My Stop Smoking Coach: Allen Carr's EasyWay

This was the one DS title of 2k8 I was most excited for. I know that's kind of weird, but I've been smoking on and off for three years and I thought this would really help me stop. Last time I quit, it was with the help of Allen Carr's book, The Easy Way to Stop Smoking, which is more famous in Europe than it is here in the States. Lord knows why – it's an amazing little book that reprograms your entire thinking about cigarettes and smoking. It really does make it easy to quit (though, as he notes often, you have to really WANT to quit for it to work).

So after some terrible personal circumstances in March, I broke Carr's cardinal rule: don't ever accept or smoke another cigarette. Oops.

I was excited not just for myself, but other DS owners out there who might get something really good out of this.

It had been advertised, in its early rumor/preview stages, as simply a game of the Easy Way method invented by Carr. Little did I know it was adopted by Ubisoft of the My AnnoyingCoach series.

Uh-oh.

The main problem with this game is they felt the need to make it a "game." By which I mean, every main point is iterated by a mimi-game, which ranges from acceptable to absolutely maddening in quality. For example:



In the book, Carr tackles the conception that smokers "like the flavor" by basically saying, "No one does. They taste terrible, and here are some enlightening facts and metaphors that explain why." My Stop SmokingCoach instead forces you to play some mini-game wherein you have to find ingredients to various made up recipes such as "Tobacco Stew" and "Baked Ashtray." (I made that last one up, but it would fit right in.)

You do this by guessing. Will "Butt Glacé" have ashes? Nicotine? Tar? Carbon dioxide? There's no way to know, other than trying various combinations and hoping you don't lose so you can finally move on past this pointless torture.


That's the main problem I have with these mini-games, is they force you to play them. A lot of them make even less sense than "Mystery Tomacco Recipe," like one that involved spraying buckets of water into holes (???), and are impossible to win.

I would really have liked if the game had no "playing a video game" elements at all, but instead had some kind of personal commitments calendar, video clips & cutscenes with testimonials and tips from people who quit with the same method, and a lot more text. I'd recommend avoiding this game and just buying Carr's book. Or, even spending the money on cigarettes – this game is as horrid as lung cancer.



(Surprisingly, it's rated E for Everyone!)