Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Alan Au

These days it’s pretty much expected than the release of an animated movie will be accompanied by several movie-themed videogames. The quality of these tie-in games varies greatly, with some movie-based games turning out to be surprisingly good. Unfortunately, Monsters vs. Aliens (Nintendo DS) is not one of them. MvA (DS) isn’t actually a badly designed or produced game, but it’s a terrible value because it’s criminally short. I guess that’s one of the problems of basing a game on a 94 minute movie, which incidentally is about how long it will take you to finish the game.The visuals in MvA (DS) are fairly decent given the limitations of the DS hardware. Characters and levels are your basic 3-D models and obstacles set against a 2-D backdrop. The animations are fairly good and help to offset the otherwise blocky look of the characters. The textures are a bit grainy, but the game as a whole is reasonably well done from a visual standpoint. Of course, this is still a DS game, and it isn’t going to win any awards for visual design. The game would probably also have benefited from some video clips rather than the static images used to show plot events. It would also have been nice if the developers had built a second set of higher-polygon models for character close-ups.The audio is probably the best part of this game, particularly the excellent voicework. This is really no surprise, since the voices are done by many of the original actors. The dialogue is decent as well, conveying a good sense of character personality. The music features good instrumentation and makes for reasonable background music, but it’s otherwise unmemorable. Overall the audio contributes quite a bit to the experience. It’s just too bad that it can’t save this game from being such a disappointment. Most of the gameplay revolves around the platformer sections of the game, something the DS handles just fine. Movement is controlled by the directional pad, with standard jump and attack buttons. The game also features a laser/mirror type puzzle, which uses the touchscreen to let players move and rotate mirrors on the puzzle board. From a control perspective, the touchscreen works great for this minigame.

During the platformer sections, there are also some abilities that require the touchscreen. For example, the B.O.B. character can disguise himself if the player traces an object outline in the drawing area. Players will probably want to use the stylus for this and will have to switch from the d-pad to the stylus on the fly. The touchscreen is also used to move Ginormica left and right during the roller-skating sections of the game. The mandatory use of the touchscreen is a bit awkward, especially for a section where the d-pad would have worked just fine.

Another type of gameplay is the 3-D romp through the city controlling Insectosaurus. Sadly, this minigame is surprisingly unsatisfying, partly because the d-pad controls don’t really allow for diagonal movement. In this minigame the player can also use the touchpad to launch a projectile attack. Touchscreen accuracy is a bit tempermental, but it works just fine at point-blank range.

Speaking of projectiles, the player can blow on the DS microphone to have another character, The Missing Link, launch a ranged “spit” attack. However, the player can hit a button instead, and the ranged attack isn’t very effective anyway. While it’s nice that the developers tried to make use of the touchscreen and microphone, the abilities end up feeling gimmicky. As covered in the discussion about controls, the game is pretty much your standard run-of-the-mill linear action platformer, with a handful of “find the switch to open the door” puzzles thrown in for good measure. Some of the levels make use of a wall-walking ability for various characters, which helps to add some variety. There are some jumping sections that require fairly precise control, but otherwise the game is pretty easy. Even the combat-heavy portions are easy, especially once you’ve upgraded your characters a bit.

That’s right, the game includes an experience point system, where you can upgrade the platformer characters by improving their health, damage, and special abilities. The upgradeable-character thing is a nice touch, but you can have all of the characters fully upgraded after running through the tutorial a couple of times. Another gameplay mode gives the player control over the giant Insectosaurus as he waddles through a city smashing buildings. Again, this provides a break from the platformer portion of the game. However, this part features timed gameplay, which ends up being somewhat distracting. This also makes it more difficult to collect tokens for the unlockables. It’s a cute idea with a mediocre implementation.

The game also features a laser/mirror minigame, where you move mirrors around the board to guide energy beams to various targets. The puzzles are a nice break from the platformer parts of the game, although the puzzles aren’t very challenging. I’m sure that was on purpose, so as not to frustrate gamers expecting an action game and getting a puzzle game instead. Still, I consider the laser/mirror puzzles to be one of the better implemented sections of the game, even if they’re a little out of place story-wise.

Overall, the gameplay is competently designed and implemented. It can’t compete with the truly good platformers out there, but it certainly isn’t the worst platformer I've ever played. This is helped by the minigames and different character abilities, which add variety to this otherwise unremarkable game. If there’s one fatal flaw with this game, it’s the absurdly short length. I was able to finish the game in an evening, and that’s even after replaying several levels to collect all of the tokens needed to unlock the various extra costumes and laser/mirror puzzles. It’s really too bad, because the production values on this game are pretty decent. The game also falls flat in the replayability department. The laser/mirror puzzles might be amusing again in a couple of months, once I’ve forgotten the solutions. However, the platformer sections are not memorable enough to warrant a revisit, especially now that I’ve collected all of the unlock tokens and upgraded all of the characters already. So in the end, I’m not sure how the developers would actually extend the game length while keeping it interesting, but they needed to do something because the game as shipped is far too short to provide any lasting value.On the one hand, the production values are pretty reasonable for a movie tie-in. The visuals and gameplay are competently executed, coupled with some excellent voice acting and entertaining dialog. On the other hand, this game is way too light on the content. I’ve played some short games in my time, and I at least expect a game to give me a weekend’s worth of entertainment. This one feels like you could finish it in the theater before the movie ended.

Gaming Trend Score

57

1. Graphics: 60
2. Audio: 80
3. Controls: 70
4. Gameplay: 65
5. Value/Replay: 1
6. OVERALL:57