Bebe's Kids

Based on the animated movie of the same name and developed by Radical Entertainment and published by Motown Games, Bebe's Kids is a side-scrolling beat-'em-up for the SNES.

The plot of the movie was adapted in such a poor and half-assed way that cutscenes all consist of random lines of dialogue from the film that barely explain what's happening in the game. Not only that but even though two of the characters from the movie are seen on the game's cover, they are nowhere in the game itself. There's virtually no difference between the 2 playable characters (LaShawn & Kahlil) and the game is single-player only (no co-op mode where a friend can join in), making a selection utterly pointless.

The graphics are extremely ugly, and the movement animation is no better, with the characters, often walking like zombies. Every song in the game is a dull 5-second loop that gets annoying very fast.

The game is incredibly short and can be beaten in a half hour, with slow, boring, and repetitive gameplay that's horribly unbalanced: your normal attacks are far too weak (killing a regular enemy can take up to and over 35 hits) and your special attacks can kill everything except for bosses in just 3 hits. Almost no enemy or level variety is also prevalent.

Limited-use weapons are useless because they do the same amount of damage as the special moves, which can be used an unlimited number of times. Instead of just picking up items automatically you have to stand on top of the item and press A to pick it up. This would normally not be a flaw.

The AI is dumb: most of the time they just walk back and forth and ignore you and sometimes they even walk offscreen and never return, making the game unwinnable.

The game is padded out by making you repeat the same side-scrolling beat 'em up level between every other level. Every level except for the final boss has a time-limit, which is problematic in the beat 'em up levels (until you figure out that your special moves are what kills enemies quickest) and maze levels. Both bosses have such a big attack radius and such a small hitbox that it's almost impossible to hit them even with your special moves.

It's not clear how to progress in any of the other levels, here are two that are the worst:

• In the glasshouse you have to smash enough of the glass objects that PeeWee knocks off the shelf whilst preventing Robin Harris from catching any of them. The only way the player would know this is by reading a walkthrough or watching the movie due to it being difficult to actually hit the glass objects plus the fact that you take damage just from touching them would naturally drive the player to avoid them, thinking that they're obstacles.
• The haunted house is an especially bad case of the intuitive game design-this level is a maze of doors where you have to find the exit by going through the right doors until a thermometer turns red, picking the wrong door sends you back to the beginning of the level. This requires so much trial-and-error that it's nearly impossible without a walkthrough.

If you get a game over, your character gets kidnapped by security guards, which might leave a bad taste for some players; furthermore, getting a game over sends you back to the beginning of the first level!

There is a cheat code to be able to skip a stage at any time by pressing Select + Up: at the Paramount logo, press Up, Down, X, R, A, Y, B, A, B & Y in order.

This game should get beaten-up.