In thinking about my old NES game collection and remembering which games I have the most fond of memories of playing, Felix the Cat has always ranked pretty highly on that list...even if in part because it was the very first video game that I ever completed all on my own, with no help from either my dad (who was, at the time, the biggest gamer I knew) or from the Game Genie. (I don't think there ever were Game Genie codes for Felix...I could be wrong.) Regardless, upon recently figuring out NES emulation for my DS, Felix was the very first game on my list that I went out of my way to track down a copy of.
Instantly upon booting up the game, I was greeted by that friendly opening screen that I'd seen so many times before during my youth. It made me smile. That aside, once beginning the initial gameplay, I was immediately taken aback by how similar the gameplay is to the old Mario games,
or even Mega Man. In modern games, you don't tend to run across side-scrollers too often anymore, so it was quite refreshing to play one again. The premise also reminded me of Mega Man, in that we have an evil scientist hellbent on destruction (who, in this case, is keeping Felix's girlfriend Kitty hostage). So, of course, Felix must save the world. (What else would this game be about?)
So here you are, in this Felix bizarro world of hamsters and cannons and sombrero monsters and walking trees--was somebody dropping acid when they created this game? I'm pretty sure that somebody was doing some heavy drugs. (Then again, this was all based off the old Felix the Cat cartoons. I'm pretty sure that opium was legal back then.) Like Mega Man (and unlike Mario), you cannot jump on your foes. Oh, no. Instead, all that you are armed with is your little yellow magic bag (we'll get back into that in just a second), out of which you can punch with a spring-loaded boxing glove. (It's all based VERY much off the old cartoons, which, if you've ever seen them, you'll understand.) Its range is VERY short, but it'll get you through long enough to either find a random heart or a power up bag.
Oh, what's this? Power up bags? Well, you know how in Mario, you travel through pipes? In Felix, you travel through giant versions of your magic bag. Once inside, you will find many powerups, usually a heart, and some milk cans. With each heart, you power up to the next ability level. (When you hit the last one, any additional hearts will just give you extra lives.) However, their usage is very limited. As soon as you get one of these powers, 10 hearts will appear in the upper left-hand corner of your screen. Each one stays for about 5 seconds, and when the hearts run out, you lose the power and are bumped back down to the next lower one. HOWEVER! You can get around this with those trusty milk cans! Each milk can will give you a few extra hearts, and I think if you manage to hook all three, it powers you back up completely. Not a bad deal....except that when you need them most, you can never seem to find the damn things. Sometimes these magic bags have a second bag on the righthand side of the screen that serves as a segway to further on in the level - again, much like the Mario pipelines.
So now that you've found your first heart, wherever it may have 
happened in the level, you'll no doubt notice that Felix's appearance has suddenly changed. He now wears a black top hat and carries a cane. No, not a cane, a magic wand. He's a magician now. (But according to my 10 year old sister, it's "totally a cane - Felix turned into a pimp!" Wowwww.) You will notice that when you go to attack an enemy now, you no longer get the springy punching bag. Instead, you throw a ring of stars out around your being in every which direction, creating a brief force field that will hit anything in close enough proximity. Still not a great power, but it definitely trumps the glove by a long shot.
Your next power up gives Felix a car. This vastly increases your mobility speed as well as gives you a projectile missile which shoots from the front of the car whenever you beep your horn. (It's one of the only vaguely realistic sounds in the game that doesn't sound like a bleep or boop.) I think that of the power ups for the regular ground levels (you have different powers in different levels, such as sky or sea), the car is my favorite. It's the most versatile and is easiest to work with.Once you surpass the car, you get a 
tank. Sounds pretty awesome, right? It's big, it's heavy, it shoots cannon balls. What could be better? Um... the car. Seriously, the tank is bulky and cumbersome. You have to really work at making sure the trajectory on your cannon balls will actually hit your targets. You can't jump very high in it. It baffles me that this is the top power up in the regular land levels.
Of course, the power ups are different in different levels. In air levels, you start out with an umbrella (think: Mary Poppins) and upgrade to a hot air balloon which looks like Felix's head and throw what appear to be frisbees at enemies, and finally are upgraded to an airplane. I love that little plane... Then in the water levels (above water), you only have 2 power ups: you start out in a little inflatable raft, and you upgrade to a dolphin who you ride on the back of. Underwater, you start out with a snorkel, upgrade to riding on the back of a bubble-blowing sea turtle, and finally to a submarine that, like the hot air balloon, looks like Felix's head. This one, by far, is the best of the underwater abilities, as even though it's big and cumbersome, you can't beat this thing's missiles. They're long range, they shoot straight ahead (which is more than can be said for most of the projectiles in this game), and they're powerful. It's about the only thing that will really help you during boss battles.
It's overall a pretty typical oldschool NES game. You defeat bad guys; if you fall down holes or land in water, you die; your levels are timed, etc. All stuff that usually was a part of any video game back then. The levels are divided up in similar fashion to Mario as well (i.e. 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 2-1, etc) with three parts to a level...in most cases anyhow. There are 9 levels, and I suspect that since this is a game about a cat, 9 levels/9 lives. Get it? The last two are sort of a joke though. As you spend the game trying to reach the Professor, you reach level 8, and I think it only has one part to it. You just fly around in a spaceship and try not to die. (Easier said than done.) Level 9, if I recall, only has 2 parts before the final battle. Should you have had an easy time defeating all of the other bosses throughout the game, this will be a cinch for you. Especially since you have not one, not two, but THREE magic bags in the actual battle screen to duck down into to grab power ups and extra hearts inside of. You can come in completely unprepared and still get the tank to fight the Professor with. He takes a little bit longer to defeat than the other bosses, but it's the same general concept.
There's only two possible outcomes for this game. If you lose, you'll 
see a screen with a sad little Felix being tossed out into an alleyway while Kitty looks on longingly from the moon. However, should you succeed in beating the game, you'll reach Kitty, who's still all tied up, but hopping around in excitement for you finally have saved her; hearts floating up out of her head. "Congratulations! At least FELIX! You rescued Kitty! I love you, FELIX!" And then you watch a cutesy little sequence where Kitty and Felix fly off into the sunset--no wait, scratch that. They fly back home to Earth together, all smoochy and everything in the spaceship, and "THE END" flashes across the screen. 
Yes, it's short, but it's sweet, and a lot more memorable than a lot of other NES game endings of that time period. The ending has stuck with me over the years for some reason, and I didn't realize just how vividly I remembered it until seeing it again. This game, which took me all day to beat as a little kid, took me a grand total of just barely half an hour to complete this time around - playing it for the first time in about 17 years, to boot! (Damn, I'm old.) It's a pretty simple game, overall, and I'd say it's still a good early starter game for kids. Know your roots!
