Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Friends: Asian Elephants
By Christopher Healy,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Elephant care is fun, but mini-games are totally unrelated.
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Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Friends: Asian Elephants
Community Reviews
Based on 1 parent review
Great game, no reading required
What’s It About?
In RINGLING BROS. AND BARNUM & BAILEY CIRCUS FRIENDS: ASIAN ELEPHANTS, you are in charge of training one of the circus's famed pachyderms. You will interact with the animal by feeding it, playing with it, washing it, healing it (when sick), and yes, scooping its poop. Then you will train your happy elephant to perform various stunts and take your well-practiced show in front of the big top audience. Strangely, tricks are learned and performed by playing completely random logic, matching, and number games on the touch screen.
Is It Any Good?
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Friends: Asian Elephants is not a bad game by any means, but it is a strange one. It's fun to play with your elephant, learning the various signals you need to sketch out on the touchscreen in order to communicate to the animal to toot her trunk, stand up, or roll over. And it's also fun to purchase new outfits and dress up your elephant. Or to buy elephant toys that unlock mini games, such as a xylophone duel between you and the pachyderm. It's not nearly a much fun, though, to feed and clean your elephant, which has to be done pretty frequently. When it comes to performing, though, that's the really bizarre part. Instead of the different elephant stunts being tied to hand motions as was done with the playful interactions, they are connected to utterly random mini-games. For instance, to make the elephant hold up a sign, you have to play a matching memory game. To make her spin on a stool, you have to connect like-colored squares without crossing any of your lines. Some of these mini-games are fun and decent brainwork, but they have nothing to do with elephants.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about proper care of animals. How do your children feel about the ethics of using animals in a circus? Do the animals enjoy performing? Do the trainers love their animals the way a family loves a pet?
Game Details
- Platforms: Nintendo DS , Nintendo DSi
- Available online?: Not available online
- Publisher: 2K Play
- Release date: December 2, 2009
- Genre: Simulation
- ESRB rating: E for Comic Mischief
- Last updated: August 31, 2016
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