Despite having minimal depth, all the games show good creative effort.
Cabela’s Adventure Camp is also a fun activity for the entire family. You can compete with your close friends and relatives for the full events or else just have fun with quick play. Furthermore, other players can join in on the action as Greg and start “griefing” the player (creating obstacles to stop the player from reaching the finish line), making for some friendly rivalry in action.
Cabela’s Adventure Camp for the Wii is fun and almost comparable to its Xbox 360 counterpart. However, the game lacks any solid depth and can only last for a few good hours of play before it’s set aside. The extra content and characters increase its lifespan, but only barely. Ultimately, the game is pretty forgettable once you’ve completed all the events.
Cabela’s Adventure Camp is available for play on the Wii console using the standard Wii remote. There is support for multiplayer action.
Cabela’s Adventure Camp plays surprisingly well despite having minimal material to work with. The games are pretty fun and perfect for the casual gamer who likes to keep things simple. Although Adventure Camp won’t last long before it gets tiresome, the hours when it does receive play time can be as entertaining as the best of them.