I remember, way back in the day, playing the NES Tom and Jerry game. I also remember, time and time again, getting beyond irrationally angry with the stupid thing because it was so impossible to play that I could barely ever even get past the first level.
This game? It's like that.
I don't know if it's just something about it being Tom and Jerry that screams out to game designers to make impossible games or what, but it sure seems to be a common theme I'm noticing. I did even worse here than on the NES one... I couldn't even pass the first level, isn't that pitiful? I consider myself to be a pretty decent gamer...not the world's best by any means, but I think I can hold my own all right. So why is this one so difficult? Even after following the tutorial exactly, it doesn't seem to help. Even with the on screen directions and following them to a tee, it tells me I didn't do them right. (I personally smell a glitch.)
This is all quite a shame, because even though the 3D graphics sure aren't the best ones out there, the style of this game really does the original Tom and Jerry cartoon series justice, and I was very much looking forward to seeing just where they went with this one. Oh well...
Rating this one a 2 out of 10 cartoon mallets.
You know, first impressions can be deceiving, especially if you judge a book by its cover... well, in this case, a game by its cover. Seriously, who would ever in a million years expect a That's So Raven game to actually be - dare I say it - actually pretty decent? I know I sure didn't.
This is another one of Disney Interactive's releases - yes, the same people who did that buttload of Hannah Montana video games. (Oh, don't get me started again...) As such, comparing this qualitywise? I'm guessing that it was made sometime around the same time as the first Hannah Montana DS game, since the quality is pretty comparable. Sure, the music is pretty lame, but the quality of the 3D is surprisingly decent, and a lot of the graphics throughout the game are of photographic quality. That earns it lots of bonus points right there for me.
The game plays out like a series of mini mysteries that take place over the course of about a week. The main one is that Raven saw in a vision that the local theatre is being sold and closed down. However, anyone who's ever seen the TV show knows that Raven's visions are half-baked at best, and that she only focuses in on about half of it until she's gone and tried to change destiny, at which point she'll have another vision that's actually accurate and makes her feel like an idiot. Such is the case in this game, and it happens with all the mini mysteries as well. Now, much like with the first Hannah Montana DS game, I'm also impressed with how well-written the dialogue for this was, and have to wonder if they used the show's scriptwriters. (Yes, having a little sister right in the target age range of that show makes one appreciate these things.) The game is pretty well involved; there's so many side stories and missions in addition to the main one that it'll keep you occupied for a good while.
I do wish that, in the navigational controls, that there were a way to run. It would make things SO much easier. But, the rest of the game is good enough to where I think even with this small annoyance, it still holds up.
What gets me is seemingly how Raven has more visions about what she should dress up as to scam whoever it is she's in the vicinity of to get away with whatever mission she's on. For this, it seems less like she's a psychic, and more like she's a con artist, but hey, what do I know? ;)
In the extras, this game does show its age a little... There's an actual TV spot commercial for when Hannah Montana first went on the air. (What a mind trip that was to watch.)
Surprisingly, even though it's a simple little Disney game, I'm going to rate this one highly. I'm giving it a 7 out of 10 psychic visions.
Admittedly, I've never quite understood the full appeal of Spongebob Squarepants. Perhaps this has something to do with the only times I've seen it, it always seems to be one of the same three episodes over and over again, that I didn't really even find to be funny to begin with...hmm. Regardless, I decided to at least try to give this game the benefit of a doubt here.
What an hour wasted.
Granted, this game is from 2005, when the DS was still relatively new on the market, and 3D platform games for a Nintendo system were practically unheard of still - note the almost complete lack of stylus usage in this game, it's almost all arrow pad keys. This wouldn't necessarily be such a problem (even with the graphics being extremely polygonal, poorly laced, and glitchy), except....... (insert pregnant pause)........you're limited to using only the left and right arrow buttons to navigate.
That's right. A 3D world that operates like an oldschool side-scroller. Oh sure, there's points where you're supposed to move forward and backward, but do the up and down keys work? NO. They don't. You press down, you duck. You press up, nothing happens. (WTF???) So, what to do? Oh... you stop in front of one of these directions, and apparently press left or right in whichever direction's closer. ............Yeah, that makes little to no sense to me either.
