KiddieMan
2006
Monster House for the Game Boy Advance is a surprisingly good licensed game. It's a Zelda-like, with top-down view where you fire a water gun at enemies to defeat them. The progression is fairly linear, but it does offer some secrets that you can discover when you get certain items later in the game.
You control 3 kids, Jenny, DJ and Chowder, that you can switch between at any moment unless separated during certain sections. Each has a unique ability, their water gun and their own health bar. Jenny has less health but moves faster and her burst attack is a spurt of water, and she can crawl in ssome spaces which separates the team, DJ is has average health and speed, his burst attack is a constant water stream, the attack is similar to Jenny's, and Chowder has the most health, but he's also slow, his specialty is strength, as he can push some heavy objects and just push things faster. His burst attack is a little spray of angled water drops, and to be honest I found this hardly useful in combat, unless the enemy is big. You'd guess his normal attack where you shoot a single drop of water would be stronger but I didn't find any difference, not to mention that he's slow at normal shots as well. If you don't want to use too much health or water for DJ and Jenny, you can use Chowder. Water is limited for burst attacks and if any of the kids' health reaches 0, you'll be back to the previous save so you'll also need to manage your resources carefully by utilizing all three kids at appropriate times. For the controls, you can lock your direction allowing for strafing, shoot a water gun or use an item, switch between kids and dash by double-tapping the direction. From my experience, the dashing just doesn't feel that great, I would sometimes dash when I didn't mean to, usually into a damage source, it's simply not as good as using a dedicated button for that, but it wouldn't be possible with the control scheme that the game presents.
Throughout the game you'll find various items that help with progression and with combat, such as Chowder's water baloons that act as a ranged area of effect attack that can also put out fireplaces, which is required for progression, but the game also has optional stuff off the beaten path like water gun upgrades or health upgrades, so seeking these out can be beneficial. There are also toys that are simply for 100% completion, and maybe better ending, I'm not really sure.
The monsters you fight are appropriately monster furniture, like chairs or bookshelves that come alive and have cool designs, though there's not much variety, which can be said for the bosses as well. You have a mannequin, monster carpet, then you fight mannequin two more times, then the final boss, the furnace. The game really could've used better boss variety, as the mannequin is basically the same, except with more candles you have to put out before you can damage the boss, not to mention that the fight itself isn't very fun, though maybe I just didn't find a good strategy for it.
The presentation is pretty good. The soundtrack is overall good, with appropriately creepy themes, and the envoirements are as good as ever, and the characters look and animate decently well. I don't really have any complaints for the music and graphics.
Of course, Monster House isn't perfect, being constrained by the license, budget and team size. The fact that the game lists just one tester from the developer's team and just a handful from the publisher should raise some alarms. At times the game can be unpolished. There are some bugs, though thankfully most of them are visual, like occasionally the game didn't render some tiles correctly, creating a void, confusing me once. Once I got cornered by the monsters with the pit behind me, which quickly drained HP, resulting in game over. There are a few instances where the enemies are placed close to the entrance, resulting in unavoidable damage. Sections where you have floating platforms over pits (or floating in water) mostly suck because sometimes you have to wait a bit before platforms sync and you can move from one to another, and if you fall into a pit, you'll be back on solid ground. Don't accidently dash on these ones. The game can be occasionally stingy on save locations, most notable example is the sewers (Basement 3), where the save point is quite a ways into it, and the game can be pretty punishing when you game over, having you re-do big portions, and sometimes lengthy backtracking. I admit I used save states because I didn't want to subject myself to repeating certain sections. Lastly, I wish the blueprints (in-game maps for each floor) were a little more detailed, they show where save points are, but it would've been nice to also know where the elevator or ladders are located.
With that said however I still think the game is above average. While Monster House wouldn't be as highly regarded as something like Sponge Bob Squarepants Battle For Bikini Bottom, I still think it's a solid licensed game. It's faithful, offers good, though flawed challenging gameplay, with nice presentation and even extras, like hard mode and "Thou Art Dead" bonus game after you beat it once. I'd recommend you check out this game, you may get pleasantly surprised with this little hidden gem.