This was by no means the greatest ever game created for the NES, but I think it has quite a bit of quality to it that's stood the test of time. I'm going to go ahead and rate this 7 out of 10 little kitties.
Okay. With as much as I've whined and complained about the Imagine line of games, you're not doubt asking yourselves why I keep putting myself through this torture time and time again every time they put out a new title. Masochism, maybe? I don't know. And yet, I jumped through hoops to score a copy of this one pretty much as soon as it was released. I honestly can't even answer the "why?!" question anymore.
Anyway... It would have appeared that Imagine finally put out a better title than usual. You play a girl named Katie who inherits the family boutique from her grandfather, and has to keep 
one-upping and outdoing the city rival, Mr. Cheepo (who looks creepily like Alec Baldwin). This "boutique" eventually turns into somewhat of a mini-mall in which the mayor, the elite (Miss Van der Velt, who looks suspiciously like Paris Hilton), and pop star Ashley all shop at and increase the popularity of. You have to thwart off shoplifters (who are sent to your store by Mr. Cheepo), keep all your customers happy, and generally do a LOT of running back and forth between departments.
I find it interesting that you spend more time having to guess what exactly your customers want to buy than anything else. Even when it fits the bill, there's times when they still don't like what you present them with. What-ever. More curious is in your toy shop, where Katie creates her own stuffed animals, not a single stitch goes into those plushies. You just stick them together willy nilly and they magically hold. (Wow, I hope no kid gets the idea to try this out at Build-A-Bear or anything...) And no matter how you sign your name on your creations - even if you just scribble, it will still use the signature you used on the initial contract you signed when you inherited this boutique. (Better sign it neatly, or it'll mock you in the face every time you sign anything for the rest of the game!)
I guess I have no room to complain here because it's the same way the real world works too, but for every holiday, your boutique gets all pimped out and commercialized for each respective holiday. Which I think is just further perpetuating things a little bit more with the current generation, but oh well. Also, Katie must be awfully uncomfortable. Any time she's not moving around, she automatically strikes a model-esque pose; one leg extended far in front of the other.
Overall, I had very little to complain about with this title. The accuracy of the stylus even seemed to be fixed for this game! The loading screens are a little slow, but anyone can live with that. My only gripe - and this may just have been my cartridge, I don't know - is upon completing the jewelry store chapter, my game ALWAYS locks up. No matter what I do. I even created a new file and started again, and it did it at the same spot, 3 times. If anyone else has had this problem, I'd like to hear about it. Otherwise, I'm going to try and get a refund, or else just sell the sucker on Ebay. What a pity.... I knew there had to be a catch.
Since I don't know whether or not the glitch was because of faulty programming or the cartridge itself, I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt and assume I got a dud here. The game, APART from that, I will rate a big fat 7 cash registers out of 10. Which is much more than I can say for pretty much any other Imagine title I've tried this far.
You know, I grew up a farm girl. (Horse ranch to be exact, but I digress. We always had lots of animals around.) Even though this game was probably meant for, oh, I don't know... 3 year olds probably, I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and try it out anyhow. Free import from the UK to review. Why not?Observation number 1: The girl on the cover of the box doesn't even look like the girl in the game, strangely enough. What's this? False advertisement already? The guard is going up, and the game hasn't even begun yet. But the music sounds nice enough, so I'm still keeping an open mind.
There's three difficulties on which you can play this game: easy, medium, and hard. (Truth be told, with the exception of about 2 activities, it's exactly the same thing and difficulty on each difficulty level.) You have to play through the game to unlock each of the upper levels above it... Which wouldn't seem to bad IF THE GAME WERE DIFFERENT ON EACH DIFFICULTY! Seriously, would it have been that hard to give Emma three little adventures instead of...well...one?
Oh yes. You heard me. You play it through just to find out YOU GOT CHEATED. Who wants to play the same fairly-lame game through more than once? Not me, but for you lovely people, I did it anyway. The plot essentially is that Emma has come to visit her Uncle Jules (whose laugh makes me think of Charles Aznavour big time - he seems to be the lone Frenchman in this otherwise very British game) on his farm, and that while she's helping him tend to the animals, one of the mother hens has lost her chicks and needs Emma's help finding him. There's more emphasis on finding the chicks than the chores. The storyline is VERY short, even for a little kids' game. You could seriously complete this game on any difficulty in half an hour, tops. The lasting appeal for re-playing is not very high.
The dialogue in the game is almost laughably English. I keep getting mental images of all these animals (plus Emma) being uppity, snobby characters with the highly upper crust British accents. For example, my favorite line in the whole game is said by the noble horse: "I'll greet this fox with a firm hoof! A good thump with my iron shoe and that will be the end of him!" A close second would be the donkey's poem:
Oh sweet grass on the path of the barn!
You are so nice when I eat you!
When I look at you,
my soul is at peace!
Ah, how lovely it is to graze near the barn!
I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I giggled over it. Anyway, throughout the game you go through a sequence of chores: you must collect eggs from the henhouse, catch falling eggs in a basket before they hit the ground, call the donkey to you, collect bundles of hay and place them in a cart, race a bunny against a fox, blow dandelion fluff into the wind, milk a cow, match animal sounds with the animals that make them, feed the animals, round up piglets and sheep, identify different vegetables, water the garden, shake apples out of the trees in the orchard, collect ripe tomatoes, and build a scarecrow.
All of this builds up to a very moral-ish ending of that it's bad to run off to play and leave for somewhere without telling your parents because it will make them worry. (Told you it was aimed towards little kids.) The opening and ending videos aren't the best quality I've ever seen, but they're not too bad, all things considered. It looks really low-budget, but if they'd had more money to play with, they might have been pretty nice.
I'm pretty sure the bonus features take longer to completely play out than the actual game. There's an Animal Families game (which has nothing whatsoever to do with actual animal families - it's a typical memory card matching game), a Dress Up Emma screen (which makes absolutely no impact on what Emma wears in that actual game at all...that was a letdown to me), real life recipes, and a virtual vegetable garden to water and grow. The best of of these is probably those real life recipes, which include:
- Grapefruit cup
- Potato pancakes
- Fruit ice cream
- Pound cake
- Quiche
- Steamed fish in foil
- Orange salad
- Apple tart with a moustache
- Tomato soup
- Beefburgers in breadcrumbs
- Mini-gratin
- Chocolate cake with glasses
Overall, I'm pretty sure I'll rate this game a solid 4 milking cows. Not too strong, but the bonus features are at least a little bit redeeming.