As for the actual plot, you're employed to help Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy save Bikini Bottom from The Dirty Little Bubbles. (Why yes, I do believe that's a double entendre.) This more or less involves jumping around on innocent victims' heads, then capturing the bubbles. (Oh yeah, that's real fun. Not.) Every time you see a jelly fish, you capture it and milk it for its jelly. Ummmmm......am I the only one seeing something not-so-vaguely phallicly referenced by that? >_> You have unlimited lives, but each time Spongebob dies, you pick up from wherever you started your last turn at, and you lose any and all progress you'd made on that turn. Ugh. I can't even BEGIN to tell you how frustrating this is, especially when the naviagational system makes things so damn impossible.
I feel like I'm being generous even rating this game this highly, but I'm rating it a 3 out of 10 Krabby Patties.
Never before has there been such an impressive game...and then such a let down.
As I was first playing this game, I was thinking to myself, Wow! This is the first game I've played in the longest time that doesn't suck! Given all the shovelware out there lately, trust me, these gems are few and far between.
The game itself in its nature reminds me a lot of the show Law & Order: Criminal Intent. You're a detective who's solving murder mysteries, and going to just about any lengths to do so. The artwork is great, the music is effective, I just like everything about how it works. Granted, the controls could be a tiny bit better...sometimes you touch something once and it doesn't do a thing, then when you go back to it, it does. But apart from that, it's pretty good.
Now, the letdown? I was very well involved in the storyline when I got to the level with the safecracking. I know I had the right code. I even doublechecked this numerous places online. Yet, no matter how many times I put it in, regardless of how I spun the wheel on that safe, no dice. I have to wonder if this is an antipiracy measure, as I was indeed playing a rom of the game, or if it was some sort of glitch or what. If it weren't for that, this game would probably have the most glowing, perfect review. However, as I haven't played a physical copy of the game, I'll try not to crack down too hard on it and give it the benefit of the doubt that its non-rom version probably works better. Therefore, I'm going to rate this game a 7 out of 10 body outlines.
I won't lie, I have an obsession with the jazz age, Roaring Twenties scene that won't quit. So I was more than a little surprised to see that there's a DS game involving Betty Boop...complete with 20's art deco right on the cover. I had a feeling just by the cover that this would be yet another Diner Dash knock-off, and truth be told, I was right.
It's not even a good knock-off. Any time you try and multi-task, it seems to gum up the works. There seems to be no real rhyme or reason to the line waiting outside the door at the club, if you take more than a couple of seconds to get to somebody to take their order, they change their mind and aren't ready to order after all, you can't change the music when it's needed, and that's just the tip of the iceburg. After each level, you're introduced to a musical interlude... if one could even call it such. You have to match up 4 musical notes one a screen, twice, and that's it. No particular timing or anything, just tap them in the right order. Nor do they even play a tune; you just hear the crowd cheering for you with every note you tap. Very odd.
Also at the start and end of each level, you have to hear that god-awful "Boop-ee-oop-ee-oop-ee-oop, boop boop ee-doop!" To the point where after only playing a few rounds of it, you're so annoyed with this damn thing that you want to throw your DS through a wall. (I assure you, no matter how tempted you are, it's just not worth it. Don't do it.) It's also VERY prone to freezing up entirely and it drives me NUTS. It's just not worth it for a game that isn't very good to begin with.
I just have to ask.... What genius felt that it would be relevent in today's world to make a Betty Boop game? Honestly, what market are they catering to? I don't think there is one. They were hoping for a niche, while at the same time latching onto someone else's idea. But they failed miserable in the process. I'm going to rate this game a 3 out of 10 boops.
Well now, here's an interesting little oddity of the DS game line if ever I saw one! It's entitled, quite simply, 12. Given the cover, I thought it must be a cheap Japanese release that got a US translation. Guess what? It's LICENSED BY NINTENDO. Wowwwww. If I didn't hold it in my hands rightn ow, I'd probably doubt this game's existence, as even just finding a photo of the cover for this review was like pulling teeth.
Even with a name so obvious as 12, it's rather vague and ambiguous - you don't really know what exactly you're geting. I, personally, was immediately thrown back to the mid-1990's; the era where the keychain digital pets prevailed. There was one in particular that I had which was a 12-in-1 pet, and the cover of this reminds me greatly of the box from that. I digress.
