Finish the fight
Lizzie McGuire 3; Homecoming Havoc is the final game in a series of annual releases by Disney Interactive. Coming hot off the heals from cliffhanger ending of Lizzie McGuire 2: Lizzie Diaries, the final game in this epic trilogy finds our heroine trapped deep within her own broken subconscious. Her mind, twisted and warped by the horrid and devastating events of the first two games, has slowly slipped into a crazed oblivion, as she believes she must undergoing a series of Warioware-style minigames in the quest to become the Homecoming Queen. As the real world is crumbling into the slow decay of nuclear winter, it is up to the player to help her achieve this goal, so that she might reawaken and stop the tide of destruction that threatens everything she loves.
The format of her delirium is based around the need to complete several inane and absurd tasks, followed by a dance competition. Once each of these rituals are completed, a new one begins, typically with differing nightmares and challenges. These minigames often involve the need to press buttons at timed instances, as quickly as possible, or when prompted to do so. Other tasks require Lizzie to balance objects or move items around the screen.
Her mental decay is all too apparent at these points, as the exact formula of these tasks are riddled with chaos. Some tasks require you to control Lizzie herself; dodging falling bird droppings, catching water droplets from broken pipes, or reliving moments from past games, such as the scene where she must launch a rocket at a water tower to kill the raging inferno lord who kidnapped her mother.
But there are times where, without warning, the player must controls random other objects. In one game, you must steer a falling hat from the top of the screen to land on Lizzies head. Without the foreknowledge of what to do, it is an impossible task to complete the first time it's attempted. Other WarioWare style games have similar chaos-induced events, but typically always give you the time or direction to quickly perform the task. That said, this grim and post-apocalyptic game's target audience is made very apparent. And with the name "Disney Interactive" on the cover, we hardcore gamers could only expect this no-holds-bar attitude of LM3:HH.
The most disturbing part of Lizzie's demonic vision is the seemingly arbitrary assortment of the games themselves. With her initial quest to become Homecoming Queen (which, as you might imagine, is simply the metaphorical expression of her mind attempting to regain control of the crumbling existence being torn from her) she performs various tasks that would assist in her goal: buying new clothes, performing socially-acceptable tasks at school, and generally accruing a higher status of popularity. But amidst these games are the horrid fever-dreams that emerge from the darkest parts of Lizzie's mind. These involve tasks such as stopping a turtle from throwing itself headlong off a cliff, moving a cherry around the bottom of a drinking glass to avoid being devoured through a straw, forcing Lizzie's eyes open by pressing A as fast as possible, helping a monkey escape captivity by avoiding a spotlight, wiping footprints off the floor with a piece of toast..... the list is as long as it is tragic.
Visually speaking, the rot of deathsleep that has take hold of Lizzie's brain has shattered her understanding of reality, causing her to render life as poorly-drawn, penciled cartoons. Her school, her friends, and even her own body are feeble caricatures of life, frantically scribbled and carelessly colored. The cries and screams of the alien swarm above slowly find their way through her coma, giving her quest a sinister, unnerving soundtrack. Music is looped endlessly, with the only reprieves found at the end of each tormented level.
I won't spoil the ending for you, but the highlight of the game really comes in the final mission. Rarely have I felt such solidified closure in a trilogy. Lizzie's arc, as she's grown and changed over the 3 game trilogy really comes to a proper close. It's hard to determine if the guys over at DI will want to carry the story on past this game, but there are a few rather striking events in the final cutscene that lead me to believe there's more to this story than what we've seen.
Despite its shortcomings, this really is one of the better gaming stories I've witnessed. While I hope that Lizzie can rest peacefully after such a hellish battle, I can certainly imagine we haven't quite yet seen the end of Lizzie McGuire.
Art: 1/5
Music: 2/5 (Except for that one song. Remember the sort-of techno one with the delayed piano? That one's pretty good.)
Story: 5/5
Gameplay: 2/5
Multiplayer: 5/5
Total Score: 3/5