You control 3 kids, Jenny, DJ and Chowder, that you can switch between at any moment unless separated during certain sections. Each has a unique ability, their water gun and their own health bar. Jenny has less health but moves faster and her burst attack is a spurt of water, and she can crawl in ssome spaces which separates the team, DJ is has average health and speed, his burst attack is a constant water stream, the attack is similar to Jenny's, and Chowder has the most health, but he's also slow, his specialty is strength, as he can push some heavy objects and just push things faster. His burst attack is a little spray of angled water drops, and to be honest I found this hardly useful in combat, unless the enemy is big. You'd guess his normal attack where you shoot a single drop of water would be stronger but I didn't find any difference, not to mention that he's slow at normal shots as well. If you don't want to use too much health or water for DJ and Jenny, you can use Chowder. Water is limited for burst attacks and if any of the kids' health reaches 0, you'll be back to the previous save so you'll also need to manage your resources carefully by utilizing all three kids at appropriate times. For the controls, you can lock your direction allowing for strafing, shoot a water gun or use an item, switch between kids and dash by double-tapping the direction. From my experience, the dashing just doesn't feel that great, I would sometimes dash when I didn't mean to, usually into a damage source, it's simply not as good as using a dedicated button for that, but it wouldn't be possible with the control scheme that the game presents.
Throughout the game you'll find various items that help with progression and with combat, such as Chowder's water baloons that act as a ranged area of effect attack that can also put out fireplaces, which is required for progression, but the game also has optional stuff off the beaten path like water gun upgrades or health upgrades, so seeking these out can be beneficial. There are also toys that are simply for 100% completion, and maybe better ending, I'm not really sure.
The monsters you fight are appropriately monster furniture, like chairs or bookshelves that come alive and have cool designs, though there's not much variety, which can be said for the bosses as well. You have a mannequin, monster carpet, then you fight mannequin two more times, then the final boss, the furnace. The game really could've used better boss variety, as the mannequin is basically the same, except with more candles you have to put out before you can damage the boss, not to mention that the fight itself isn't very fun, though maybe I just didn't find a good strategy for it.
The presentation is pretty good. The soundtrack is overall good, with appropriately creepy themes, and the envoirements are as good as ever, and the characters look and animate decently well. I don't really have any complaints for the music and graphics.
Of course, Monster House isn't perfect, being constrained by the license, budget and team size. The fact that the game lists just one tester from the developer's team and just a handful from the publisher should raise some alarms. At times the game can be unpolished. There are some bugs, though thankfully most of them are visual, like occasionally the game didn't render some tiles correctly, creating a void, confusing me once. Once I got cornered by the monsters with the pit behind me, which quickly drained HP, resulting in game over. There are a few instances where the enemies are placed close to the entrance, resulting in unavoidable damage. Sections where you have floating platforms over pits (or floating in water) mostly suck because sometimes you have to wait a bit before platforms sync and you can move from one to another, and if you fall into a pit, you'll be back on solid ground. Don't accidently dash on these ones. The game can be occasionally stingy on save locations, most notable example is the sewers (Basement 3), where the save point is quite a ways into it, and the game can be pretty punishing when you game over, having you re-do big portions, and sometimes lengthy backtracking. I admit I used save states because I didn't want to subject myself to repeating certain sections. Lastly, I wish the blueprints (in-game maps for each floor) were a little more detailed, they show where save points are, but it would've been nice to also know where the elevator or ladders are located.
With that said however I still think the game is above average. While Monster House wouldn't be as highly regarded as something like Sponge Bob Squarepants Battle For Bikini Bottom, I still think it's a solid licensed game. It's faithful, offers good, though flawed challenging gameplay, with nice presentation and even extras, like hard mode and "Thou Art Dead" bonus game after you beat it once. I'd recommend you check out this game, you may get pleasantly surprised with this little hidden gem.
2004
Hey, I'm the first person to review and rate this game! This is an interesting licensed game in that it isn't based on a movie or a TV Show or whatever, it's based on a short-lived brand created by Viacom and Nickelodeon, aimed at tween girls and it included dolls and a virtual community. A TV series was planned, but never materialized, and there's little information on the brand, but it did leave a legacy in form of video games for PC and GBA. In this review I'm talking about the GBA version.
