The Oregon Trail

Gameloft managed to take a pop-culture classic and breathe new life into a game that's been around since before I was born. If you have any nostalgia for the original, The Oregon Trail is likely going to feel very familiar but also offer a new way of experiencing such a classic title, but you don't need nostalgia to enjoy the game — it's that fun.

Whether you’re shooting wildlife, caravaning across a perilous river, or playing doctor with your crew, you’ll find that this life-management sim provides hours of entertainment, with a constant push to go further, see more, and explore the wild yonder. Adding a new graphical sheen to a game that began as a text adventure is a welcome addition, and seeing the Trail again at its best is enough to trick my nostalgic memory to think that it looks just the same as when I sat down to play it during class, and that’s a ticket I would buy again and again. While The Oregon Trail may not be for everyone and it doesn’t add too much to make it the best game it could be, it’s a great title to play when you’re looking for adventure, or peril to overcome.

The new Oregon Trail by Gameloft shows finally a real improvement and some rethinking about the design itself of a classic that persist from the early 70s.

Gameloft has made the game pleasant to look at, with a pixel art aesthetic that bubbles along with colour and verve. Unfortunately, it's impossible to hide that this is based on an incredibly old game, and we've certainly seen similar efforts that offer more of everything, including the all-important random events to experience on the journey. The thrill of exploring the unknown does wear away when, after just a couple of outings, you're now experiencing the thrill of the far-too-familiar events and occurrences. Still, the educational heart of the game is still there (the lives of these intrepid folks and the little pockets of civilisation along the road are a fascinating bit of history), and Gameloft has done a good job in bringing appropriate sensitivities into the game to make it something to give to the kids to play today.