This review contains spoilers
I played this game when I was 8 years old, it was just a random game that my mom thought looked fine and bought. I loved it. The story was funny, and mysterious and magical in a grounded way.
I remember finding the idea of building stuff like Violet fascinating, and having all that encyclopedic knowledge like Klaus so admirable. I now am a person who loves taking things apart and repairing them, and known among my friends as the one who probably knows the answer to whatever they are wondering.
It was such a good game for 8 year old me. I mostly remember little parts, like jumping over gaps with the flying shoes, or a part that took me many tries about shooting bad guys with a candy gun. But there is this one part where you need a string to build an artifact, and you have to get it from a piano. And the way you did that was by playing the piano so hard that it broke. Now I probably wouldn't find it hard to beat, but back then I couldn't get it, nor did my brother, so we asked help to our dad, who had played some games at some point and knew his way around a controller. He couldn't get it either, and I don't know how it came to be, but my mom ended up taking the controller, having never used one, and finally she was the one that cleaned that roadblock in the game for us. It is a big memory for the people in my house about doing something together.
I remember finding the idea of building stuff like Violet fascinating, and having all that encyclopedic knowledge like Klaus so admirable. I now am a person who loves taking things apart and repairing them, and known among my friends as the one who probably knows the answer to whatever they are wondering.
It was such a good game for 8 year old me. I mostly remember little parts, like jumping over gaps with the flying shoes, or a part that took me many tries about shooting bad guys with a candy gun. But there is this one part where you need a string to build an artifact, and you have to get it from a piano. And the way you did that was by playing the piano so hard that it broke. Now I probably wouldn't find it hard to beat, but back then I couldn't get it, nor did my brother, so we asked help to our dad, who had played some games at some point and knew his way around a controller. He couldn't get it either, and I don't know how it came to be, but my mom ended up taking the controller, having never used one, and finally she was the one that cleaned that roadblock in the game for us. It is a big memory for the people in my house about doing something together.
This review contains spoilers
This game is an insult to the movie, let alone the books. The Story is the same as the movie, and there isn't enough changes to even be worth talking about. The Characters are the same as the movie, and the only changes are the dialogue between characters. The Graphics are bad, they are very cheap, as to be expected from games based on movies, who's concepts aren't enough to require a game in the first place. The Gameplay is that you go around the areas of the movie, finishing tasks to get to the next story point, now this could have been alright gameplay if the features they have of being able to build your way to complete your tasks had more creativity and freedom, instead of being linear, the movement didn't feel a bit spastic compared to better licensed games, and if all the things the game has you handle made sense, but it doesn't, this game includes having Sunny serf through areas the other kids can't fit, despite her not being able to do that, going from biting through simple materials to now include metal pipes, moments when her biting powers could have been used instead of what they go with, fighting Olaf's minions, even when he wouldn't want them to get in the way, and during times in later stages where simply knocking them out as you do, and bringing them inside will show that Olaf is an imposter, Monty's fourth trial sucks, because all you would have to do is pour water on the final plant and end the task much faster, and the finale has Olaf already announce that he has officially married Violet, so why would he bother keeping the certificate to be held in the play where Klaus can burn it, instead of taking it off stage and ending his troubles immediately? also why does the light instantly destroy objects coming towards you? it's a light source. The Music is from the movie, and it works where ever it is fitted and brings a bit of life into the bad gameplay. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Video Game is an unfortunate event in itself, worthy of a fourteenth book.
puzzle piece locations went nutty
Happy New Year to all.
What, this game? Yeah this is just a game I recently found on my shelf and thought "oh wait, I forgot to log this one" and now here we are. I didn't watch the movie and I only read the first book after finding out there were, like, twelve more books afterwards so I didn't pursue the series any further. The game itself wasn't that great, not that's any surprise really. It involves collecting items to create inventions to move on to the next point of the game, and it takes about three hours but somehow felt way too long. If you played any licensed game made in the mid-2000s before then you know what to expect. I wouldn't say it's bad in a interesting way, more aggressively boring and not worth a look, unless of course you love to experience budgeted gaming. That ain't an insult, some people genuinely love playing the games made on a shoe string budget under a tight deadline back in the days when you could conceivably make a 3D game that portrays real people with a small-to-medium sized team. Not my thing; but hey, you can probably emulate this easily if you're that curious. Perhaps this is a series you're particularly nostalgic for even, not like it's getting any recognition nowadays (wait, there was a Netflix series back in 2017 with three seasons? Well... crap)
... Going to vent a bit, if you are not interested in that then stop reading and drink some hot chocolate or something. Treat yourself, these are hard times for many.
