With how decent the second Hannah Montana game in the DS series was, I guess I should have known the previous one wouldn't have been as good. (I mean, they had all those nasty kinks to work out!) In this case, had I have played this one first, I'd have probably never bothered with the sequel at all.
The graphics are about the same in this one as the sequel. The charicatures of each character are absolutely adorable though; to the point where I found myself wanting to whip out a pencil and some paper and trying to draw them all. (I resisted such temptation.) Many of the characters in this game you'll discover are originals who never have (and probably never will, now that the series is winding down) appeared on the show. Some of them are cute, some are annoying, and some are complete (and I hesistate in using such a word in a review about a children's game) complete and total bitches who seemingly have nothing better to do with their lives than block Miley's pathways and insult her until a verbal showdown ensues each time. Now, while I think it's a great thing to encourage girls to stand up for themselves in the face of a bully, I don't think it's such a great thing to teach girls to be absolutely catty and have snotty attitudes when presented with confrontation. (But that's just me. I'm notorious for reading too much into everything.)
The music in this game gets really grating after a while. They're not even Hannah songs. It's just generic video music played on a digital electric guitar. (Not so awesome.) I played most of it with the volume all the way down, to be honest.
The plotline to this game is extremely weak. Alright, how many episodes of the show have revolved around someone threatening to make public Hannah's secret identity? Right...... Now, the whole game revolves around that. Which doesn't seem so bad, when you play through to what you think is the end...and then find out that you spent several hours only completing one mission, and that you'll be completing 2 more now that are both also exactly the same thing. Had I not been in good faith that at some point, this game's plot would HAVE to improve, I'd of stopped playing at the end of the first mission. But, being a good little gamer girl, I played right through to the end anyway.
You'll also find that, more than anything else, 90% of this game is spent traveling back and forth and back again between destinations, just doing favors for other people to get information out of them. While I wouldn't have been opposed to them doing this maybe even with every other person, they did this with virtually EVERYONE. And when you have to keep traveling all over the map to get to them, it becomes a real pain in the neck real fast. It wouldn't be nearly as bad if the controls for the game were better, but instead, to move? You tap where you want Miley to go. And tap-tap-tap-tap-tap you do until you're convinced you'll be contracted carpal tunnel soon, and that this game puts Elite Beat Agents to shame with just how much tapping is involved.
My biggest issues with the controls weren't the navigation itself, per se, but two little things: the designs you have to draw to enter most doors, and the giving of items to characters (which you have to do all throughout the game). With the doors, you have to draw the design sometimes about 10 times in a row to satisfy the sensors in the game, and then out of the blue, you'll get one on the first try - misleading you to believe that hey, I'm getting the hang of this! - and then be right back at square one on the next door. As I view myself as somewhat of an artist, this REALLY irked me. It shouldn't be this hard to draw a damn "S" shape (or a triangle, or whatever other shape they want on any given door) to the game's satisfaction! Then with giving items to characters, same thing. You'll select the correct item, you'll click on "Give", then you'll tap the person you want to give it to. Then here comes Lilly, telling you that you need to give so and so this item. Uh, what? I just did! So you do it again, and again, and eventually you'll get it through, but it's anybody's guess how long it will take. (I almost gave up on this game just when it came time to give the first item - the Hannah sunglasses - to Oliver because of this very reason.)
Another thing you'll be finding yourself doing quite a bit of is skateboarding from place to place. You don't do this *EVERY* time you travel; just when you need to get somewhere quickly. (Which ironically, takes you more time, because you have to guide Lilly's skateboard down the street and make sure she doesn't hit any debris, whereas 'normal' traveling just involves clicking a destination and you're there.) It's not really that terrible or anything, it's just time consuming. You don't really control Lilly....rather, you pick up trash, scare away cats, break up big rocks, cover manholes, and scoot around traffic cones to avoid hazards. And you do this until she arrives. If you hit 3 items, you're out. I'm not too sure what happens if you do, since I never did, but I guess you have to do it again or something. It moves a little slowly for my tastes, but then again, I have to remind myself that this game is for ages 3 and up, and I'm used to Need For Speed. Can't really have something that difficult in a kid game...
Overall, this game just didn't have the charm or the appeal that its sequel did. I'll give it 4 Mileys out of 10...just because I'm feeling generous tonight. I have a feeling that even the biggest of Hannah/Miley fans won't be too in love with this title, though.
