How many times have you been told not to “judge a book by its cover”? And how many times have you done it anyway? I know I do it a lot more then I should with books, films, games and even people. I wish I didn’t, but hey, we can’t all be perfect!

I’m currently looking forward to seeing a film that I totally laughed off a few weeks ago .. Snakes on a Plane. How could it be even remotely good with a title like that?  I decided that the film was going to be rubbish, and that this was the end of Samuel L Jacksons career.  However, I was recently informed by my most trusted film source that it is infact a stroke of genius. Even though it’s called Snakes on a Plane. 

So after being shamed for my dismissal of a film purely on the basis of it’s name, I decided to try out some other things I was avoiding based my first impressions.  The closest thing at hand was a copy of Open Season for my DS, that I’d received along with a bunch of other Ubisoft games.  It’s based on a kids cartoon film.  Hmm.  Still, I had a 2 hour train journey to do .. so really there was no excuse for not giving it a go.

I’d played Open Season briefly on Xbox 360 at the Leipzig Games Convention, managing to - as Boog the bear - sit on a porcupine which I then had to shake off my bottom with the analogue sticks.  This was all I saw, and it didn’t really tickle my fancy. 

However, now I’ve spent some time with the DS game I’ve discovered that it’s actually really good fun!  The idea is to make your way through the woods back to your home, and it plays like a puzzley Crash Bandicoot.  You can work as Boog (the bear) or Elliot (the one-antlered dear) or as a team of the two. Both characters have specific skills; for example Boog can carry boulders, and Elliot can charge at things. Making your way through the game is fairly easy, but none the less strangely captivating - and throwing rabbits at squirrels to stun them (so they don’t attack you with acorns) is unendingly amusing.

My only real gripe is that Elliot is pretty annoying, but hey, there are always small irritations in life. 

So there you go, my discovery for the week is that you can find fun where you least expect it! Who knows, I might start liking Marmite next ...