The Big Ben Burglary

The Big Ben Burglary
Developer(s)	Gamelion Studios
Publisher(s)	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Series	Carmen Sandiego Adventures in Math
Platform(s)	WiiWare
Release date(s)	2011
Genre(s)	Educational
Distribution	Download

The Big Ben Burglary is a 2011 game; the second in the 5-part Carmen Sandiego Adventures in Math series. The edutainment game was released on the Wii on December 29, 2011. It was published by The Learning Company, developed by Gamelion, could take up to 6 players, and required 600 Wii points.^[1]

Synopsis

NintendoLife explains the storyline:^[2]

Much like the first in the series, this game tells the story of an absurd heist involving an international monument and a ridiculous villain. One of Carmen Sandiego’s cohorts from V.I.L.E., the criminal organisation the Sandiego heads up, has stolen the Big Ben bell from the Houses of Parliament. By gathering clues and solving a series of puzzles, it’s up to you to solve the mystery of who committed the crime and bring them to justice.

Gameplay

The gameplay in this game is identical to that of the previous title - The Lady Liberty Larceny. In this point and click adventure, players solve puzzles in the various environments that they explore, in a system described by Nintendo Life as "much like any of the Professor Layton games". The site adds "Using your Wii Remote as a pointer, all you need to do is aim at the screen and press A to click on the characters you want to talk to or parts of the puzzles that you want to interact with. The pointer can also be used to find hint coins hidden in the various environments; these give you a little extra help in a puzzle if you need it, much like any Layton game". All the puzzles are related to mathematics. While solving each invidual puzzle helps the player to unravel the larger mystery, " the experience points and levelling system are completely arbitrary".^[3]

Critical reception

NintendoLife game the game a rating of 5/10 stars, criticising it for being short and having no replay value. It added "the visuals are still underwhelming yet charming, and the music follows suit", and concluded "newcomers might want to stay clear, but fans of the first won’t be disappointed."^[4] IGN noted the sameness between this title and the previous one, and concluded "anyone who enjoyed solving the mystery of the missing Statue of Liberty should be assured that bringing home Big Ben is similarly satisfying", rating the game 7 out of 10.^[5]

References