I can't quite decide if I love or hate this little game. In a way, it also reminds me of the oldschool computer games, those Klik n Play games that seemed to come as demo versions with all sorts of titles, but did anybody ever really buy them? These have a very strong vibe of those. The graphics are not very good; not horrible, but not good. Very simplistic as though this were intended for a toddler to play, even though these clearly weren't. The music, also, is almost gratingly annoying after about 30 seconds of listening to it. My suggestion is either turn your volume off on your DS, crank some music, or both. ;)
The opening menu itself already further perpetuates the true vagueness of this game. You appear to have a telephone touchpad (plus asterisk and pound signs, and a call sign and wrench symbol for options). There's no explanation. Just "press any button!". Um....okay. 1 seems like a good place to start...
I suppose the best way to review such a game as this would be to address each individual mini-game that this title comprises of, so here goes:
Lolli Rolling - .....Okay, unless "Lolli" also means "mouse" or something in Japan, I have a feeling that the Japanese have a lot of explaining to do here. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, just look up "lolita complex" on Google.) This game....it's very strange. You're controlling a little mouse who balances on top of a ball while juggling about 6 balls at the same time. (Oh Mr. Kruk, I'm having flashbacks to 8th grade gym class with you.) You mustn't let the mouse's ball hit any object on the floor, lest you fall and lose a life. At the same time, depending upon the speed you chose to play this game at, you'll have a row of letters scrolling down the right side of the screen. You have to hit the button on your DS that correllates with each letter in perfect timing with this, or else you'll drop one of your juggling balls. Lose all your lives, and it's game over. The oddity here is that upon game over, you put in your name in the oldschool arcade game high score table fashion, which doesn't make a lot of sense when chances are that you'll be the only one playing this game in the first place.
Fun Fishing - Despite the almost alarmingly low quality of graphics here, this is actually a pretty decent little game. I'm not quite certain if it would stand up to being its own release should the graphic qualitiy be improved upon, but if this were back in the GBA days, I have a feeling it could have easily held its own. It's surprisingly complex for such a simplistic game. It's exactly what it sounds like, a fishing game. The graphics look as thought they were pulled directly from a GBA Pokemon game. But there's various locations, different types of fish, all sorts of different items to stock up with at the market that affect your fishing capability, earned money from catching and selling each fish..... I could see where this easily could become quite an addictive little game!
FillLove - This game is somewhat like a vaguely date simulated based Dr. Mario premise...minus the pills. But the gameplay is about identical. There isn't much to say here. I thought the game was fairly boring.
Dice - I don't quite understand what you're supposed to do here. The game seems to be a weird hybrid of dice, dominos, and tetris. The problem with this entire game is that none of these games give you any directions on what you're supposed to do; they only give you the controls. Dislike.
Test Grill - I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, but this game is a prime example of Engrish at its best. Practically every sentence is in SUCH broken english. The game, once you figure out what you're supposed to be doing, is actually pretty fun. You place as many pieces of food onto the board as you can fit, trying to crowd out the other player. You then eat your food as quickly as possible before it burns, or else you just wasted precious time and points. It's a little more complicated than it sounds.
Egg Adventure - This is one of the oddest platform games I think I've ever seen. You play the role of an egg that has to travel throughout level to level, trying to get back to its nest. You throw hay at enemies. You cannot jump. What sort of game is this?! I also cannot STAND how slowly the game moves on top of everything else. Next...
Mr. Oil - I'm quite confused by this game as well. It appears that you try to maneuver a hobo around to collect bottles to exchange for money while avoiding a bloodthirsty dog. ....Yeah, I don't get the point of this either.
Match 2 - Was there a Match 1? Regardless, this isn't your typical 'tap and match 2 cards' matching game. I think it might be match 3....although I can't seem to get past the first level, no matter what I do. Very confusing...
Bang Bang Balloon - This is basically a fancy worldwide dart-throwing competition. You stand on top of a platform while a friend inflates and releases helium balloons, and your aim is to hit as many balloons as possible. Reach the pre-determined score, and you'll move on to the next country's competition. However, for every balloon that you miss, you lose as many points as you would have gained. This isn't much of a problem the first few rounds, but it quickly becomes one when the speed increases and it's harder and harder to get the correct rhythm down. (I made it to Paris, for anyone interested.)
Moon - I have no idea why this is even titled Moon. Basically, you run aronud, tooting on a horn to wake up sleeping mice and guide them back to their mousehole. But watch out! A sneaky cat is on the prowl, looking to make away with a mouse if you don't scare it away. As you level up, the cat remains the same, but the mice change into different items or animals to match the background. It's very weird.