Yawn. Another title by Imagine released too soon. What are they up to at this point - a new game every other week? (You know I'm right.) And yet...I keep buying into it. When will I ever learn? (Probably never.)
Much like the Animal Doctor title in this series, the animation style is severely lacking in this game. Here is one of my biggest issues with Imagine... They need to pick a look, and go with it across the board. Period. Regardless of which one they pick. Having it be totally different from game to game makes it really hard to adjust and get a feel for the whole line at all. Where's our false sense of security? Oh, right. We don't get one.
Animation style aside, I made another painfully obvious observation: Almost EVERY single person who walks into the practice is HIDEOUS, while your character looks like frickin' Malibu Barbie rather than a doctor, and her best friend looks like she should be rallying at some type of Greenpeace event. Stereotypical much? One of her mentors is an extremely stereotypical Chinese man, and the bane of her existence whom she dreads going to for anything, but often has to for new equipment - stereotypical bitchy Jew. Not even kidding.
Speaking of new equipment - shoudn't a fresh out of med school physician already have all the necessary equipment to perform an exam? I don't know about you, but I wouldn't try a doctor who hasn't even got all the most basic exam instruments in their office. Who is this quack? Even past that, you always get the same few ailments over and over again, which grows stale reaaaaaally fast. Trust me.
Whilst you're performing these monotonous exams, it won't take you very long to discover that unless you write down your numbers a VERY specific way, it won't count them as being correct, and will come up with something not even close to what you wrote down. One of the biggest culprits is the number 8, and it didn't like my 4's much either. Cutting and affixing bandages is difficult when it tells you that you're not accurately following the lines when you are. And the tongue depresser exam, oh! Don't even get me started! Supposedly, all you have to do is say "ahh" into the microphone to make the patient open their mouth. I think on the low end, I had to try at least 3 times in different octaves to even make this work. (Which always resulted in funny looks from other people in the same room.) Not exactly my idea of fun. I don't think you even end up using every single medication available to you, and then when you are administering meds, you have the option of one, two, or three doses to put on the chart each time. Not ONCE do you ever give out 3. Why is the option even there?
The dialogue clicks through far too easily when you don't want it to, and when you DO want it to, the people blather on endlessly about things you don't particularly want to hear about. Add in a ton of pointless side storylines that have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with being a doctor, and you have this game wrapped up in a nutshell. And to think... you never even get to dole out a single injection.
In my opinion, this game fails pretty hardcore. I'm going to give it 2 1/2 stethescopes...mostly just because it drove me so insane.
Where popular character faces and video games meet, it's almost a sure bet that at some point, somebody's going to end up jumping on a bandwagon. Shrek Superslam unfortunately falls into this category, which is a disappointment.
All of you remember Super Smash Brothers for N64, I'm sure. And anyone who played it fell into one of either two categories, with no real in between: those who thought the game was FRIGGING AWESOME, and those who thought it was a pretty stupid plotless, mindless fighting game. (I fell into one category, and all my siblings and cousins fell into the other. Perhaps I'm missing something.) This game is exactly the same way. Same type of premise and everything. You pick your fighter, and you get placed in different scenarios to fight, fight, fight! There's items (just like in SSB) that you can pick up and fight with, and....that's about it. There's a VERY loose attempt at a storyline, but it falls pretty flat. It's a tiny little sequence where the kids are being read a bedtime story, and whichever character you pick as a fighter takes on this story, which apparently is nothing more than the fight scenes. (I would imagine this would work kids up rather than put them to sleep, but I digress.) Working your way through all the levels doesn't even take very long! I was pretty let down that that was all there was to the game.
So, if you were a fan of SSB, you might dig this. If not, don't waste your time, it's essentially the same thing. I'll give it 4 out of 10 Shreks.
You know, I'm not ashamed (much) to admit that of all the modern Disney shows I'm still subjected to having to watch thanks to sharing a home with a 10 year old, "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody" is by far the easiest to sit through and actually enjoy. (The same cannot be said of its spin-off show, but that topic doesn't belong in this blog.) I actually got kind of excited when I found out there were a couple of games out for it! But, once again, I was disappointed by another show-turned-videogame title.
This was even less playable than the Animaniacs game, and only a tiny bit more playable than "The Wild West". UGH. My first indicator was upon first starting up the game to find out the animation style is SO bad, it looks more like this game should have been "Dennis the Menace". 
As it so happens, the gameplay also seems more like something Dennis would pull, rather than the Martin twins.
Truth be told? I made it maybe one level in before deciding this game is TERRIBLE. I mean this is *bad* bad. Even looking past the character animation, I thought MAYBE, just maybe, there would be some interesting level exploration in the seemingly 3-D hotel. But nooooo... You're stuck to a VERY thin track that's not far off from being a 2-D scroller game. (Mmhmm. Told you it was bad.) It allows for pretty much NO original exploration. The abilities are fairly stupid. I can usually put up with anything most games dish out, but this is in a league all of its own as far as terrible games go.
It's bad enough to where I can't even rate this. All I can say is not to waste your time or money on this title. Even die-hard fans would be insulted by this one.
Yet another Hannah Montana DS game. (Does anybody know what ever ended up happening with "Hannah Montana: Pop Star Exclusive"? I'm beginning to think it doesn't really exist. Never shows up on Ebay, can't find anywhere online that sells it, can't even find anyone who's PLAYED it. And there aren't even any roms of it online to download. I'm seriously doubting its legitimacy...) This time, based on Hannah Montana: The Movie. (Which I'm not ashamed to admit I went and saw and was surprisingly pretty good.)
The animation style in this one has improved from the past 2 games. Most of the characters look way more realistic this time around. And the music? KUDOS to Disney for FINALLY using the ACTUAL Hannah songs in the game! I was expecting the lame MIDI-sounding versions of the songs again, but nope, they found a way to fit the actual songs in there this time :) In their entireties, even!
Plotwise, meh, the game's lacking. They leave out a LOT of crucial points in the storyline. Ones big enough to probably make the game not even make sense in quite a few places. And then gives much bigger amounts of attention to places that BARELY even were mentioned in the movie - that didn't even really concern Hannah! Not to mention, the layout of the farmhouse (and the ranch in general) was EXQUISITE.
I have compiled a list of ways in which I think this game could be improved. Take note, Disney, in case you ever decide to put out another Hannah game (even though I think Mileymania is dying out):
- If you're basing a game off an episode or a movie in particular, follow the plot more closely. I know, you can't include everything, but this was a really poor attempt, guys.
- When you're playing the instruments in the game during the songs, actually have the notes match up with what's being played instead of just being random notes.
