Oregon Trail for Wii Reviews by Gamers

This game is very boring and takes a very long time to complete- about 3.5 hours. It leaves you asking "when will this be over?" It leaves you jumping for joy when you finally arrive at the destination-because then you know its over. Not a good buy at all.

I was excited when I saw that the classic "Oregon Trail" game was coming to Wii.

"Oregon Trail" is known for being a well-loved, fairly simple yet extremely fun, "teaching" game. I was quite excited to introduce this game to my son. I played the classic version in school and I remember it with great fondness. Perhaps getting to play the game in school added to the enjoyment and perhaps it wouldn't be as fun played in a different setting, I don't know. I do know that the Wii version of this classic does not in any way live up to the original game.

My son & I both tried playing the game (& just to note, our gaming skills are vastly different - I'm 32, not much of a gamer, & enjoy more simple games while he's 9, a gaming fanatic & is quite skilled). This game frustrated both of us beyond the point of even wanting to try to figure it out. It was just NOT fun, I'm sorry. I don't mind simple, but the graphics/scenery were repetitive to a fault. The wagon was nearly impossible to steer correctly, especially if you wanted to go faster. Hunting, again, boring. My son's 'family' kept dying at a certain point for absolutely no reason whatsoever - multiple times! After that, he gave up. I didn't manage to get much further - while my 'family' didn't all die off as quickly, I just found the game highly unplayable. The 'learning about history' aspect of the game were totally lost due to the poor design - the text portions are far too many boxes to click through,and the interactions with others are repetitive and sometimes, just odd.

All in all, I am very disappointed by this seemingly thoughtlessly slapped together game. It's a definitely NOT something I would call a Wii version of the classic. It's a cheap attempt to cash in on the popularity of the classic title before people realize how absolutely awful it is. I don't mean for this to be a "spoiler" but a mere suggestion of "try before you buy" - this one is definitely a rental.