Cartoons are the fabric of the universe. There, I said it. Cartoons are the life stream that flows through everything we do. When something happens that is slightly crazy, cartoons make it a daily occurrence. When a tragedy occurs, cartoons make it ok to laugh. When a heart gets broken, cartoons are there in all their colour to put a smile back on your face. And then there’s a whole bunch of other stuff they do, like entertain children and stuff. But the point is, cartoons are almighty.
Because cartoons are already so out there, crazy and amazing, some people think that it should be easy for them to be turned into video games, which are also out there, crazy and amazing. However they are WRONG. So many times when people try to make a good thing better they end up making a good thing SHITTY. However on the very RAREST of occasions, it works. And here are some of the ones where this is true.
Why it worked?
Because this game is awesome, that’s why. It’s a side-scrolling platformer where you control Aladdin through many of the locations that were present in the movie. The gameplay is simple; jump across ledges and kill bad guys with your sword or by throwing apples at them. You heard me; the Aladdin game was made in a simpler time, when bad guys died with an apple to the head and bonus levels were actually fun rather than being a mindless chore.
The game combined all the great things about the movie and put it together with the Mega Drive’s capabilities to create something fun for both children and adults. It was widely received at the time by fans of both the movie, and platformers in general. Even now it still holds up, despite the fact that it’s an extremely old game on an even more outdated console. But good games, like good Disney movies, never get old.
Why it worked?
The Simpsons is a cartoon that is almost older than me, and over their years of popularity they have churned out countless articles of merchandise, including a variety of video games. Most of them really sucked, but the most recent The Simpsons Game was one of the better ones to hit the market. The storyline was laughable and the controls made me want to rip my face off (I played the PSP version) but I could overlook all of that because the game carried with it the satirical humour of the television show.
My favourite part of the game was the video game clichés. Every time you come across something that is typical to a video game, a little screen pops up and tells you which cliché you have come across, along with a witty little joke that makes you chuckle. Another thing I liked was the level design. Each level combined both elements of the Simpsons world, as well as qualities of various video game genres. It was nice to swap from level to level and be greeted with something different each time, rather than going through the same sort of stuff the whole way through.
The Simpsons Game is one that, whilst entertaining, has absolutely no replay value (unless you want to go through and find every single cliché you can). If you compare this title to other games of The Simpsons franchise, you’re going to be pleasantly surprised. Compare it to most other games of its type and you’ll probably end up being disappointed.
Why it worked?
I played this game for hours upon hours as a kid, and hours upon hours as an adult because this title works as both a game and an instrument for nostalgia.
You find yourself controlling Tommy and looking for pieces of his Reptar puzzle. To find them you do levels that are pretty much interactive episodes of the television show. The voices are the same as the cartoon, the locations are the same as the cartoon, and even the objects you can pick up and interact with you’ll recognise from Tommy’s room or playpen.
The game is big without being too big, and just different enough from the show to stop it feeling like you’re simply playing out episodes you’ve seen a hundred million times.
Aesthetically this game is nothing to boast about. The choppy 3d graphics were quite poor as far as playstation standards go, but at its heart, this game is fun. And for a children’s game, isn’t that all that really matters?
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However, not every cartoon to video game experiment can end well, and in fact a lot of them don’t. The majority of these games end up being bargain bin fillers a few weeks after they’re released, because they relied too heavily on the characters on the cover rather than the game inside. So here’s a list of those games that tried and failed, and should probably stay in the bottom of the sale bucket where they belong.
Why it didn’t work?
Cartoon Network is like god to me. I love cartoons. They teach me life lessons, and give me characters I can aspire to be like when I grow up. So you’ve gotta understand that something like Cartoon Network, which brings me nothing but goodness, smiles and laughter was something I treasured. You can imagine that when I realised there was a Cartoon Network Racing game on the DS I pounced on it and geared myself up for losing massive chunks of my social life to play it. Racing games are pretty much the only games I’m good at, so combine it with cartoons and my hopes couldn’t get much higher.
They also couldn’t get much lower than when I realised this game was crap with a capital OMGWHY?! Cartoon Network Racing tried to be something it wasn’t, and that was Mario Kart. It replaced the Mario characters with the favourites of the Cartoon Network cast and…that’s really where the positives end. After that they created tracks that were supposedly related to the characters, but really weren’t, and objects and power ups that required the creativity of a soggy tissue to invent. Then they took everybody who had a suggestion for making the game fun, and killed them with a brick.
This game isn’t really awful (I’m incredibly biased because of my somewhat creepy love for cartoons) but it isn’t that good either. The coolest thing about it is that you can unlock entire episodes of TV shows. But then again, I can just watch them on TV anyway. Kids who are actually kids will probably enjoy it a lot more than undercover kids like me, otherwise this is one to avoid.
Why it didn't work?
Mickey Mouse may be a classic figure, but he is annoying. His voice is annoying, his face is annoying, and the tale of his life is annoying. Why I would wanna play a game about him, I don’t know. Why KIDS would wanna play a game about it when they probably don’t even know who Mickey Mouse is, I don’t know. So why do they keep making Mickey Mouse games? I don’t know that either. What I do know, is that I haven’t found a game with Mickey in it that I found even the least bit enjoyable. (Except for Kingdom Hearts. But that doesn’t count.)
The Mickey Mouse game that’s stuck with me the most over my years of playing Disney games was the Playstation port of The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse (which is called Mickey’s Wild Adventure). This game was a simple platformer where the levels took you through the different eras of Mickey. You go from 1928 Mickey in Steamboat Willie to 1990 Mickey in The Prince and the Pauper. This game sounded promising; I’m a huge fan of platformer games, and even though I was never a big Mickey fanatic, I was a child, and pretty easily impressed back then. But this game failed me.
You’d expect a kids game to be one of the simplest things to play, but this certainly wasn’t. And there was no tutorial either, meaning we just got thrown onto a steamboat and were expected to figure things out for ourselves. After spending hours trying to beat the very first level, I moved onto the next one, which was still insanely hard, even when I knew what the hell I was meant to do.
Kid’s games should be easy. Kids have short attention spans, and they cry a lot. So why would any game developer in his right mind create a game for a kid that’s going to do nothing but frustrate them and make them cry?
Why it didn’t work?
The one fault I can never find with Simpsons games is the audio. Every Simpsons game I’ve played (and there have been a lot) have always gone to great lengths to get the cast from the TV show to voice the cast in the video game. Sure they only record about three different sayings that get played over and over again until you know every single one of them off by heart, but it’s still something a little different to listen to for the first half hour of each game.
Unfortunately, that is where my inability to find faults end, especially in The Simpsons Wrestling. This game is a true representation of a half assed attempt to make a mediocre game which relies on nothing except the yellow people on the front cover to sell it. And it works. I bought it, and a whole bunch of other kids would have as well. But just because something makes a lot of money, doesn’t mean its any good.
Not many people in the gaming world appreciated this game, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why. The graphics are average, the gameplay is poor and the controls consist of little more than button mashing. The only thing this game had going for it was the audio track, and I can get the same thing by turning on my television. And that’s free.
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Cartoons are an amazing thing. They are pretty much my favourite thing ever. So combine them with video games and it’s heaven for me. However, make a cartoon into a video game that sucks and it’s a tragedy to rival no other. Cartoons and video games both have no boundaries, but that doesn’t mean you should combine them. Put two cannibals in a room and one of them will still end up eating the other, despite their common interests. So do the right thing; protect cartoons. Say no to turning them into video games.
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