- Have a playback option when you finish the songs so you can watch the dance sequences.
- Four words: TYRA BANKS SHOE FIGHT.
- Include Lilly's birthday party.
- Give a run option to cut down on the time it takes to travel from one place to the next.
- Reduce the amount of time wasted on Jackson's storyline
- Have more songs in the game to be unlocked! Honestly... They included Robbie Ray at the gazebo, but didn't have that Butterfly song?
- Include the Lorelei storyline
- Have more happen in detail with the running back and forth between the dinner with the mayor and Miley's date.
- Make the wi-fi chatroom option actually WORK.
I completed the entire game in about 2 hours, tops. While multitasking on instant messenger and checking emails. I feel the game itself should have probably been longer, but you can't have everything. It's not a bad game, but there's definite room for improvement. I'm rating this game a 7.5 out of 10 butterflies.
Ever since a young age, I've been fascinated by anything and everything to do with the medical field. Some of that may stem from having a long history of medical ailments my whole life, some of it may stem from reading medical textbooks for fun. Whatever the reason, I've owned pretty much every single video title based on a medical premise since I was about 7 years old. (If it was for a system I didn't even own, I'd get it anyway and find someone who'd let me play it at their place. Yes. I am that much of a nerd for this stuff.) In addition, I also watch pretty much all the medical-based television shows that hit the airwaves too - E.R., Scrubs, House, Doc, Private Practice, etc. Last but not least, I can't forget the one that seems to be everybody's current favorite (okay, no hatemail from the House fans now), Grey's Anatomy. I just about jumped for joy when I found out a video game was being made of it.But of all the companies out there to attempt such an undertaking..... it had to be Ubisoft. The company notorious for having fabulous game ideas, but bad execution. This, unfortunately, is no exception, I hate to say.Don't get me wrong. There's a lot of nice things I can say about this game too. For instance, the 
graphics on this game are pretty superb; not only for a DS game, but for being based on real life actors and actresses. The likenesses are absolutely dead-on it to the point where it's almost creepy. In addition, the realism during certain surgical procedures (i.e. craniotomy) have officially been the first in a video game, ever, to nearly make me literally dry heave at how realistic they looked. (I got over it, but still. I was not anticipating such a reaction from myself.) The sound effects aren't too bad, either. The music could be improved, in my opinion, but then I'm not too hot on the music from the show either, and it's pretty darn similar to that. So I guess I really don't have a leg to stand on to complain about that. The dialogue and storylines seem like they easily could have been written by the actual screenwriters from the show.
But, as with anything, there's things to nitpick too.... I
n this case, they're very big somethings. As with all Ubisoft games I have played this far, the places you touch on the screen don't exactly seem to match up with where the touchscreen picks them up. (And before you start tossing accusations that my touchscreen may be messed up, it's not. I've heard this from countless other Ubisoft players, and I tried the game on 3 different DSes. Trust me. It's not the screen.) This causes huge problems in attempting to play a game in which precision is key. But even so? That's not my main issue with this game.
My big beef with the Grey's Anatomy game is that, while sure, a lot of the television series is based on the interpersonal relationship dramas between the characters of the show.... Who wants to play that out in a game? Maybe touch on a little bit, sure, that'd be fine. But a medical drama - ESPECIALLY one transferred into a game - should be focusing on the actual medical procedures primarily; NOT who's screwing who and whatnot. There's only a very small portion of the game spent on doing surgeries. Look, if I wanted a relationship simulator, I'd of played one of the MANY myriad of games out there that focus on just that. With so much quality in other areas, how could they have possibly screwed this up so badly? I just don't know. Needless to say, I'm very disappointed. Even if you're a die-hard Grey's fan, I can't imagine you'd care for this "game" much.
For those who didn't feel like reading the whole review, my final analysis is bleak. Great in theory, terrible in execution. I give this game a 3 out of 10 clipboards...and it's only that high because of the quality of the graphics.
With the success of the Cooking Mama series (which yes, I will get around to reviewing one day), it comes as no surprise that they'd expand the franchise further into other arenas to broaden their fanbase. It did surprise me that they chose gardening of all possible avenues to choose as their next endeavor, but hey - who ever thought the cooking games would become such a hit? If anybody would know how to make gardening into an entertaining video game, Majesco would.The opening screen looks like any given one of the Cooking Mama games, style-wise. (The whole game does, naturally, which I LOVE and scores it major points with me. I'm a geek for their animation style.) The music and sound effects also follow suit with their predecessors...and with the exception of Mama's accent, I like them. That accent though, maybe it's just me, but it sounds like a horribly racist attempt at a Japanese accent. C'mon..."butterfry"? I've known MANY folks of Asian descent, and never once have I encountered one who pronounces L's like that. But I guess if nothing else, it's almost free entertainment. I just couldn't help but feel that it's pretty inevitable that I'm sure somebody's offended somewhere over it.
In this game, you grow a variety of flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Of the flowers, it's a pretty fair array of the most common flower types, and then some. I was a little disappointed that there were no calla lilies, but hey, can't win em all. The fruit and vegetable varieties, I wish they'd of broadened their range. They had the absolute basics, and that's it. But the ones they did have were still fun. Better still though are the special unlockable plants ;) I won't give away the surprises here because that would defeat a lot of the point of playing the game. But trust me, they're pretty. (Also, if you get a perfect score in the special garden, you get peacock butterflies to visit your plants instead of swallowtail butterflies. As I am a stickler for perfection, I never stopped at anything shy of a 100 rating, so I have no clue what else shows up if you don't get a perfect score.)
I was also impressed with the level of detail paid to to process of growing each plant, even if some of them were more than a little unrealistic in their approach. Also, despite the game's simplistic style, there's a lot of complexity to the game. You'd be amazed how tricky it is to get a perfect score on a lot of the levels! I had some difficulty in most of the levels that involved digging, and the ones that involved drawing specific shapes - namely the watering and fertilizer levels - had tricky parts. Am I the only person who can't draw a star to save their ass? And unless you get the spiral JUST perfect in the watering level, it won't count it. They should've allowed for a little more leeway as far as perfect precision goes in drawing these shapes. Speaking of the fertilizer levels, I'm also annoyed by the ones that involve waiting for the right color to pop up...but that's just because I'm very impatient. I don't like having to catch the mice either, but...I don't particularly like mice to begin with. (Sorry to any mouse lovers out there.)
I was also very impressed by just how customizable the gardens themselves are! You can add in all sorts of decorative fixtures all over the place. I wasn't patient enough to do it with all my gardens, but it was nice just knowing I could if I wanted to. It serves no real purpose in the game other than aesthetics, but this customization does make it feel more like a real garden.