Would it surprise you when I say that the game is... just kinda whatever? Probably not, but it's also not the worst thing ever. The game starts with "It's time to find who you really are!!!" and I thought there was going to be like a tutorial where you make choices to shape your character, like a profession or moral choices or whatever, but it turns out this is the message for the whole game. Maybe I was expecting too much. That's not to say there aren't choices, there are some optional side quests that usually involve a mini-game, and that can affect your stats, which I'll talk about later, but doing them doesn't lead to a better ending or anything. Anyway, the game is sort of a platformer in that you can jump, but it's only really useful for grabbing some stuff in air, and those things also don't affect much aside from score. The platforming really only comes in an autoscrolling Race mini-game. You can also run, which you'll be doing a lot as there's quite a bit of going back and forth.
The main appeal of this game is customization. You can customize your character's appearence by selecting different color palettes for clothing and hair, but you can also customize certain buildings like changing color of furniture, but most importantly, you have an abandoned Theatre soon-to-be Cafe that you'll be remodeling throughout the game, you'll receive more furniture options and place said furniture in the Cafe, which is neat, though limited, but I can definitely see the appeal of it from target audience's perspective, if I were a little girl I'd enjoy that quite a bit.
As I said, renovating the old theatre is the main goal of this game, and the entire story revolves around that, like getting a some banging tunes from a DJ or giving out flyers or putting up posters, or saving Cafe from being sold by Aunt Angie, who is completely worthless in this game. It's mostly just going back and forth and occasionally doing a mini-game. The game has a constant reminder of your objective on-screen, which is nice, because I'm a little girl with a short attention span, though sometimes they can be vague. But there's not much to say about the campaign. There are four different mini-games: Race, which is an autoscroller where you can jump and perform a single sick trick with an R button and collect things that again only contribute to score. A photo mini-game where you shoot (photos of) birds and butterflies and maybe a dog with your camera to make perfect or at least good photos, it's a decent mini-game. Memory which is just repeat a button combo a few times. And Rhythm, which is what it sounds like - press an upcoming button at an appropriate time a bunch of times. The game is not very difficult, though I can see the last dance mini-game to impress Aunt Angie being difficult for young kids because the button prompts move pretty fast.
I mentioned before that there are stats that change through the game, and you can check them by pressing Select, with "Everscope". Those are "Hope", "Skye", "Starr" and "Joy" all they really are for is to tell what kinda person you are at the end of the game, which probably doesn't reflect you in real life. Again, kiddie stuff. Aside from that, there are a few more extras, like throughout the game you'll receive extras in form of cases, wallpapers and Ring Tones for your in-game phone, which is what shows when you pause the game. The selection is pretty limited though. You'll be using the phone to call other characters when the need arises or check messages, which are thankfully hotkeyed onto shoulder buttons, much faster than pausing and scrolling through the options. But that's about it.
The graphics are pretty decent, and the music is pretty good, especially for how obscure the game is. Shin'en's composer rules yet again.
Overall, this game is just eh, not bad but not great either. It has some neat ideas, and I can see it being decently enjoyable for it's target demographic, but I'm not the target demographic. With that said there are still games far worse than this. This game is more interesting as a curiocity in video game history, it's one of the most obscure games I've seen being based on an equally obscure brand.
Would it surprise you when I say that the game is... just kinda whatever? Probably not, but it's also not the worst thing ever. The game starts with "It's time to find who you really are!!!" and I thought there was going to be like a tutorial where you make choices to shape your character, like a profession or moral choices or whatever, but it turns out this is the message for the whole game. Maybe I was expecting too much. That's not to say there aren't choices, there are some optional side quests that usually involve a mini-game, and that can affect your stats, which I'll talk about later, but doing them doesn't lead to a better ending or anything. Anyway, the game is sort of a platformer in that you can jump, but it's only really useful for grabbing some stuff in air, and those things also don't affect much aside from score. The platforming really only comes in an autoscrolling Race mini-game. You can also run, which you'll be doing a lot as there's quite a bit of going back and forth.