This year was tough in a lot of ways. Felt as if I made too little progress in what I needed to do. Mental roadblocks I thought I had a good handle on came back worse then ever. Literal days would slip by, time ticking too fast for me to keep up. And it didn't really hit how much time passed till I looked back on how much I lost this year. Even games I love weren't giving me the same comfy escapism that they always gave me. Real life kept dragging me away, sometimes for the better, mostly for the worse. I kept making promises to myself to do "this", and "that" for my own sake, but backed out at the last second as the irrational fears injected anxiety into my brain. They keep pulling me away from taking the steps I needed, and everytime it frustrates me when looking in hindsight. I've been doing it less, but often I would not treat myself well for failures like these. Not in the extreme ways mind you, more associating my failures as a characteristic of me as a human being. The unfortunate events of this year shows how ill-prepapred I still am in this part of my life. And now what I thought were steps to get on the right track are not bearing the fruit I was hoping for. I'm in a maze and it feels like I keep guessing wrong, and everytime I have to retrace my steps I get slower and slower.
It feels like I'm suffocating.
I know I'm being intentionally vague, not comfortable getting any more specific then what I've already said. Especially since this is frankly an inappropriate place to vent like this. It's hard for me to look forward to much in the upcoming year, I'm worried of being overly enthusiastic about what'll happen and be let down by myself and other cruel jokes by some obscure god that I must've pissed off unintentionally (cause how eles do you explain everything else that went wrong?)
And yet despite all that, Happy New Year. Have a fuckin wonderful time. May your joys be many, and your sorrows be few and manageable. As for me, I'm going to try again. And if I fail again, then I'll probably make myself a hot cocoa and do something else. 2022 really was A Series of Unfortunate Events, but at least every story has an ending one way or another.
Now time to move on...
What, this game? Yeah this is just a game I recently found on my shelf and thought "oh wait, I forgot to log this one" and now here we are. I didn't watch the movie and I only read the first book after finding out there were, like, twelve more books afterwards so I didn't pursue the series any further. The game itself wasn't that great, not that's any surprise really. It involves collecting items to create inventions to move on to the next point of the game, and it takes about three hours but somehow felt way too long. If you played any licensed game made in the mid-2000s before then you know what to expect. I wouldn't say it's bad in a interesting way, more aggressively boring and not worth a look, unless of course you love to experience budgeted gaming. That ain't an insult, some people genuinely love playing the games made on a shoe string budget under a tight deadline back in the days when you could conceivably make a 3D game that portrays real people with a small-to-medium sized team. Not my thing; but hey, you can probably emulate this easily if you're that curious. Perhaps this is a series you're particularly nostalgic for even, not like it's getting any recognition nowadays (wait, there was a Netflix series back in 2017 with three seasons? Well... crap)
... Going to vent a bit, if you are not interested in that then stop reading and drink some hot chocolate or something. Treat yourself, these are hard times for many.
This year was tough in a lot of ways. Felt as if I made too little progress in what I needed to do. Mental roadblocks I thought I had a good handle on came back worse then ever. Literal days would slip by, time ticking too fast for me to keep up. And it didn't really hit how much time passed till I looked back on how much I lost this year. Even games I love weren't giving me the same comfy escapism that they always gave me. Real life kept dragging me away, sometimes for the better, mostly for the worse. I kept making promises to myself to do "this", and "that" for my own sake, but backed out at the last second as the irrational fears injected anxiety into my brain. They keep pulling me away from taking the steps I needed, and everytime it frustrates me when looking in hindsight. I've been doing it less, but often I would not treat myself well for failures like these. Not in the extreme ways mind you, more associating my failures as a characteristic of me as a human being. The unfortunate events of this year shows how ill-prepapred I still am in this part of my life. And now what I thought were steps to get on the right track are not bearing the fruit I was hoping for. I'm in a maze and it feels like I keep guessing wrong, and everytime I have to retrace my steps I get slower and slower.
