Monday, November 22, 2010

DS Review: Betty Boop's Double Shift

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.

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