You also have the opportunity to customize Mama's appearance. I had much more fun with this than the garden customization, but then, I love almost any game that allows me to play fashionista ;) By the time I was done though, I noticed something... Mama had suddenly taken on an uncanny likeness to Sarah Palin! (I swear it was unintentional.)
Here's a nifty little trick that I discovered entirely on accident, but turned out to be pretty handy: While playing the levels where you must break up the clouds and blow them away, if you don't feel like wasting your breath, sit in front of your stereo speakers and have some loud music on. The beat of the music will literally scare those clouds away!
Overall, even if you're not a particularly outdoorsy or gardening person (which I'm not), you'll more likely than not enjoy this game. There is something inherently rewarding about watching things grow that you've cultivated, even in the virtual world. If you like simulation games, give it a try!
I'm going to go ahead and rate this title an 8 1/2 green thumbs out of 10. :)
Despite my known disdain for the new style Littlest Pet Shop toys, I have to admit...I did squee a little when I not only saw this title, but that there's an entire series of these games. This was the newest one, so I decided what the hell...I'll try it out. Why not? I have memories of hours upon hours of playing with the original toys over at my cousins' houses when I was little (I was SO envious of the fact that they both owned complete collections of these and had ALL the accessory packs), and I got warm fuzzies just thinking about it.
I spent more time than I probably should have playing this game, but I must admit, it was a pretty nice distraction from the god-awful stomach bug I caught the same day. Alright, I'll get it out of the way right off the bat: The music isn't bad, and the animation style is actually pretty nice. If you don't like things that are 'sickeningly cute', chances are this game is NOT for you. For those of you who are, stick around. You'll enjoy this immensely. (The huge oversized eyes definitely help.)
Basically, the premise of this game is to grow and own the biggest, best pet shop ever. You begin the game with three pets; all of whom you must keep fed, happy, and played with. (There's no cleaning up after these pets. Whoopie!) As the game progresses, you unlock more games, pets, and worlds in which to keep your pets. With the coins you find and earn through games, you can purchase more pets, outfits (yes, you're encouraged to dress them), and playsets for your pets. The majority of the game is spent playing the mini-games... And for once, I must say, I'm very impressed with the assortment presented to us - both by the wide selection and for the fact that most of them actually are somewhat challenging!
- Hide and Seek - Exactly what it sounds like.
- Ball Juggling - Closer to a game of kickball than juggling
- Super Scratch - I'm not quite sure how exactly this is a game, but the animal tells you a part of its body to scratch (head, neck, or cheek), and you have to scratch it until the meter is filled.
- Balloon Burst - You press the buttons displayed on the top screen and blow into the microphone to inflate the balloon on the bottom screen until it pops. The aim is to create the largest balloon possible.
- Coloring Craze - Just as it sounds. It's a virtual coloring book.
- Beats n Bops - Sort of a poor man's DDR. You click the sides as they light up in beat to the music.
- Dash N Dig - Once you master this, it's one of the best coin--er, kibble--earners in the entire game. You follow the hints the arrows give you and dig as fast as possible to try and find the hidden Easter eggs.
- Skyride Collection - Wheel your pet up and down to collect coins on the skyrider!
- Whirl N Twirl - Spin the pet wheel as fast as you can to sail the furthest way down the hill possible!
- Swing N Spring - Press the correct sequence of buttons quickly to swing higher and higher before leaping off. Sounds MUCH easier than it is! You need a fair amount of coordination to get it perfect.
- Nutfest - Crack the walnuts before they land on your pets heads and knock them out.
- Toss N Pop - A typical dart throwing game
- Bubble Bounce - Blow bubbles in the fountain to keep the coins from falling in the water! The longer you keep each one bouncing, the more points you get!
- Pet Sets - Typical card flipping memory game.
- Furry Feast - Scoop the correct fruits into the right chutes before they get sucked into the wrong ones! Fair warning - this game is misleadingly simple when it starts, but as it speeds up, it gets very hard!
- Steady Spin - Do your best to keep your pet balanced on top of the ball - don't let them fall!
- Fruit Fling - Use your slingshot to hit the pet carrying the same fruit in your slingshot.
- Remember Me - Another memory game. You have a few seconds to memorize which cards are where, and then a pet will run across the top screen. Find the card that matches that pet.
- Snack Sort - Guide the blueberries and strawberries into the correct baskets.
- Volley Paws - A very cute volleyball game
Upon bringing all the pets to your pet shop, they will throw a huge party in the middle of the pet shop; complete with fireworks and all. There's no mention anywhere in the game of anybody actually, y'know, adopting any of these pets, but I guess that's neither here nor there. Being majorly OCD about such things as these, I couldn't help but notice that, since there's lists of all the unlockables and how many you currently have away from the total, I wouldn't have *truly* finished the game until I collected them all. So even after I finished getting all the pets, I continued to play until the TRUE completion of the game, just to see if anything special would happen. Unfortunately for me, I got stuck after completing all the goals - no matter what I did, I couldn't seem to unlock the last few accessories. Oh well. If anyone knows what - if anything - happens upon collecting everything, let me know.
My one main gripe with this game is how much of a pain in the neck it is to have to go back and forth between the different worlds pretty much constantly to check on your pets and to complete goals. It's not *difficult* to do, but it's a pain in the ass to have to do it ALL the time. And believe me...you DO have to. Sometimes you do it because you receive orders that you need to take a pet from one world to another to complete a goal; sometimes you have to do it to check on your various pets; sometimes you have to do it to access different buildings. Regardless, there's plenty of ways this could have been improved upon, but granted that this is my biggest issue in the game, that's really not all that bad at all, considering.
Overall though? This is a pretty decent game, I gotta admit. You can keep just about anybody you hand this game to occupied and amused for hours on end. Go ahead, try it! I'm rating this game a 7 1/2 pets out of 10. A fairly glowing review, if I do say so myself. :)
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.
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.
Up til now, I've currently reviewed 2 other Imagine titles; Master Chef and Animal Doctor. Given how much I loved one and practically despised the other, I wasn't even entirely sure what to expect this time around. As it turns out, it seems to be somewhere in between the two.
Wedding Designer is not a bad game. I just feel like the game was hastily made while the company realized it was hot and putting out hit after hit, so they wanted to make sure to strike while the iron was still hot. As a result, the game feels a little half-baked. There's only 6 weddings the game details doing the planning for. To complete all of these back to back literally only takes a few hours. (Compare this to the nearly non-stop playing of the other two games that I did, and this really feels like a pittance as far as gaming time is concerned.) There really should have been more challenges, but that's neither here nor there.