It feels like I'm suffocating.
I know I'm being intentionally vague, not comfortable getting any more specific then what I've already said. Especially since this is frankly an inappropriate place to vent like this. It's hard for me to look forward to much in the upcoming year, I'm worried of being overly enthusiastic about what'll happen and be let down by myself and other cruel jokes by some obscure god that I must've pissed off unintentionally (cause how eles do you explain everything else that went wrong?)
And yet despite all that, Happy New Year. Have a fuckin wonderful time. May your joys be many, and your sorrows be few and manageable. As for me, I'm going to try again. And if I fail again, then I'll probably make myself a hot cocoa and do something else. 2022 really was A Series of Unfortunate Events, but at least every story has an ending one way or another.
Now time to move on...
The boxart kinda sucks
I played this instead of actually watching the movie, and documented my findings: https://youtu.be/lB_LJ1Xs_6c
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events for the Game Boy Advance is a game so forgotten that my casual playthrough became the world record speedrun by default, and it doesn't really deserve better.
The game is not completely without charm. The soundtrack is actually kind of just plain good. This is definitely not the ugliest game on the system. There are a number of hidden secrets and collectables to keep a small-brained child amused.
The game performs terribly, there are a lot of moments where there are just too many sprites on screen and the frame-rate gets really choppy.
The structure of the game is mostly fetch quests for items in what amounts to a game-length trading sequence.
The core gameplay is focused on sluggish platforming, a projectile weapon with a less-than-ideal arc, a short range damage-over-time water gun, and a rolling attack that makes you invulnerable but has too long of a cool-down for it to be viable against anything that doesn't die in one hit. When interacting with people, doors, items, etc. you have to navigate a menu that would not be out of place in an old-school PC adventure game.
The puzzles in the game are also right out of those kinds of games, frequently relying on the kind of absurd "adventure game logic" that will have you consulting a walkthrough more frequently than you would like. Sometimes seemingly arbitrary elements of the game will allow you to progress, without giving you any indicator that a new path has become available.
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events for the Game Boy Advance is so unfun to play that I wonder if that's the point, it would be thematically appropriate for the work it is adapting.
The game is not completely without charm. The soundtrack is actually kind of just plain good. This is definitely not the ugliest game on the system. There are a number of hidden secrets and collectables to keep a small-brained child amused.
The game performs terribly, there are a lot of moments where there are just too many sprites on screen and the frame-rate gets really choppy.
The structure of the game is mostly fetch quests for items in what amounts to a game-length trading sequence.
The core gameplay is focused on sluggish platforming, a projectile weapon with a less-than-ideal arc, a short range damage-over-time water gun, and a rolling attack that makes you invulnerable but has too long of a cool-down for it to be viable against anything that doesn't die in one hit. When interacting with people, doors, items, etc. you have to navigate a menu that would not be out of place in an old-school PC adventure game.
The puzzles in the game are also right out of those kinds of games, frequently relying on the kind of absurd "adventure game logic" that will have you consulting a walkthrough more frequently than you would like. Sometimes seemingly arbitrary elements of the game will allow you to progress, without giving you any indicator that a new path has become available.
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events for the Game Boy Advance is so unfun to play that I wonder if that's the point, it would be thematically appropriate for the work it is adapting.
great little puzzle platformer until you encounter the leeches that apparently everyone can defeat but me since no guides will help me, so i guess i'm just a bad gamer trying to enjoy a licensed game
Fitting title
Still as big a delight to play this as It was back when It released and yeah, there's probably nostalgia googles fully on with It. Kid me couldn't beat the game but here I am completing It 100% with all unlocks In a day.
Some of the cast from the film do the voice work as well like Jim Carrey & Emily Browning but the showstealer Is Tim Curry as the narrator, Lemony Snicket.
Some of the cast from the film do the voice work as well like Jim Carrey & Emily Browning but the showstealer Is Tim Curry as the narrator, Lemony Snicket.
Idk what the hell this game is about but me from 2012 said I finished this and I trust her lmfao
Movie games can be incredibly hit-or-miss, so after a random re-watch of the 2004 film adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events, I wasn't sure what I was getting into with the game version but I was sure curious.
