Break out your snake bite kits — Oregon Trail is now on Facebook!
Oregon Trail for Facebook combines qualities of the original game (and its various incarnations) with popular social games like FarmVille and CityVille.
Users can add friends to their wagon parties and have the option to continue on a solitary journey or with an entourage. Supplies for the trail — items like food, antibiotics, wagon parts and clothing — can be procured using virtual currency. This currency can be purchased with Facebook Credits.
Aside from general trail activities, users can play mini games and complete tasks to earn more virtual currency and reach higher levels.
In our brief time with the game, we found it a little hard to use. The game is still in its early stages of development, but figuring out how to start or complete missions was less intuitive than we were expecting.
Nostalgia will undoubtedly bring throngs of users to Oregon Trail for Facebook, but it remains to be seen if the game can be addictive enough to keep users coming back.
The beauty of the original Apple II game, was that while educational, it was replayable. We fondly remember waiting patiently for our turn at the computer in second and third grade, if only to get a chance to hunt some buffalo.
Beyond Oregon Trail, The Learning Company plans to launch the Facebook version of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? on February 9. Carmen Sandiego may not have the same following as Oregon Trail, but we actually think the mechanics of the game and its structure makes it better suited for Facebook and other social platforms.
What do you think of Oregon Trail for Facebook? Are you ready to see a modernized “Zed died from Dysentery” message? Let us know.
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