Secrets of the Titanic 3DS Review

Games come from many places and in many forms. Some flourish and are revered, talked about for years to come and even handed down to our kids so another generation can experience the pleasures games have to offer. We then have the other side of the spectrum. A much darker side, where games are seen as disasters, atrocities and gigantic mistakes. Secrets of the titanic lies at one end of this spectrum, read on to find out if this game sinks or swims. Secrets of the titanic is a title that tries to educate us on the happenings of the titanic, while throwing very boring mini games at players that aren’t fun whatsoever.

The vast majority of these mini games being “where’s Wally (Waldo for you Americans)” type puzzles. They come at you one after the other, with another kind of puzzle thrown in after about 5 of these. The boring puzzles are one thing, but they make no sense either. Example. The mother and father (Eva and Thomas) in the terrible story are chatting and need to find a broach for the trip on the new ship launching 100 years after the titanic set sail, optimistically named, the invincible.

So, after learning that you need to get a broach for the trip, you have to find 3 monocles, a banana, 7 socks and a football. The logic and sense behind this is nonexistent. Finding the items is one annoying thing, but when there is no sense in it, it feels pointless.

How can this help at all, or be relevant. We are in an era now where most games are heavily story driven. This unfortunately isn’t story driven at all. The games happenings take place around the story instead of in it. For a game that bases itself around the events of the titanic, a story that has so much going for it, this fails to do anything with that at all.

This puzzle is repeated throughout the game dozens of times while a story involving time travel and education is unfolding. While the mini games take place there are flaws within them. The touchscreen is unresponsive, so much so that it makes the game more frustrating than it already is. There is no zoom function to enable you to get a better look around the room to make it possible to find the items either.

The visuals however, aren’t bad fortunately. They are good enough to make out what the items are. The audio consists of a mellow tune which fits this type of game. The music is played on a constant loop though, that quickly becomes annoying and overplayed. A bit like listening to MTV for a few hours, the odds are, you’re going to hate every overplayed Rihanna song that your ears are at the mercy to.

The games developers, ocean media, also released the title on PC and iOS. The PC version came with a timed mode where by you would have to complete mundane objectives before the time expired.

Ocean media have released a few similar DS games. Around the world in 80 days and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Both titles were fairly similar to Secrets of the Titanic. A small amount of education built around a boring nonsensical adventure. The lack of substance and actual gameplay in Ocean Medias titles that I have played, hold the developers back from creating something unique and special.

Unfortunately, that’s all the game has to offer. A short not so sweet adventure that repeats itself more than a broken jukebox. The game is a tiny bit educational and zero percent fun. Its the latter that drives my passion for games and this offers none of it. When I ask myself the question, does this game sink or swim, it does the former. A titanic disaster.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Nintendo 3DS code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.