The Pink Panther's Passport to Peril
released on Sep 08, 1996
The Pink Panther: Passport to Peril is a 1996 adventure video game that teaches children about six different countries with the Pink Panther. The countries Pink visits are: England, Egypt, China, Bhutan, India and Australia.
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One of my favorite childhood games, this is an absolute classic and a gem of the point-and-click genre.
The story is fun (albiet very cartoony) with a mystery involved, its music is superbly 90's and SUPER catchy, the graphics and sound are honestly really well-made for the time, and the gameplay/exploration in the game is also fun! I also really like the PDA system, in which, you can learn about real aspects of the culture, geography, languages, landmarks, etc. of the 6 countries in the game: England, Egypt, China, Bhutan, India, and Australia.
It has all the charm of classic 90's cartoons on a Saturday morning, but with the pleasant addition of it being playable. This is definitely one of my favorites from my childhood, and it was a pleasure to replay through the whole game again as an adult when I replayed it yesterday.
The story is fun (albiet very cartoony) with a mystery involved, its music is superbly 90's and SUPER catchy, the graphics and sound are honestly really well-made for the time, and the gameplay/exploration in the game is also fun! I also really like the PDA system, in which, you can learn about real aspects of the culture, geography, languages, landmarks, etc. of the 6 countries in the game: England, Egypt, China, Bhutan, India, and Australia.
It has all the charm of classic 90's cartoons on a Saturday morning, but with the pleasant addition of it being playable. This is definitely one of my favorites from my childhood, and it was a pleasure to replay through the whole game again as an adult when I replayed it yesterday.
O jogo se mantem como um excelente point-and-click adventure ate os dias de hoje, o que me faz dar uma nota maior ainda é a excelente localização que o jogo teve para o Brasil, completamente dublado, não posso ignorar como esse jogo me trouxe ao mundo dos games e quão importante ele foi pra mim.
One of the greatest achievements of Polish dub.
Um clássico. Ótima localização para o português.
Pantera Rosa en Misión PeligRosa (1996): El juego infantil ideal; casi todo lo que aprendí con él de niño lo sigo recordando, porque aprender es divertido si se sabe cómo. Un viaje cultural sin caer en tópicos y no sólo enseñando si no también haciendo pensar. Inolvidable (8,30)
One of my first games ever, one that I completed millions of times for years. I really wish I could give it a 5 star score, I really do, alas...
For it's time, the art is spectacular, with beautiful animations. The voice acting in the spanish dub (the version I had, but I guess the english one is alright too) is really well done too, especially for Pink himself; a character famous for silence. This is one of the biggest tells that the game is loosely inspired in the 1990s cartoon series, because other than very small cameos of it's characters, it's otherwise not really tied to it.
The one exception to this last point are, of course, the dog mafia that antagonizes you during the adventure. They're simultaneously cartoony yet genuinely threatening at times, claiming they will turn the kidnapped children into hamburger mincemeat if a certain character doesn't do as they say.
As for the main core of the game, visiting countries all over the world and learning about them from their people? Well... It certainly Tries. The game is very keen on preaching it's world peace, anti-discrimination message, encourages the players to keep an open mind to anyone, no matter how "weird" their culture may seem, while also talking about issues as casteism in India and colonization in Australia.
These two are particularly interesting, as India's song about casteism doesn't leave it at just that, but ends with a line telling children to not think this is ONLY a problem there, but to think hard about their own place of origin and who the outcasts are. Oppression and discrimination is sadly worldwide, and we cannot simply point to other cultures and criticize them if we're not willing to criticize our own.
As for Australia, it does a bold twist of never placing you in the major cities or tourist locales, but instead you hang out with an Aboriginal family, who tell you all about how the white man colonized and massacred their people, as well as their fears of their children assimilating into this genocidal white society. At no point there are excuses made in favor of colonization.
Empathy and world peace seem to be what this game is most interested in teaching along with the direct cultural encyclopedia knowledge. Which is why it's sad that the art style and writing, as fun it otherwise is, can end up depicting it's characters in cartoonishly racist ways. This is most prevalent with the Chinese characters, but it's occasionally present in other parts as well (and one of the villains dresses as a Native American stereotype in a reference to the Village People... Of which there were various other members to choose from).
This is why I must dock off points to a game I otherwise feel does great in teaching very, very young children to be open minded and learn about their neighbors. There is a very dedicated encyclopedia feature, as well as clearly a lot of effort put into depicting the lives, struggles and passions of different cultures, but you can't draw Chinese people properly? Even for 1996, if you're going to put so much effort into this project, COMMIT to it! There's never excuse for this kind of thing, but ESPECIALLY for a game otherwise this committed to it's themes.
Overall, this game isn't something I may show to a child today without handholding them all the way through. It's most definitely a relic of it's time. A very important and even underrated one, but a relic all the same. This game was huge on shaping me as a person when I needed to learn that empathy and open mindedness, but I've outgrown it long ago. We should learn from it's lessons and failures to make even better edutainment for tomorrow's children.
For it's time, the art is spectacular, with beautiful animations. The voice acting in the spanish dub (the version I had, but I guess the english one is alright too) is really well done too, especially for Pink himself; a character famous for silence. This is one of the biggest tells that the game is loosely inspired in the 1990s cartoon series, because other than very small cameos of it's characters, it's otherwise not really tied to it.
The one exception to this last point are, of course, the dog mafia that antagonizes you during the adventure. They're simultaneously cartoony yet genuinely threatening at times, claiming they will turn the kidnapped children into hamburger mincemeat if a certain character doesn't do as they say.
As for the main core of the game, visiting countries all over the world and learning about them from their people? Well... It certainly Tries. The game is very keen on preaching it's world peace, anti-discrimination message, encourages the players to keep an open mind to anyone, no matter how "weird" their culture may seem, while also talking about issues as casteism in India and colonization in Australia.
These two are particularly interesting, as India's song about casteism doesn't leave it at just that, but ends with a line telling children to not think this is ONLY a problem there, but to think hard about their own place of origin and who the outcasts are. Oppression and discrimination is sadly worldwide, and we cannot simply point to other cultures and criticize them if we're not willing to criticize our own.
As for Australia, it does a bold twist of never placing you in the major cities or tourist locales, but instead you hang out with an Aboriginal family, who tell you all about how the white man colonized and massacred their people, as well as their fears of their children assimilating into this genocidal white society. At no point there are excuses made in favor of colonization.
Empathy and world peace seem to be what this game is most interested in teaching along with the direct cultural encyclopedia knowledge. Which is why it's sad that the art style and writing, as fun it otherwise is, can end up depicting it's characters in cartoonishly racist ways. This is most prevalent with the Chinese characters, but it's occasionally present in other parts as well (and one of the villains dresses as a Native American stereotype in a reference to the Village People... Of which there were various other members to choose from).
This is why I must dock off points to a game I otherwise feel does great in teaching very, very young children to be open minded and learn about their neighbors. There is a very dedicated encyclopedia feature, as well as clearly a lot of effort put into depicting the lives, struggles and passions of different cultures, but you can't draw Chinese people properly? Even for 1996, if you're going to put so much effort into this project, COMMIT to it! There's never excuse for this kind of thing, but ESPECIALLY for a game otherwise this committed to it's themes.
Overall, this game isn't something I may show to a child today without handholding them all the way through. It's most definitely a relic of it's time. A very important and even underrated one, but a relic all the same. This game was huge on shaping me as a person when I needed to learn that empathy and open mindedness, but I've outgrown it long ago. We should learn from it's lessons and failures to make even better edutainment for tomorrow's children.