The main appeal of this game is customization. You can customize your character's appearence by selecting different color palettes for clothing and hair, but you can also customize certain buildings like changing color of furniture, but most importantly, you have an abandoned Theatre soon-to-be Cafe that you'll be remodeling throughout the game, you'll receive more furniture options and place said furniture in the Cafe, which is neat, though limited, but I can definitely see the appeal of it from target audience's perspective, if I were a little girl I'd enjoy that quite a bit.
As I said, renovating the old theatre is the main goal of this game, and the entire story revolves around that, like getting a some banging tunes from a DJ or giving out flyers or putting up posters, or saving Cafe from being sold by Aunt Angie, who is completely worthless in this game. It's mostly just going back and forth and occasionally doing a mini-game. The game has a constant reminder of your objective on-screen, which is nice, because I'm a little girl with a short attention span, though sometimes they can be vague. But there's not much to say about the campaign. There are four different mini-games: Race, which is an autoscroller where you can jump and perform a single sick trick with an R button and collect things that again only contribute to score. A photo mini-game where you shoot (photos of) birds and butterflies and maybe a dog with your camera to make perfect or at least good photos, it's a decent mini-game. Memory which is just repeat a button combo a few times. And Rhythm, which is what it sounds like - press an upcoming button at an appropriate time a bunch of times. The game is not very difficult, though I can see the last dance mini-game to impress Aunt Angie being difficult for young kids because the button prompts move pretty fast.
I mentioned before that there are stats that change through the game, and you can check them by pressing Select, with "Everscope". Those are "Hope", "Skye", "Starr" and "Joy" all they really are for is to tell what kinda person you are at the end of the game, which probably doesn't reflect you in real life. Again, kiddie stuff. Aside from that, there are a few more extras, like throughout the game you'll receive extras in form of cases, wallpapers and Ring Tones for your in-game phone, which is what shows when you pause the game. The selection is pretty limited though. You'll be using the phone to call other characters when the need arises or check messages, which are thankfully hotkeyed onto shoulder buttons, much faster than pausing and scrolling through the options. But that's about it.
The graphics are pretty decent, and the music is pretty good, especially for how obscure the game is. Shin'en's composer rules yet again.
Overall, this game is just eh, not bad but not great either. It has some neat ideas, and I can see it being decently enjoyable for it's target demographic, but I'm not the target demographic. With that said there are still games far worse than this. This game is more interesting as a curiocity in video game history, it's one of the most obscure games I've seen being based on an equally obscure brand.
Madagascar: Operation Penguin is an average platformer starring (in)famous penguins from Madagascar. The platforming is decent at first, and you unlock many abilities throughout the game that can aid platforming and you can use them to get more medals from previous levels for 100% completion. There's a little bit of variety, like when you play a dance mini-game as melman, and ride Marty and hide in crates, similar to the Madagascar GBA or play as Alex, but for the majority of the game you play as Private. Each level has a set amount of medals, each 100 increases your maximum health, with it capping at 10, however the game isn't very difficult. I mean, you can increase max health a few times, but otherwise it isn't worth going for 100% completion, and there are plenty of healing items in levels. I did actually 100% this game unlike some other licensed games so far, but it doesn't unlock anything, it's just for bragging rights, I guess? I dunno who you would brag about that to though. As I said, the platforming was decent at first, but it became fairly repetetive with later levels, being pretty straightforward levels with little variety.
The graphics go for a pre-rendered style similar to Donkey Kong Country games, which Vicarious Visions did for other DreamWorks movie licensed games as well (and even Disney's The Lion King 1½), and they looks decent, though certain elements can look iffy. The music is also decent, the title screen theme is a jam and I like to put it in the background sometimes, and the level completion jingle is one of my favorite most satisfying jingles ever, but some music tracks can be repetitive, mostly because the levels can drag a bit, especially if you're collecting all medals. Some dialogue lines are also quite humorous.
Overall, this is about what you'd expect from a licensed GBA game, not a bad time but nothing special, really.
