Naughty Bear

Naughty Bear - Xbox 360

Naughty Bear is a third person teddy bear murdering action game released on June 29 from 505 Games for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. After months of waiting, I finally got out hands on it. Among dozens of trailers no one really got to see any gameplay leading up to the release date. I now know why. The premise of the entire game is just being “naughty.” You take control of a bear named Naughty (surprise) and he’s completely pissed that the other bears are always making fun and being mean to him. When the others decide not to invite Naughty to the big birthday party, he loses it. Basically it’s a game of getting revenge against the other bears by means of killing them, or scaring them to a point that they off themselves - at the same time racking up as many naughty points as possible. It’s a fun and original game with an idea that could have worked with a lot more effort into it. Due to the lack of polish horrendous problems plaguing this game, I found asking myself “How the hell did they get away with this.” Well let’s see…

Gameplay

Starting this game you take control of Naughty while he runs around the island searching for bears to destroy. Each level is broken up into different chapters, each with a different objective. For example, one chapter you will be killer mode, which basically means all you have to do is kill all other bears without letting any escape. Others are more different such as insanity, which requires you to drive all other bears insane before killing them. Other game types include friendly-don’t attack any other bears, untouchable-don’t take any damage, speed run- complete tasks within time limit, and invisible-don’t let any bears see you. All these game types seem very fun, but without having necessary control response and a working mini map, sometimes you will find these objectives impossible at times. The mini map would help a lot if it actually rotated to show which direction you were going in. It just doesn’t work at all.

Basic moves are just attack, either with fists or the current weapon you are holding, and scare. By pulling the left trigger Naughty will lash out and scream, attempting to scare the other bears to death. It’s used to help drives bears crazy or just used to help you make a combo attack. Combos keep your naughty points go up which is the basic way to score in this game. For example, if you kill a bear or break something, and you will get naughty points. Keep doing naughty things and your point multiplier will keep going up. The more the naughty, the more points you will get. Seems simple right?

Other ways of collecting naughty points are with the use of traps and environmental kills. Besides just running around hacking everything, you can simply set up a trap like a bear trap or some kind of sticky pad that explodes. Let just call them sticky mines. So if a bear runs into one of your traps he will get stuck. Now either run over and finish him off or let them stay there crying for help. If other bears see him in the trap they will then become scared and suspicious and that creates more naughty points for you and insanity among the other bears. Sabotaging items is also a way to score points and kills. You can turn on a barbeque fire or sabotage a toilet, car, phone, etc. When a bear goes to investigate these items you will have the chance to sneak up from behind and score an ultra kill. An ultra kill can only be attempted if the victim bear is damaged enough to allow it. If the bear was fixing the barbeque, Naughty will come up from behind and slam his face into the fire killing him and giving you heaps of naughty points. That is the ultra kill and how you make use of the environment. If you kill a bear his body will remain for all to see. This created more panic with the others.

Weapons can range from your fluffy bear paws to machetes, axes and even guns. I had the best use out of the bladed weapons as the guns run out of ammo quickly and it took a while to find more, and of course aiming them wasn’t that great either. If you take damage from other bears attacks you will have to run into the woods and search for some cake. Cake slices are scattered around the levels to help you heal up. The only time I really took damage was when more than one bear was attacking me at a time. If this happens to you when you are in a tight space, such as a room in a building, it’s almost impossible to get out. The attacks keep coming and you die very quickly and have to start the entire level over again. It was as if I couldn’t even move when I was surrounded. 

Controls

This is where I really started to have the most problems. The camera is terribly done. It’s very loose and doesn’t always show you exactly what you want to see. I found myself many times locked in a fist fight with another bear and I try moving the camera around only to have it pressed through a wall and I could not see what my character is doing. As far as Naughty goes, he does not control all that bad as far as running and walking go but as soon as you go into an attack frenzy the melee does not lock on. It’s like swinging wildly at your enemy hoping your blows land on him. It still works but not to a point where you would feel like you have complete control.

Attacking other bears with weapons is just button mashing until you lay the final blow or damage them enough to pull the right trigger and finish them with an ultra kill. It depends on which weapon you are using for the ultra kill. The machete will be an animation of Naughty stabbing the blade through another bears gut and slicing him from within. The Uzi is just a point blank fully automatic massacre of bullets that tear the other bear apart. Some instances you can pull of the famous curb stomp, which is hilarious seeing a bear do it instead of Marcus Phoenix.

The more naughty you become the more chaos you will stir up. Other bears will alert their friends and some may call the cops. Police boats will arrive on the island adding to your opposition. Ninjas, robot bears and army bears are also added to the list of enemies in later levels.

Graphics

The graphics are certainly nothing to go crazy about. Nothing really stands out except the bears themselves. The bears actually look pretty good but seems like it could have been a high end PS2 game from 5 years ago. Although it doesn’t look great, it doesn’t look horrible either. It doesn’t take away or add to the experience in any way in my opinion. Environments are not very detailed. If you do into a house there is just a few refrigerators and toilets sitting around. Each house seems like it is the same one you were just in and each chapter just seems like that last.

Sound

Sound may be one of Naughty Bear’s strong points. Each time one of the bears whimpers or cries out when I attack really adds to the experience of slaying an entire village of stuffed bears. I found myself actually laughing out loud the first time I completed an ultra kill at the shear comedy of it all. The British narrator keeps things alive at the beginning of each level while telling us what’s going on this time by talking to Naughty before he takes off on his murdering adventure during cut scenes. He also talks to you during in game moments shouting line such as “NAUGHTY TIME” very loud when you get enough naughty points. Pretty intense I say.

Multiplayer

The multiplayer just did not work for me. I attempted to join countless matches and not one of them connected. I popped in Halo 3 to make sure it wasn’t my connection and it played just fine. They must be fixing it or something. So I’m not sure what to say about the multiplayer but if it handles the same way as single player I can assume it’s not anything to get excited about. I’ll add more to my review when I can get it to connect to a match. I would hope it would be more fun playing with friends.

Bottom Line

Naughty Bear falls short on so many fronts. Controls, dated graphics and repetitive gameplay hold it back from being a potentially good game. It’s a shame to see a fun idea such as this fail so badly. I had high hopes for this one, expecting many hours slaying bears into the night. But don’t get me wrong, you can have fun with this game, just don’t approach it seriously and expect anything more than a short-term murderous teddy bear fix. I don’t hate this game but I certainly don’t love it. It has It’s problems and some of them can be overlooked, depending what type of gamer you are. You can pick this up for around $50. Now go be naughty.

Cheers