Kuo - Of course, we couldn't have a multi mini game extravaganza without a mindless shooter, now could we? *eyeroll* You're firing from a sea turtle at anything that hurtles your way in the ocean. That's about it. Real exciting, right?
Buffy Racing 2 - The Japanese certainly try to make anything sound cute, don't they? Here's a hint: buffalos aren't cute. Nor by calling them "buffies" will you make them cute. It's more of a horseracing type thing where you pick your buffalo and hope it's the fastest.
Overall......this game, unless you're about 5 years old, is probably not even worth wasting your time on, in my opinion. None of it is particularly grabbing or fantastic (the fishing game was the closest) and it seems more like a time waster if anything. Not even a time killer...time waster. This one gets a 4 out of 10 ninja stars.
I know I've said it before, but I'm always a nerd for all the medical-based games. Soon as I know they exist, I go out of my way to do my damndest to procure a copy of it. Such was the case here. However, some are better than others...and this is not one of the very high quality games.
You're supposed to be interning at a local hospital, straight out of med school. You're immediately instructed how to give injections. This is a far more involved process than in most medical-based games. Bonus points for that. You're then tutored in ambulance driving. Now, I should tell you, this is what you'll be spending the majority of your game doing. A more appropriate title for this game would be My Hero: Ambulance Driver, or My Hero: EMT. You'll be briefed through comic strip format of some type of accident that has occurred. This is the scene you're racing to. This wouldn't necessarily be so bad....except, that no matter how well you drive, you're going to be swerving ALL over the road, and often get hit by other cars literally out of NOWHERE. It's maddening. You get to the scene, and - big surprise! - what you learned will now be implemented into action. After that, it's another drive back to the hospital. On to the next round. The process repeats, except that you additionally learn how to x-ray and identify fractures, bandage breaks, perform CPR, remove foreign objects from wounds and clean them, and in a few extreme cases, use a defibrillator.
What gets me is how incredibly short this game is. Since everything seems to be training, you keep expecting to get into the 'real' rounds of the game....and then you find out, this was the game, that's it. I was very disappointed with that, but what can you do? I also couldn't help but notice that it ripped off a few sound effects directly from other medical-based games. The whole thing seems to smack of shoddy quality and low budget-ness, and all seems to have been very quickly created. I feel that, had they have spent more time developing this game, it had potential to be pretty decent and might have even stood up to about the level of Lifesigns (to which I still wish there was a sequel). But as it was far too rushed, I'm going to have to rate this game a 5 out of 10 ambulance sirens. Very mediocre, very disappointing.
How odd is this? Merely days after writing my review of the original 7 Wonders game, I find out there was a sequel. After just how much I complained about it, it's amazing that I found enough interest drummed up to try out this game. For once, I was not completely disappointed!
Almost every single issue that I complained about in the last game? It's like they heard my pleas and fixed them. (Even though I wrote that review long after this game was released, I'm sure. ;)) The tiles are twice the size, there's more variety in what you do, new gameplay options, less distracting construction workers, less rambling on about history... just plain EVERYTHING is better about this game! The game itself is still rather on the short side though, which could be improved upon. I still finished it beginning to finish in approximately 3 hours, much like the original. For such a casual game though, that's not too terrible at all.
The most notable features here are the ones that were added specifically for this game. For this one, you collect map pieces as you clear the boards. Once you complete a map, it takes you to a bonus level, exclusively unlocked by these maps. You must get the specified piece cleared off the bottom of the board in a certain number of moves (it's different each time), and if you do, you win a massive amount of bonus points. And at the end of each level, there's another new feature: You're presented with a grid that has colored squares in it. Depending how many bricks you accumulated throughout the level, this determines how many squares you can move. The aim is to get each square to the top of the grid. As soon as you do, you've completed the wonder. It's a different way of going about things, but not necessarily bad.
Overall, not too bad of a game. The ending was a little bit of a let down, but hey, what can you do? Although, I am left with one lingering thought... If the first game was the 7 wonders of the world, what were these 7? As such, I feel it would be appropriate to rate this game a 7 out of 10 colored tiles.
I remember, way back in the day, playing the NES Tom and Jerry game. I also remember, time and time again, getting beyond irrationally angry with the stupid thing because it was so impossible to play that I could barely ever even get past the first level.
