Serious Game Classification

A disgruntled TV weatherman, bored with the stable weather conditions of his work place, changes the world climate in radical ways. A disaster task force called Team Xtreme is called to restore normal conditions to all places in Earth and fight the evil madman.

Team Xtreme: Operation Weather Disaster is a educational point-and-click adventure similar to Myst, one of its many clones that came out at that time. A typical full-motion video game of the nineties, it features 360º horizontal panning of some locations and easy puzzles for its target audience (mostly comprised of children).

Published and produced by the computer game branch of the documentary channel Discovery, the focus is obviously on didactic elements: a small scientific facts database is integrated as a button to the interface, and can be accessed at any moment in the game. It plays animations and videos of hurricanes and other weather phenomena. It also contains clues to the solution of some of the puzzles. In an effort to further dispel any attempt at any meaningful amount of challenge, a hint button is provided on the interface at the bottom, placed between the inventory and the volume control and a compass.

Gameplay is the standard fare of this type of game: instead of Myst's focus on mechanical puzzles, most are inventory-based. There are some short arcade sequences that need to be completed to advance the game. [source:mobygames]

Distribution : Retail - Commercial
Platform(s) : Macintosh - PC (Windows)

Links

• http://www.mobygames.com/game/team-xtreme-operation-weather-disas [...]