You get a selection of different brides of different nationalities and backgrounds who each have
different wedding requests to which you must oblige. With each bride, you must design her wedding invitations, the wedding attire for she and her bridal party (consisting of the groom, her parents, the best man, maid of honor, ring bearer, and flower girl), the venue, her bedroom at home, give she and the groom makeovers for their everyday appearance, as well as choosing the right officiant and wedding party members... all to her liking. (Talk about a bridezilla!) You gauge the bride's happiness by her facial expression with each detail you pick out - if she's happy, she'll smile, and if she's unhappy, she'll pout. Upon completing all tasks, you're whisked away to the wedding in a white limousine, where you'll be playing photographer to the event. You must snap whatever the bride requests in the style she wants it, too. Each successful wedding unlocks new items, music, makeup and furniture for future weddings as well as the next level's bride.
Upon completing all 6 weddings, you still have the option of replaying each level as well as playing in Free Mode; where you design your own bride and wedding without worrying about demands. It's all up to you. This doesn't really accomplish much of anything but unlock some more items. There's also an "Exchange" mode, but as I don't know anybody else with the game, I have no clue how it works.
The gameplay is simple enough to where even the youngest of girls can successfully play this game. It's probably better that way - this title is bound to hold the interest of youngsters longer than that of adults. (It's still fun in small doses, though.) I would figure the best target audience for this game would be little girls who are about to be in a wedding party.
I must say that the makeup selections in the bridal boutique remind me a LOT of a really old pc game from 1997, "Barbie Magic Hair Styler" (which was a full makeover game, not just hair styling). So I had a little nostalgia there.
I do have a few issues with the game, though. (Don't I always?) The controls are a little iffy in their accuracy. I even re-calibrated my DS to make sure that that wasn't my problem, but it still acted the same way. (I tried it in my sister's DS too. It did the same thing.) It has a bad habit of highlighting the wrong object while you're trying to select one nearby.
The 3-D graphics in this game are still lousy, but not anywhere NEAR as bad as the ones in Animal Doctor. The 2-D graphics are incredibly cute though, and surprisingly detailed for as cartoony as they are.
Some of the background music is more tolerable than others. Certain tunes are very pleasant, while others (i.e. the music in the groom's house...it's so SHRILL) are nearly unbearable. The music store is probably the most difficult part in the game - not for actually being hard, but because while the volume on certain tracks is quite loud, others are practically inaudible even with the volume turned all the way up. (I found popping in a pair of earbuds helped.) I did like their selection of wedding tunes, though. The only other problem was the controls on the music player.
My biggest issue in this game has nothing to do with the game's quality; rather, it has to do with the subliminal messages that certain aspects of the game puts across. For as demanding as the brides are of every single detail in their weddings, they ALSO are just as picky about their groom's appearances. We're not just talking hair and clothes... I mean actual facial features. This puts across an idea of superficiality, and to judge whether or not you like someone based on their looks. (It may also be putting across the idea that plastic surgery is needed for any 'imperfections'.) Not to mention, if a woman is controlling EVERYTHING about their man, right down to what they're allowed to wear in their everyday lives? This seems like unhealthy relationship material to me. It's very controlling and possibly obsessive. I know, I know, I'm reading WAAAAY too much into what's supposed to be a simple children's game, but these are things we need to take into consideration too, you know?
One more question: since when does a wedding planner play personal fashion consultant/interior designer to these people's homes?
I'm going to rate this game a 5 out of 10 blushing brides. Some might lean for a bit higher, others lower. I'd give it a better rating if this particular game hadn't been so short.
Having enjoyed Imagine: Master Chef as much as I did, I had quite high expectations for this game to be more of the same. Lord, I couldn't have been more wrong on this one.
The vast differences can be seen immediately upon starting the game. Whereas Master Chef had an adorably cartoonish feel to its animation style, this game tried too hard to go in the opposite direction to jump the 3-D bandwagon...and failed miserably. All the animals look relatively the same aside from coloring (which, might I add that I had issues with the idea of a bunny having bright blue eyes?), and the humans in the game look downright pitiful. HOW was this made by the same designers? It doesn't even look remotely similar! That was my first strike I held against the game.
My next issue with this game is that it is devoid of pretty much any plot, other than you have opened a veterinary clinic on your grandparents' land. Grandfather never leaves the shed and his only purpose is to build your animal pens; your cousin Eric lives and adores cleaning up after the animals (what a sad, sad existence...), and Grandmother.... Well, I'm not entirely sure why she's there. Seemingly her only purpose is to help you dye your hair.
You will notice almost immediately just how awkward the controls in this game are. I found it easier to rely on the keypads rather than the stylus to move around the map, but this doesn't particularly help you in caring for or diagnosing your animals. Another strike against the game.
You will progress through 5 different types of animals: cats, dogs, rabbits, horses, and pigs. Yes, that's right, pigs. As in, what bacon comes from. This seemed a little odd to me, all things
considered, but then again... You DO appear to be living on a farm in this game, so I guess pigs aren't so strange. (The sheer volume of pigs that come in to be treated is mind-boggling though.) What I wonder is, if they can have barnyard animals like pigs and horses, why not go the whole nine yards and include cows and chickens too? Add a little dimension to the game! But no, you're limited to these five, and with a very unfair pricing system at that of how much you get paid per treatment. Cats are worth $1000 each, dogs are $2000, rabbits are $3000, pigs are (I think) $5000 and horses are $7000. Let me let you in on a little something, as if it weren't already obvious....This is nowhere NEAR the prices of treatment for real animals of each of these species. Not even the horses (and I would know - I'm privileged enough to live on a ranch). While we're on the subject of horses, may I also point out that I don't think the creators of this game have ever so much as really ever brushed a horse? This made itself obvious to me in two ways: One, they listed the brush as a toy (and a sugar cube was the other). Second, the style in which you're forced to brush the horses in (if you want it to do any good, anyway) is not even CLOSE to how you would brush a real horse. This annoyed me greatly.
The actual veterinary scenes in the game are unfortunately too brief and don't do a very good job of representing the actual diagnostic process. Yes, I can see where a parent might be concerned about too much realism in this area, but I've seen many other similar titles over the years handle this quite gracefully; they allowed you to choose which tests to conduct to help make a proper diagnosis, and they also gave a little overview into what each tool does - therefore making this an educational experience as well. Apparently, that's wishful thinking in this game, as it only gives you your set tests you're going to conduct on each pet, doesn't explain at all what the tools are or what they're doing to each pet, and to make things even more confusing? The tests that do get conducted don't even necessarily have a thing to do with the ailments these pets have. Add this on top of the actual conducting of quite a few of these tests being very awkwardly controlled (I never did quite manage to figure out how to successfully master the heart chart, and had great difficulties with focusing the microscope), and the vet part of the game becomes downright dreaded.
So then you move on to what you would assume to be the treatment phase. Guess what? There's NO treatment you administer here. None. Instead, you spend easily 90% of your game time in this game feeding, watering, petting, and cleaning up after each animal. And...that's it. Literally. There is nothing else. The pet eventually heals, you send it home, you get your money, and then the cycle restarts with a new pet. Does this sound dull? Perhaps that's because it is. You can buy two toys for each animal, but as they don't even help your pet heal, they're a complete waste of time - something that you'll be very tight on once you get rolling and have all your pens open with the demands of each pen. It is EXTREMELY repetitive, almost to the point of becoming maddening after a while (especially with the same sound effects going off every few seconds...BUT you need to leave the sound on so you can hear the reception bell!) and ends up making the whole game feel like a chore. I can understand the makers wanting to instill a sense of responsibility, but in the approach they took with it, they also took pretty much all the fun out of it. It loses its appeal VERY quickly.
You also get to purchase items to decorate your house and office, but since you neither get to arrange this new furniture nor use it for anything, it seems pretty much like a huge waste of time. Then again, pretty much the whole game is, because - SPOILER ALERT! - there is no real ending to the game. Once you hit a 100% reputation rating, you've done everything you can in the game. You can continue to treat animals anyway just "for fun", but what's the point? It took me about a day to reach 100%... Let's put it this way: I think you might feel more accomplished with dumping out a box of toothpicks and counting every last one than completing this game. I almost have to wonder, given the other titles in this series... Did they make this game so boring to make young girls shy away from a "real" job to pursue one of the more stereotypically female jobs presented in the series? It's probably a coincidence, but it is something to think about.
My verdict on this one is just to skip it. There's a TON of vet and animal games out on the DS market; this is just one of the lesser quality ones. Which I must say is a disappointment, given this is a game from Imagine. This title gets 3 out of 10 balls of yarn.
I didn't go into reviewing this title expecting much, and it turns out that I was pretty accurate in my assumptions. This has got to be one of THE crummiest titles I have EVER had the misfortune of wasting my time playing just for the sake of reviewing.
I thought I'd try this one out just for the nostalgia factor if nothing else, because this is VERY toddler-oriented. 3+.... Yeah. About that? Guess what. There's no way in HELL a 3 year old could successfully win this game.
For example, the first game is the Licorice Leap. You place down gumdrops in the river as jump points for either Pupcake or Custard (your choice) to leap upon from point to point, with the aim of trying hard not to land in the water. You ALSO must try to get first place amongst the other contestents. THIS is the part that proves to be impossible. And seeing as the aim of the game is to "win first place fair and square", it poses quite a problem. Whose genius idea was it to develop a game for toddlers that's so frustrating, it's bound to make them cry? It's sick!
The music is maddening and the graphics are a JOKE. People got paid to make this?
Seeing as I couldn't even beat that first game (and I tried for about a WEEK), how is a little kid supposed to do this? Oh yeah - they can't. Gee, I can't imagine WHY this game was a limited production release...
This game gets a measley 1/2 of a strawberry. I'd suggest that you definitely do NOT waste your money (or your time) on this one.
I'm not gonna lie - I've always been a big geek for the Little Mermaid. (I blame my affinity for long-haired redheads almost entirely on her.) I've probably had every different variation for every system of the Little Mermaid games - she pales second only to Snow White for me as far as Disney princesses go, and there's never really been any Snow White games (save for a tiny pixelated handheld LCD game). So it comes as no surprise that I'd naturally *have* to try this one out.
It's a charming little game with a cute storyline. You're sent out by King Triton to help figure out what is causing these massive sea quakes, and to help the inhabitants of the ocean that have been affected by them. Each victim has its own mini game that you have to play on different parts of the ocean map; none of which are particularly difficult, but help flesh out and further the storyline.
You collect tiger shells all throughout the game to help towards Flounder learning new tricks - but these tricks are little more than useless unlockable easter eggs, because they aren't really good for anything other than just being cute.
It takes a little while to get used to the preciseness of the stylus controls for certain activities, such as digging up the human treasures. Speaking of which, does anyone else find it curious that, despite being under the sea for as long as these artifacts supposedly have, all of them polish up into perfect white, silver, or platinum? I would have figured the seawater would make them lose their lustre. Your thoughts?
Which brings me to the singing treasure chests... Trust me, if you have a little girl that's playing this game, this is likely their favorite part in the entire game. For an adult playing this game through? It just proves to make you feel silly and question what you're really doing, playing a Little Mermaid game. One thing I found helps with this feeling is, rather than singing the notes? Hum them instead. Granted, it has a harder time registering higher pitches through hums, but it can be done. (I did it.)
The music is actually very pleasant and cheerful, and not to the point where one feels the need to turn the sound down/off. It was very reminiscent of the Caribbean music in the movie. The graphics in the game aren't exactly terrific, but for the age-range this game is aimed at, they're more than passable. The 2-D graphics on the top screen remind me of the oldschool DOS/Windows 3.x games, whereas the 3-D graphics look like they're from about 1995. Still, they're not bad, and especially for being on such a small screen, I think they're okay.
I completed the entire game, beginning to end, over the course of just a few hours. It's pretty darn easy, but there's enough of a challenge there to keep a girl's interest while at the same time, letting her feel special for her easy accomplishments. I liked the game for its nostalgia factor. It brought back many happy memories from my childhood of playing in swimming pools with my sister and cousins, all pretending to be mermaids. I'm also showing my age here, but it also reminded me of a verrrrry old game, "Treasure Cove", which I loved.
I'll generously give this game a rating of 7 out of 10 seashells. Definitely one of the better Ariel titles out there.
I'm going to admit something here: Despite my age, I never got into the Pokemon craze when it was big. My siblings did, but I guess I was a year or two too late to miss the boat or something. I was never able to understand the appeal, try as I might.
Even so, time and time again, I found myself guilty of "trying out" their video games. Just to see what they're like, I'd justify it. They weren't entirely bad - nothing as skull-numbingly boring as the show, or worse still, the movie.
So as you can imagine, I was a little skeptical in trying out this one. But in a pleasant act of serendipity, I was surprised to find that this game really isn't entirely all that bad!
No knowledge of Pokemon is needed to play this game. (Which is definitely a plus, as I probably would've been doomed otherwise.) All you need to know is how to follow a map. Easy enough, yes? The premise of the game is that you, along with about 5 other Pokemon each race, go hurdling through different race courses, collecting pokeballs. Whoever collects them all in the correct order first is the winner. Pretty simple stuff. It's just a cute little racing game.
