Jul 31 2009
Treasure World debuts a unique portable concept, economic recovery plan
Treasure World is a quirky, new Nintendo DS title that is light on gameplay but still packs a compelling hook through its innovative use of Wi-Fi hotspots.
As for the game, imagine playing Animal Crossing but limiting yourself to never leaving the home cabin. That’s about the gist of it. With the remnants of a storyline to guide you, you collect treasures and other oddities to decorate your character and his patch of land. As a bonus, the items placed in the garden double as music notes, so you can try to collect enough to recreate in-game songs, or experiment with what you have to come up with something original.
And that’s pretty much it.
The hook is the way you go about unlocking the items, or treasure. The only way to earn more treasure or in-game currency (to purchase still more treasure) is to click a button and set your DS to search mode. Even closed, the DS will look for Wi-Fi hotspots. For every new one you discover (you don’t need to connect to them, just be within their range), something opens up in the game.
Off the top of your head, you might only know a handful of Wi-Fi spots, and for sure there are regions in the country that won’t have many at all, but for the most part you’ll discover a surprising amount of them by just going about your daily routine with the Nintendo DS searching away in a pocket.
Drive to work, visit a shopping center, walk past an apartment complex. The Nintendo DS will chime as the Wi-Fi hotspots are revealed. The game even encourages players to search out local coffee shops and libraries. Anyone who gets hooked on trying to find more and more hotspots (more than 10,000 can be remembered before the game maxes out) will find themselves toting the DS along on new routes to new places. If the economic recession can only be fixed by increases in consumer spending, this could have been developer Aspyr’s way of getting gamers out in the real world, frequenting real businesses. Crazy thought, right?
There’s an online community for this game to help give it some legs, although I haven’t checked it out yet. Instead, I can recommend Treasure World as a novel way to engage in a little treasure hunting in your own day-to-day life. It also works in making the Nintendo DS a must-have item every time you step out the door. Its gameplay-light design is a bit of a let down, but there’s enough innovation here to make happy any gamers who are intrigued by the idea.
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