Super Solvers Treasure Cove

When you remember poking your eyes out in the maze from the computer lab, then Super Solvers Treasure Cove is exactly the type of educational game you're afraid to encounter again. The manufacturer doesn't mention it on the box, but it's a classic from the nineties — instead of sending you through a class of boredom and quizzes into boredom and quizzes, it sends you into boredom and searching for hidden words.

This is an educational adventure where you move around a game board and collect treasures. The catch? To find them, you have to solve various small tasks — word puzzles, logic riddles, hidden picture games. The game sprawls across a maze where each room means a new type of puzzle. You take turns with a friend, which at least adds some social dimension to the tedium.

The problem is that those "puzzles" aren't solutions, they're instructions on how to get further on the game board. Click, wait, solve. Eyes twitch, brain gets bored. The graphics are colorful and pleasant — that's probably the best thing you can say about running the game. Sound? It's just there, unforgettably annoying. A few notes repeat, a few others are neglected. Controls are simple, so at least you don't waste time there.

In the nineties, it was an alternative to TV encyclopedias — parents liked that their kid was "learning," kids were sorry it wasn't Doom. Today it's mainly a time capsule of how educators thought fun worked. The game ages poorly because fundamentally it wasn't fun the first time around.

Playing it in a browser might be nostalgia — if you experienced it in the computer lab and want to be reminded why you preferred drawing on paper instead. Or you're curious how educational games were made in the MS-DOS era. Otherwise, there's no reason for you to play it. It's a textbook with a keyboard, nothing more.