Nostalgia

Name: Nostalgia
Item: Nostalgia
Rating: 4
Author: Harold Goldberg

Game review by

Harold Goldberg, Common Sense Media

Common Sense says

age 10+

(i)

Captivating fortune-seeking adventure with steampunk theme.

Nintendo DS
$34.99
2009

Save

Rate game

Play or buy

Parents say

No reviews yetAdd your rating

Kids say

No reviews yetAdd your rating

Get it now

Searching for streaming and purchasing options ...

Common Sense is a nonprofit organization. Your purchase helps us remain independent and ad-free.

Get it now on

Searching for streaming and purchasing options ...

Common Sense is a nonprofit organization. Your purchase helps us remain independent and ad-free.

X of Y

X of Y

X of Y

A lot or a little?

The parents' guide to what's in this game.

Positive Messages

The message here is that you, as an adventurer, can do anything - with a little help from your friends. Eddie is a rich kid who lives in a mansion. Pad is from the poor side of town and at first doesn't want any help from Eddie. But the two become fast friends in order to embark on adventures together.

Positive Role Models & Representations

While there are many evil enemies present, most people you meet and talk with want to help you in some way, whether it's by telling you about some possible doom in the future or by indicating you're good enough to continue through the most difficult circumstances.

Ease of Play

There's much strategy to properly using your weapons, food, and magic. While there is a helpful tutorial, it doesn't appear until about a half hour into the actual gameplay. It’s important to save frequently and purchase health potions to keep yourself healthy during battle.

Violence

There is much turn-based fighting of everything from small rodents to giant ghosts. Eddie's partner, Pad, shoots enemies with a gun while Eddie uses a blade. This is mild vantasy violence in which no blood is shed. Rather, enemies expire in a colorful, bloodless flourish. However, some of the enemies eyes roll back in their heads when they die. When your character dies, it's more like simply fainting.

Sex

Language

Consumerism

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

What parents need to know

Parents need to know that Nostalgia is a beautiflly drawn role-playing game that has a steampunk theme. You will adventure in a fantasy world with wizards and other fortune seekers, and fly in fantastical machines. If you run out of health in the game, the words ‘You Died’ come on the screen. But dying is more like fainting, and the game returns you to your previous save point. To avoid frustration, it’s important to save frequently and purchase health potions to keep yourself healthy during battle. Overall, the violence is very mild and there is no blood shed in the turn-based battles.

User Reviews

Parents say
Kids say

There aren't any reviews yet. Be the first to review this title.

What's it about?

It’s like Indiana Jones meets steampunk. In NOSTALGIA, you’re Eddie Brown, a green adventurer who embarks upon on a melodramatic search for his famous but missing father. In this wide-ranging, 19th century quest which spans nine cities across the globe, you pilot an airship high above and crawl through dungeons deep below, all the time battling creatures large and small. With your partner, Pad, you share the duties of defeating everything from rats to demons, all of which are more cute than menacing.

Is it any good?

You begin the game in the sewers of London by vanquishing the bane of seasoned RPG players everywhere -- not-so-powerful rats. More interesting is moving along in your airship, the Maverick, via the D-pad and attacking, turn-based style, various flying monsters. Oddly, a tutorial doesn’t present itself until about 30 minutes into the game when you are flying to Cairo. So, uninitiated RPG players may be daunted when sent beneath the streets of London if they haven’t read the manual.

Yet the game does have much to commend it. The graphics are very detailed and presented in 3-D. The presentation of the steampunk SciFi essence can be enthralling – especially when you arm yourself with odd gadgets that you’ll find. The violence is mild with no blood ever shown or moaning ever heard. While the action-filled story is really nothing original for enthusiast gamers, exploring the world of Nostalgia will let the imaginations of young gamers run wild.

Talk to your kids about ...

Families can talk about the various places you fly to around the world. Which would you like to visit in real life? The inside of a pyramid in Cairo? The Royal Museum in London?
Does you enjoy the gameplay in the airships best? Or do you like the play that is underground the best?
Would you like to be an adventurer in the 19th Century? Why or why not?