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IGN Review of Open Season
For whatever reason, children's movies are starting to take a serious plunge lately. Maybe it's the lack of Disney masterpieces like Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast, or maybe it has to do with the conversion from traditional to 3D animation. But what if maybe - just maybe - it has to do with the fact that today's cinema-epics are amazingly uninspired, insultingly formulaic, and downright pathetic compared to the classics of old. When A Bug's Life hit theaters, Antz was close to follow. Finding Nemo came next, followed by the putrid "vision" Shark's Tale, and it's happening over and over again. This summer's bout: Over the Hedge and Open Season, two movies that have the same furry design, the same racial stereotypes (the skunk is black, so we'll get a black voice actor! Genius…), and the same uninspired character designs we've seen in year's past. Still, when a licensed movie hits the big screen, an interactive counterpart seems to inevitably follow.
Amazingly enough though, we're starting to see that while the designs are formulaic and based on a license that's nothing short of cookie-cutter, a few of these games manage to deliver some awesome gameplay that hits their demographic right on the head. Ice Age 2: The Meltdown delivered some great play during its release, and while Over the Hedge wasn't quite up to Ice Age's level, it still had some solid gameplay elements as well. With Open Season, Ubisoft Montreal (makers of the Prince of Persia and Splinter Cell franchises) attempted to bring a very straightforward design that mixed a bit of exploration, a hint of mini-games, and very minimal platforming for this very straightforward adventure game. While the overall experience isn't breathtaking in any way, the team did manage to deliver an escapade that's sure to keep young gamers busy, while still throwing in a few hints of more mature gameplay mechanics to usher the little tikes into more complex play styles in the future.
Open Season focuses around the two main characters from the movie, Boog the bear and Eliot the deer as they try to traverse the land of Timberline defeating human hunters and eventually ridding the forest of its unnatural threat. The overall story is nearly a 50/50 mix of scripted story and gameplay, and while the constant stoppage can get extremely annoying for more mature gamers, the combination of storytelling and amazingly linear world design will be great as an introductory adventure.
To keep things fresh, the game constantly adds new quests for players, having them chase down rabbits and huck them into holes, sneak up on unsuspecting hunters to surprise them with a horrendous roar, or tease the shotgun toting rednecks into running into animal traps. Top it off with a ton of off-the-wall mini adventures such as downhill racing, mine cart roller-coasters, and foot races with competing animals and you've got a game that puts an obvious emphasis in variety and simplicity above all else.
That being said, it's also apparent that Open Season is more concerned with variety than it was overall polish, as many of the in-game challenges seem to sit at about 75% on a control basis. The camera is often very wonky, and the world suffers from a ton of overly conservative collisions, giving off the appearance that there's far more open land to traverse than there really is. We can't tell you how many times we tried to walk between a wall and a tree or step up a ledge only to be stopped abruptly in an awkward animation freeze. There's one main path, and if you aren't hiking down the middle of the road, you may just go insane from the amount of invisible walls that line the more complex landscapes.
Even still, the overall experience of the game is still entertaining, and the lighthearted feel is definitely felt. There's no way to fully die in the game, rather you'll become "stunned" after being hit too many times, and must rapidly mash buttons to get up. The amount of on-screen prompts are also very abundant, as players will constantly be receiving instructions (with voice acting, which helps the youngins nicely) and an on-screen controller to help novice gamers get the hang of the next challenge ahead. The gameplay may feel a bit weak compared to the polish of more mature games, but when it comes to simple and entertaining fun, Open Season is validated.
When it comes to the overall presentation, Open Season is very hit and miss depending on what you're looking for, and which platform you're looking to play it on. For starters, the game's menu interface is some of the most basic we've seen, as it's basically a vertical list of all the different choices the game offers. No immense icons or artwork, just a simple selection tree that offers options, gameplay choices, multiplayer mini-games, and a store to purchase in-game upgrades. It's a bit too simple for our liking, and really gives off an initial impression that the game was either rushed or very low-budget.
