KiddieMan
i like videog ames
obscure and underrated games are my jam
if I mark a game as "playing", that means I'm likely preparing a (sizeable) review for it.
Currently digging through licensed games, part 2 (on hold).
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…A bad Crash Bandicoot-like game. This is a 2002 PS1 game, and the first Crash Bandicoot game has been out for almost 6 years at this point, and the devs failed to capture what made that game work. First off, the controls. The platforming is imprecise – trying to do tricky platforming can be a frustrating task. Heck, even simple jumps can be a pain. The levels shouldn’t be that difficult, yet they are due to the unrefined movement and physics. The jank definitely doesn’t help. For instance, in the level “Pali Trail”, in this section with moving platforms, jumping on the platform to the right caused me to die a couple of times – either because I got teleported in a weird way, of because the platform simply decided to let me pass through. I also had one softlock where I think an enemy’s projectile hit me while I fell into water, which would’ve made me lose a life, but instead I landed on a solid ground, unable to do anything. Thankfully, it happened early on in the level, and I could restart, but still. Oh, and after you land, you can’t jump immediately, you have to wait a solid second for the landing animation to end before you can jump again. certainly doesn’t help with a few tricky sections.
And then there are regular enemies, and I swear they’re the most annoying pieces of work I’ve dealt with in a while. It feels like when they attack, they ignore YOUR attacks, which leads to inevitable damage. And some enemies are quite vicious too, hunting you down and force you to eat up damage. Like tiki enemies, that spit fireballs at you & fast, and I don't know how you're supposed to dodge the attacks. And then there are the kinds of enemies that simply won’t stop attacking until you back off, so you have to assault them when they turn their back. The camera is also not very helpful spotting these suckers, in 2D stages anyway. Just like Crash Bandicoot, there are traditional 3D hallways and 2.5 platforming stages. Really wish there was SOME camera control, at least in 2D levels, because it can feel unfair when you get hit by an enemy that you can’t spot. Especially if it’s the projectile shooting variety. I think I died to annoying enemies more than the janky platforming.
Anyway, you play as either Lilo or Stitch depending on the level. Both characters have a few differences, and Stitch is just better. It’s simply objectively true. First off, Stitch has TWO attacks instead of one. First, he can do a spin attack, as if the Crash Bandicoot inspiration wasn’t clear. He can also spit acid. I don’t really see any differences between these, I mean obviously the spin attack is longer, but there aren’t any advantages to using either when destroying enemies. It’s not like the spit attack is a ranged one, you still have to get close and personal, so there’s basically no mechanical difference when it comes to combat. Stitch does get one more trick up his furry sleeve – he can roll into a ball. His stages have coffee cups scattered about, collecting them slowly fills the image of Stitch in the bottom-right with red, and when full, Stitch changes his walking animation. Pressing Triangle also makes him roll into a ball of destruction, which makes him invulnerable and kills enemies on touch. You can cancel it at any moment, so conserving it for unfair enemies it is beneficial. As for Lilo… she just sucks. She only has a voodoo doll attack, which is basically the same as Stitch’s spit. There are also voodoo spoon items that summon the Ice Cream Guy to take out a SINGLE enemy. And you have to be close enough to an enemy though you don’t have to be too close, so it can be used to defeat them from a safe enough distance, otherwise he just falls on top of you, which doesn’t damage you, but it’s still a waste. That’s about it. I think I would’ve preferred it to be like a screen-clear bomb to defeat all visible enemies, as-is it’s just not as useful as Stitch’s roll maneuver. And that’s about it. Both characters can also butt-bounce by performing an attack in air, I didn’t use this move too often.
Of course, just like the aforementioned Marsupial Jumpy Game, the game also features chase levels. There are standard ones where you just run towards the screen away from someone like Cobra Bubbles, which doesn’t make much sense in the context of the movie (and believe me, there’s A LOT of things that don’t match the movie), but there are also a couple levels which are basically the same deal, BUT you also occasionally get shot with a projectile from the pursuer. Which is even more “””fun”””, because being hit by something stunlocks you for a moment, and it can interrupt your jumps, which makes things even more tricky/frustrating. There’s also one level where you race Mertie, which takes place in a 2D platforming section, and it’s just okay.
