Unsurprisingly, here we have another game inspired by a film. I'm not going to knock it for the reason alone because hey, there are some pretty decent games out there based on movies! This one, however, I'll have to say is pretty mediocre at best.
The plot of the game follows the film (big surprise). As such, with each level, your map is more or less a globe upon which you're running all the way around. It's not terrible or anything, but I will tell you one thing: If you want to go back to a specific level to try and collect all the unlockables? It can be a pain in the neck to find *that* particular level.
Map aside, let's talk about the graphics. Let me say here that I'm actually very impressed with the 3D here! For a DS game of all things, this is definitely one of the better 3D games I've seen yet. The font used throughout isn't the greatest - I sure wouldn't have used it if I were the designer - but it's not horrible either. It's legible, so I really don't have much room in which to complain here. I don't think a kid would ever complain about it, and as this is for ages 3 and up, I'm going to just move on here.
I would also like to say that it was refreshing to see a good old fashioned side-scroller game again! This seems to be becoming a lost art form as far as video games go, so it was refreshing to see making even a small comeback. Anyway, you play as not one, but all of the main characters. You'll be switching between a lion, a zebra, a hippo, and a giraffe. You'll be switching between characters in pretty much every level, as every character has different abilities. For instance, the lion can claw and roar (not to mention, scale walls towards the very end of the game). He's my favorite. The zebra can run very fast and squeeze through very tight spaces that nobody can fit through. The hippo can easily crush things with her weight and swim. And then, the poor gawky giraffe, Melman, pretty much got the shit end of the stick in the abilities department. (I actually HATED him at first until I discovered how invaluable his abilities actually are.) He can duck his head in the sand/rocks (which can either protect him from bees - I promised myself I WOULD NOT make an Eddie Izzard joke here!) and break through loose rocks on the ground, and he can sneeze at enemies. If you sneeze during a jump, he basically rocket launches himself skywards. There are SO many levels you cannot complete without this poor sneezy fellow. There are also a handful of levels where you play as the penguin brigade, and I personally loved those! (Then again, I also felt the penguins were the highlight of the whole film, so, I think I'm a little biased. ;))
However, I did not like the sneak scenes, where you had to creep around and try not to get caught. I know I'm overly sensitive to such things, but I was pretty much borderline having panic attacks every time I had to complete such a level. I'm sure other people liked them much more than I did, but it definitely was not for me.
The final level, where you're expected to beat the foosa, is VERY difficult...especially if you're not the most coordinated of people. You see, you must control 2 characters at the same time with seperate key sets. It's VERY confusing, and I'd imagine frustrating for a little kid. The multiplayer functionality only plays this mode, and if you haven't reached that level in the game yet to begin with, chances are you'll have an even harder time of it...as will your gaming partner.
I'm feeling generous today. I'm going to go ahead and rate this game a 7 out of 10 foosas. The game should probably be quite enjoyable if you have a child that's about 10 or under who enjoyed the Madagascar film.
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