As for in-game graphical appearance, Open Season is very average, showing the basic design of nearly every licensed product before it. It's obvious that the original game was created for the 360 version and then scaled down for each of the current-gen incarnations, as the 360 pushes a few solid visual effects and lighting that is simply wasted on the less-powerful consoles. In addition, the lower-poly characters don't seem as optimized as they could have been, and while the animation is nearly identical the character models truly look like they received very little specific attention after being downsized. It isn't that Open Season looks bad, it's simply average in nearly every way, and with the exception of the 360 version the game doesn't show off the license as much as it could have. CG movies have an opportunity to go hand-in-hand with their gaming counterparts very well, and that is definitely something that is going to be more realized in leaps and bounds with every console generation. On the side of audio presentation, Open Season runs at a completely average pace as well, using the same soundtrack as the movie but swapping on sound-alikes for the actual in-game dialogue. Like the graphical elements, the game seems to have its home on the 360, utilizing some strong surround sound to go with the more polished look. Even still, the soundtrack is very generic, and the lack of the true voices is missed.
Bringing it to Wii
Open Season, like so many of the other Wii launch titles, is a double-dip attempt based off an original GameCube game. You're getting the same story mode, the same missions, the same VO, the same graphical presentation, and the same basic experience. Where the game differs, obviously, is the motion control. Open Season takes the original controls from GameCube and moves them around a bit, having players still control Boog with the analog stick and navigate menus with the A and B buttons, but instead uses motion control in place of the original aiming and action set-up. Instead of pressing a button to pick up items, you'll swing the control like a bear arm. Rather than moving an aiming reticule around on the screen with the analog stick, you'll point with the Wii controller's IR. It's basic, but it works.
Even the mini-games follow a basic transition over to Wii, using the controller to tilt, spin, or aim for each of the multiplayer events. There's no real difference, aside from making the game a bit more action-oriented for younger players, and while the controls don't necessarily get in the way of gameplay, they don't improve the experience in any huge way either. The problem with the Wii version - as with the Wii version of Barnyard as well - is that while the Wii controls are simply "take it or leave it" based on user preference, the price of the game is back to its original release cost, and while Wii would be an easy choice if it came out at the same time as all the other versions, there's no way the added functionality is worth even a penny more. Players will be better off going with GameCube and using the Wii for its backward compatibility. The price difference in the two versions makes up for the cost of a GCN controller, and in the end you'll have essentially the same game, as well as a fully-functional Virtual Console controller too.
©2007, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Amazingly enough though, we're starting to see that while the designs are formulaic and based on a license that's nothing short of cookie-cutter, a few of these games manage to deliver some awesome gameplay that hits their demographic right on the head. Ice Age 2: The Meltdown delivered some great play during its release, and while Over the Hedge wasn't quite up to Ice Age's level, it still had some solid gameplay elements as well. With Open Season, Ubisoft Montreal (makers of the Prince of Persia and Splinter Cell franchises) attempted to bring a very straightforward design that mixed a bit of exploration, a hint of mini-games, and very minimal platforming for this very straightforward adventure game. While the overall experience isn't breathtaking in any way, the team did manage to deliver an escapade that's sure to keep young gamers busy, while still throwing in a few hints of more mature gameplay mechanics to usher the little tikes into more complex play styles in the future.
Open Season focuses around the two main characters from the movie, Boog the bear and Eliot the deer as they try to traverse the land of Timberline defeating human hunters and eventually ridding the forest of its unnatural threat. The overall story is nearly a 50/50 mix of scripted story and gameplay, and while the constant stoppage can get extremely annoying for more mature gamers, the combination of storytelling and amazingly linear world design will be great as an introductory adventure.
To keep things fresh, the game constantly adds new quests for players, having them chase down rabbits and huck them into holes, sneak up on unsuspecting hunters to surprise them with a horrendous roar, or tease the shotgun toting rednecks into running into animal traps. Top it off with a ton of off-the-wall mini adventures such as downhill racing, mine cart roller-coasters, and foot races with competing animals and you've got a game that puts an obvious emphasis in variety and simplicity above all else.