The game is a 3-D puzzle platformer which has the Baudelaire orphans running about various environments from the films to complete objectives (usually involving unlocking doors or getting some sort of item in a hard to reach place). None of the game's puzzles or platforming challenges will give older players much trouble at all- I got stuck for maybe ten minutes at a couple of points but never got befuddled to the point of needing to look something up.
I was surprised by the genuine effort by the development team to be faithful to the movie's world and characters. Most scenarios in the game have the player searching for some objects which are then put together to create some sort of invention Violet has thought up to help the orphans overcome some obstacle. The inventions get pretty zany, from stilts that pop out from under Violet at the push of a button to propeller shoes which give Klaus a floating jump. I do wish that the objects needed for those inventions were harder to find- a lot of them are just laying around in plain sight and are the only interactive objects. Not to mention, the act of putting them together is almost insulting in its puzzle simplicity. There is really some potential here in the core design, but I suspect the developers expected their audience to be very young children and made everything as easy as possible.
Fortunately there is a decent amount of gameplay variety to mix things up, including the occasional and pretty fun 2-D platformer segment as baby Sunny, and some mindless but enjoyable on-rails shooter sections. Boss battles against Olaf's goons have the occasional interesting idea but are usually far too simple- only one memorable tangle with a snake charmer really stood out, probably because it actually took me a handful of attempts to learn his pattern. The game got Jim Carrey and the actors for Violet and Klaus to provide their voice acting talents, though it doesn't add much. Carey's lines feel dull and lifeless and many are ripped straight from the film's script.
Even for 2004, the game's textures and character models are quite ugly, which is a barrier to jump. The game takes in the ballpark of 4 hours to complete, so for a few bucks I felt like it was a worthwhile experience- a solid movie game title with a team who seemed to actually care about capturing the film's spirit and finding interesting ways to create game environments out of the plot’s locations. But at full price back in the day, I would only have recommended a purchase to only the most die-hard of fans because of its short length and lack of any real challenge.
The game is a 3-D puzzle platformer which has the Baudelaire orphans running about various environments from the films to complete objectives (usually involving unlocking doors or getting some sort of item in a hard to reach place). None of the game's puzzles or platforming challenges will give older players much trouble at all- I got stuck for maybe ten minutes at a couple of points but never got befuddled to the point of needing to look something up.
I was surprised by the genuine effort by the development team to be faithful to the movie's world and characters. Most scenarios in the game have the player searching for some objects which are then put together to create some sort of invention Violet has thought up to help the orphans overcome some obstacle. The inventions get pretty zany, from stilts that pop out from under Violet at the push of a button to propeller shoes which give Klaus a floating jump. I do wish that the objects needed for those inventions were harder to find- a lot of them are just laying around in plain sight and are the only interactive objects. Not to mention, the act of putting them together is almost insulting in its puzzle simplicity. There is really some potential here in the core design, but I suspect the developers expected their audience to be very young children and made everything as easy as possible.
Fortunately there is a decent amount of gameplay variety to mix things up, including the occasional and pretty fun 2-D platformer segment as baby Sunny, and some mindless but enjoyable on-rails shooter sections. Boss battles against Olaf's goons have the occasional interesting idea but are usually far too simple- only one memorable tangle with a snake charmer really stood out, probably because it actually took me a handful of attempts to learn his pattern. The game got Jim Carrey and the actors for Violet and Klaus to provide their voice acting talents, though it doesn't add much. Carey's lines feel dull and lifeless and many are ripped straight from the film's script.
Even for 2004, the game's textures and character models are quite ugly, which is a barrier to jump. The game takes in the ballpark of 4 hours to complete, so for a few bucks I felt like it was a worthwhile experience- a solid movie game title with a team who seemed to actually care about capturing the film's spirit and finding interesting ways to create game environments out of the plot’s locations. But at full price back in the day, I would only have recommended a purchase to only the most die-hard of fans because of its short length and lack of any real challenge.
Very mediocre but I still played it a lot as a kid. Some of the levels are just plain weird.
this is just rule of rose
I played the Gamecube version and Game Boy Advance version. Gamecube is 3d and Game Boy is 2d. An exploration and puzzle solving game with some action when combating enemies and bosses. Source material is amazing and translates to a game fairly well.