Different terrain conditions affect your speed in a fairly realistic way. For example, you may be zooming along the paved roads, but when it comes to running across a desert? This slows you down considerably (unless you get a power up). You drown in the ocean and in swamps, you get hurt if you fall down on ice, etc. I actually like this concept VERY much. It's overlooked in many games, and they tend to defy physics. Not this one!
When running through the maps, you may find the overwhelming urge to shove your fellow Pokemon down and get them out of the way. (C'mon, you know you want to!) Go ahead. It lets you. Not very good sportsmanship, sure, but it happens in real life too. You're not penalized for it in this game, though.
The one thing I didn't care for too much in this game was the dependence on maps. Oh, sure, yes - this is a valuable life skill that kids should definitely know how to do. But perhaps it would be a little better if the crucial items, such as balloons were listed accurately on the maps. Half the time, I'd run to where one was listed on the map - and there was nothing there! Therefore wasting my time and usually costing me first place.
The music and sound effects of the game are pretty typical of any Pokemon game. Not terrible, but if you try and play this game for hours, you might do better to turn the sound down, as the constant cries of "PIKA PIKA!" are bound to drive you nuts sooner or later. (I went to bed that night with the annoying little Pikachu's voice still ringing in my head.)
The English for the dialogue in the game is pretty good. There were a couple of "Engrish"-type mistakes that I noticed, but that's okay. They made me giggle. I won't judge too harshly because they amused me so much.
There were a couple of things in the game that made me sit back a little and go "What?" about. One of them being, when you first start up the game and it comes to the opening screen, your little Pikachu will come running up to you. It appears that there are no buttons with which to start this game, but - what's this? Pikachu's pointing to his cheek. ("What's that, Pika? Timmy's fallen down the well?") You'll find that apparently, his blushing red cheeks double as buttons that bring up the menu. Why is this? I couldn't rightly tell you, because I have NO idea. Seems a little strange, doesn't it? Also, when you finish a level of races, when your Pikachu is either up on the stand holding his new trophy or if he's sulking because he didn't get one, you can pull on his various body parts and stretch him like silly putty. Oooooookay then...
Upon finishing all the levels in the Grand Prix (which took me approximately 3 hours - including pauses I took to attend to my internet affairs), it rolls the credits and appears to be game over. What? That's it? Seriously?? But no, when you come back to the menu screen, it has unlocked "Hard GP" and "Special". There's still one more button that has a question mark over it that's yet to be unlocked. (I haven't gotten that far yet.)
The game isn't exceptionally hard (which does make it kid-friendly), but it also poses just enough of a challenge to keep you coming back without pissing you off. It seems more like a game you'd play during a long drive or flight just to pass the time than to get seriously into, but it does work nicely as a time-killer. I will say that, even on the regular Grand Prix mode, it took me several tries of playing the Red Cup all the way through just to get a passing score on it. I guess that makes up for the other levels all being so simple.
The way the game is designed, I think that, given when the game was released, the point of the game was more of the novelty of using the stylus as a tool than creating a really intricate, involved game. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though. If you have a little one who's just gotten a DS, this would actually probably be a really fun game for them! Just make sure you thoroughly clean your touch screen and your stylus of any dirt or dust first, or else you'll probably scratch up your screen.
Overall, the game was quite a bit better than I expected, I have to admit! (Although, I couldn't quite stop imagining Pikachu as being Ling-Ling from Drawn Together the whole time I was playing it.) I give this game 6 1/2 Pikachus.... Give or take away another half depending on whether you're actually a Pokemon fan or not.
In thinking about my old NES game collection and remembering which games I have the most fond of memories of playing, Felix the Cat has always ranked pretty highly on that list...even if in part because it was the very first video game that I ever completed all on my own, with no help from either my dad (who was, at the time, the biggest gamer I knew) or from the Game Genie. (I don't think there ever were Game Genie codes for Felix...I could be wrong.) Regardless, upon recently figuring out NES emulation for my DS, Felix was the very first game on my list that I went out of my way to track down a copy of.
or even Mega Man. In modern games, you don't tend to run across side-scrollers too often anymore, so it was quite refreshing to play one again. The premise also reminded me of Mega Man, in that we have an evil scientist hellbent on destruction (who, in this case, is keeping Felix's girlfriend Kitty hostage). So, of course, Felix must save the world. (What else would this game be about?)
happened in the level, you'll no doubt notice that Felix's appearance has suddenly changed. He now wears a black top hat and carries a cane. No, not a cane, a magic wand. He's a magician now. (But according to my 10 year old sister, it's "totally a cane - Felix turned into a pimp!" Wowwww.) You will notice that when you go to attack an enemy now, you no longer get the springy punching bag. Instead, you throw a ring of stars out around your being in every which direction, creating a brief force field that will hit anything in close enough proximity. Still not a great power, but it definitely trumps the glove by a long shot.
Your next power up gives Felix a car. This vastly increases your mobility speed as well as gives you a projectile missile which shoots from the front of the car whenever you beep your horn. (It's one of the only vaguely realistic sounds in the game that doesn't sound like a bleep or boop.) I think that of the power ups for the regular ground levels (you have different powers in different levels, such as sky or sea), the car is my favorite. It's the most versatile and is easiest to work with.
tank. Sounds pretty awesome, right? It's big, it's heavy, it shoots cannon balls. What could be better? Um... the car. Seriously, the tank is bulky and cumbersome. You have to really work at making sure the trajectory on your cannon balls will actually hit your targets. You can't jump very high in it. It baffles me that this is the top power up in the regular land levels.
see a screen with a sad little Felix being tossed out into an alleyway while Kitty looks on longingly from the moon. However, should you succeed in beating the game, you'll reach Kitty, who's still all tied up, but hopping around in excitement for you finally have saved her; hearts floating up out of her head. "Congratulations! At least FELIX! You rescued Kitty! I love you, FELIX!" And then you watch a cutesy little sequence where Kitty and Felix fly off into the sunset--no wait, scratch that. They fly back home to Earth together, all smoochy and everything in the spaceship, and "THE END" flashes across the screen. 
Yes, it's short, but it's sweet, and a lot more memorable than a lot of other NES game endings of that time period. The ending has stuck with me over the years for some reason, and I didn't realize just how vividly I remembered it until seeing it again. This game, which took me all day to beat as a little kid, took me a grand total of just barely half an hour to complete this time around - playing it for the first time in about 17 years, to boot! (Damn, I'm old.) It's a pretty simple game, overall, and I'd say it's still a good early starter game for kids. Know your roots!