That being said, it's also apparent that Open Season is more concerned with variety than it was overall polish, as many of the in-game challenges seem to sit at about 75% on a control basis. The camera is often very wonky, and the world suffers from a ton of overly conservative collisions, giving off the appearance that there's far more open land to traverse than there really is. We can't tell you how many times we tried to walk between a wall and a tree or step up a ledge only to be stopped abruptly in an awkward animation freeze. There's one main path, and if you aren't hiking down the middle of the road, you may just go insane from the amount of invisible walls that line the more complex landscapes.
Even still, the overall experience of the game is still entertaining, and the lighthearted feel is definitely felt. There's no way to fully die in the game, rather you'll become "stunned" after being hit too many times, and must rapidly mash buttons to get up. The amount of on-screen prompts are also very abundant, as players will constantly be receiving instructions (with voice acting, which helps the youngins nicely) and an on-screen controller to help novice gamers get the hang of the next challenge ahead. The gameplay may feel a bit weak compared to the polish of more mature games, but when it comes to simple and entertaining fun, Open Season is validated.
When it comes to the overall presentation, Open Season is very hit and miss depending on what you're looking for, and which platform you're looking to play it on. For starters, the game's menu interface is some of the most basic we've seen, as it's basically a vertical list of all the different choices the game offers. No immense icons or artwork, just a simple selection tree that offers options, gameplay choices, multiplayer mini-games, and a store to purchase in-game upgrades. It's a bit too simple for our liking, and really gives off an initial impression that the game was either rushed or very low-budget.
As for in-game graphical appearance, Open Season is very average, showing the basic design of nearly every licensed product before it. It's obvious that the original game was created for the 360 version and then scaled down for each of the current-gen incarnations, as the 360 pushes a few solid visual effects and lighting that is simply wasted on the less-powerful consoles. In addition, the lower-poly characters don't seem as optimized as they could have been, and while the animation is nearly identical the character models truly look like they received very little specific attention after being downsized. It isn't that Open Season looks bad, it's simply average in nearly every way, and with the exception of the 360 version the game doesn't show off the license as much as it could have. CG movies have an opportunity to go hand-in-hand with their gaming counterparts very well, and that is definitely something that is going to be more realized in leaps and bounds with every console generation. On the side of audio presentation, Open Season runs at a completely average pace as well, using the same soundtrack as the movie but swapping on sound-alikes for the actual in-game dialogue. Like the graphical elements, the game seems to have its home on the 360, utilizing some strong surround sound to go with the more polished look. Even still, the soundtrack is very generic, and the lack of the true voices is missed.
Bringing it to Wii
Open Season, like so many of the other Wii launch titles, is a double-dip attempt based off an original GameCube game. You're getting the same story mode, the same missions, the same VO, the same graphical presentation, and the same basic experience. Where the game differs, obviously, is the motion control. Open Season takes the original controls from GameCube and moves them around a bit, having players still control Boog with the analog stick and navigate menus with the A and B buttons, but instead uses motion control in place of the original aiming and action set-up. Instead of pressing a button to pick up items, you'll swing the control like a bear arm. Rather than moving an aiming reticule around on the screen with the analog stick, you'll point with the Wii controller's IR. It's basic, but it works.
Even the mini-games follow a basic transition over to Wii, using the controller to tilt, spin, or aim for each of the multiplayer events. There's no real difference, aside from making the game a bit more action-oriented for younger players, and while the controls don't necessarily get in the way of gameplay, they don't improve the experience in any huge way either. The problem with the Wii version - as with the Wii version of Barnyard as well - is that while the Wii controls are simply "take it or leave it" based on user preference, the price of the game is back to its original release cost, and while Wii would be an easy choice if it came out at the same time as all the other versions, there's no way the added functionality is worth even a penny more. Players will be better off going with GameCube and using the Wii for its backward compatibility. The price difference in the two versions makes up for the cost of a GCN controller, and in the end you'll have essentially the same game, as well as a fully-functional Virtual Console controller too.
©2007, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved