Wonderbook: Diggs Nightcrawler is an interactive storytelling game which features nursery rhymes in a film noir style experience. Diggs Nightcrawler uses PlayStation augmented reality book called Wonderbook.

Wonderbook: Diggs Nightcrawler is a story about Diggs Nightcrawler a bookworm private detective trying to find out who bumped Humpty Dumpty off the wall. In the game Humpty Dumpty is a mob boss.

The game’s story which was created by the Oscar-winning Moonbot Studios is fun and interesting, unlike Wonderbook: Book of Spells which had a story which could barely keep me interested for more than five minutes. This is likely due to the fact that the game is only three chapters long, but in those three chapters we are introduced to interesting and fleshed out film noir versions of well known nursery rhyme characters including the three blind mice which are jazz players, the three little pigs which are police officers and more.

Honestly the game really knows its target audience. Everything is easy to do in the game. Unlike Book of Spells which I disliked due to some issues with the PS move and Wonderbook working poorly together, Diggs Nightcrawler fixed the majority of these issues. Most of the interactive portions are done by rotating, tilting or moving your hand on the book. This means that issues that appeared in Book of Spells are nearly all gone.

Players can use the PS Move for an optional ‘photo assignment’ section. Photo assignments are when you go back through old chapters and with the PS Move you take pictures of various clues. Thankfully this is an optional feature because using the Move as a camera was painful at best. When you move the PS Move away from the book to zoom out you have to be very careful because if you go too far you lose connection.

No game is perfect, and while Diggs Nightcrawler is a great game. The Wonderbook can be slow to respond. This issue is best seen during chase sequences when you have to move Diggs around obstacle or to items he can throw. I found that the book took some time to recognize my movement, but overall it isn’t a game breaking issue.

Conclusion

Wonderbook: Diggs Nightcrawler is an entertaining interactive story which will keep children entertained from beginning to end with a great cast of characters and entertaining film noir story.

SCORE: 80%

Wonderbook: Diggs Nightcrawler

Developer: SCE London Studio, Moonbot Interactive
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Genre: interactive story, Wonderbook
Rating: 7+
Platform: PlayStation 3, requires: Wonderbook, PS Move and PS Eye
Release date: May 29, 2013 (Europe)
Website: http://uk.playstation.com/diggs/