Fun fact: This is the only GBA game that I know that features a loading screen, with a blue screen with "PLEASE WAIT". This screen appears before cutscenes that use stills from the movie (this statement isn't true anymore, not that I've played Madagascar GBA and Over The Hedge GBA).
The graphics go for a pre-rendered style similar to Donkey Kong Country games, which Vicarious Visions did for other DreamWorks movie licensed games as well (and even Disney's The Lion King 1½), and they looks decent, though certain elements can look iffy. The music is also decent, the title screen theme is a jam and I like to put it in the background sometimes, and the level completion jingle is one of my favorite most satisfying jingles ever, but some music tracks can be repetitive, mostly because the levels can drag a bit, especially if you're collecting all medals. Some dialogue lines are also quite humorous.
Overall, this is about what you'd expect from a licensed GBA game, not a bad time but nothing special, really.
Fun fact: This is the only GBA game that I know that features a loading screen, with a blue screen with "PLEASE WAIT". This screen appears before cutscenes that use stills from the movie (this statement isn't true anymore, not that I've played Madagascar GBA and Over The Hedge GBA).
Unlike letterland, this at least provides some challenge, but it's still not good.
2016
Wasn't exactly what I thought it was (I thought it was Pikmin-like and Overlord is my favorite Pikmin-like), it's actually a group beat-em-up that's more action-y than strategic, but it's still really fun. Also features cute graphics and awesome soundtrack.
Easily one of the best visual novels i've ever read, with good emotional story, and memorable characters. I want to do this read a proper review treatment someday.
2001
I remember this game from my childhood and surprisingly had a decent time, I think I got to the very last level but don't remember beating it. I played it on PC, and it was likely an obscure native port that was bundled with the other barbie game I remember fondly. But trying the PlayStation version, the physics and controls were pretty bad. I didn't feel like playing very far as it didn't leave a good impression, which is kinda surprising, since, once again, I remember having a decent time with the game. Maybe if I revisit this game and beat it I'll have a better appreciation for it, but I don't have much hope (and if I find that PC version for comparison).
2004
The Game Boy Advance version (the only version that I played aside from PC version by KnowWonder, which is a separate entry) is a pretty average "Lost Vikings" kinda platformer. The level design is nothing to write home about, the graphics are decent, but the music is pretty good.
Honestly, I think this game is surprisingly good... well, okay, it is average, but I wouldn't call it bad. It's a top-down game that looks similar to 2D Zelda games, but with great emphasis on simple puzzles and stealth. There is combat, but it's fairly basic. You play as titular twins, which both have different abilities to solve puzzles. A pretty standard affair. Some sections can be pretty annoying when you get busted, and there are some backtracky areas, but your punishment is getting set back to the entrance you came from, and you can save at any time, which I appreciate. Not only that, but you can scroll the screen to see what's ahead. Granted, there are still a few places where GBA's resolution doesn't help, but overall experience is fairly decent. Also, there are a couple of sections where you play as Maddie, which are focused on speed to push all the buttons in a short time limit, which I thought were a nice change of pace, and also baggage cart autoscrollers where you avoid obstacles. Oh and also a balancing mini-game, there's actually quite a bit of variety, which I appreciate even if it doesn't always land.
Graphically, I think it looks decent, I like environments the most, again, reminds me a bit of The Legend Of Zelda on SNES, but in a modern setting. The characters look alright, though pre-rendered character portraits are a mixed bag. What's wrong with your eyes, Maddie? As for music, there are some tracks that are actually pretty good. Also, there are a few good jokes in there, I mean it is based on the sitcom afterall.
Overall, I wouldn't recommend this game to everybody, but it was better than I expected. It still managed to engage me, even if it had some rough spots.
Graphically, I think it looks decent, I like environments the most, again, reminds me a bit of The Legend Of Zelda on SNES, but in a modern setting. The characters look alright, though pre-rendered character portraits are a mixed bag. What's wrong with your eyes, Maddie? As for music, there are some tracks that are actually pretty good. Also, there are a few good jokes in there, I mean it is based on the sitcom afterall.
Overall, I wouldn't recommend this game to everybody, but it was better than I expected. It still managed to engage me, even if it had some rough spots.