The game features a linear progression, but also not. There are multiple hub areas with different paths that you can traverse. Each new path is locked behind a mini-boss. A stone… golem… thing. Did I hint that the game isn’t very faithful to the movie? Anyway, these encounters are all pretty much the same. Don’t go too far, or they’ll start throwing projectiles. Avoid a simple attack, let them turn back, then attack. Repeat until they die. Repeat until you unlock all the paths. Feels like padding to me. Anyway, sometimes you’ll have to return to one of the previous hubs to explore different paths for things like Elvis vinyl records or alien devices. That said, the game is pretty short, it took me under 3 hours to beat this thing. There are optional collectibles, in the form of aforementioned coffee cups for Stitch, or various items like pineapples for Lilo, collecting 100 earns you an extra life, and unlocks a time trial challenge, try to beat the level in under 4 minutes, if you care about this game enough. Which, I don’t.
The music is decent, there are a couple of tracks that I like, but overall, it’s alright. The graphics are about average to good. I mean, they’re technically better than Crash Bandicoot, but that’s not a very high bar for such a late release. To be honest, I didn't pay too much attention to the visuals, maybe because I was too fed up with the game, but they look nice enough for what they are. On the other hand, I also didn't really notice any performance issues, so... I guess it's fine in that regard too?
I’m sure I would’ve eaten this shit up as a kid, but as an adult, I didn’t find this game to be very impressive. When the most enjoyable thing in the game is the cinematics from the film, I don’t think that’s a good sign. It did make me want to rewatch the movie, because I know it would prove to be a more enjoyable experience than playing this game. Ultimately, Disney’s Lilo & Stitch: Trouble in Paradise is not a good game, with janky and frustrating platforming, odd design decisions, and it’s not very faithful to the source material. Even the first Crash Bandicoot game still holds up just fine and would be a much better play experience than this Crash clone (and I'm not even talking about the sequels which are most likely even better).
Death Count = 48
Second issue – trial and error. The first roadblock is probably going to be the first stage, where you have to bounce on leaf platforms. As it turns out, jumping repeatedly on the same leaf makes you bounce higher, which isn’t very intuitive in my opinion. But that’s the least of your worries. The way you acquire berries that you can throw at your foes? They drop from the top of the screen, and if they happen to land on top of you, you take damage! And their spawn is seemingly random, so good luck passing under or getting all the stuff you need. Next, the various enemies. The way the camera works is not in your favor, as you’ll be positioned slightly towards the end of the screen you’re moving towards, which means ambushing you is easy. The grasshoppers in particular are quite nasty, as they’re super fast. You’ll practically have to memorize their spawn locations and attack when needed. But not in stage 3!! As the devs decided to change the rules and make them insta-kill for some reason. You’ll have to launch the little bugs to legally murder them, and since they’re way offscreen, you’ll be have to do that over and over, praying that they’ll actually get hit. The same stage also features the spider web platform section close to the end. The platforms are created after some time, some more delayed than others, which creates more trial and error gameplay. If you try to rush, the platform may not spawn in, and at times, you’ll have to wait for more platforms to spawn offscreen before rushing in, it’s more frustrating than it needs to be.
Third and last issue – bad collision detection. Flik has a slightly smaller hitbox than you’d think, so falling off ledges when you think you can make a jump at the last moment isn’t uncommon. And again, this can make platforming more tedious than it should be, one notable example is the fourth level with moving platforms. When you think you can make it from the platform onto solid ground, whoops! You can’t land on the very corner of it, otherwise you won’t actually make it. And don’t forget about the windup animation and everything else.
The graphics are quite average, though to be fair, it’s an early Game Boy Color game and it also supports original Game Boy hardware. The music is fine. The only notable thing about this game is that it’s the only Game Boy Color game that plays an alternate soundtrack when played on Super Game Boy, but that achievement could’ve gone to a better game.
Overall, A Bug’s Life GBC is, quite frankly, a terrible game. The platforming mechanics are horrible – pretty much all the actions are on a delay, which doesn’t lead to a smooth platforming experience. The game is filled with trial and error elements and frustrating design. The only good thing about it is that it’s pretty short, which should be indicative of it’s quality. Hard pass.