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IGN Review of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
Anyone who's watched even a single episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy on Cartoon Network knows the show has some serious mental issues. Whatever series creator Maxwell Atoms is smoking, we're convinced it was worth every penny, as the show's characters, situations, and overall style is totally off the wall. From a melodramatic grim reaper to a hilarious nacho-loving character named Fred Fredburger that could be the distant relative of Futurama's Dr. Zoidberg, the show is absolutely A.D.D. friendly. In fact, we're sure that's why the series is doing so well, and it's that same random Ren & Stimpy style in the show that we wanted to see carried over into the game. Amazingly enough, it has been, as The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy is a solid button-mashing fighter, that - while not the deepest game in the world - definitely delivers the essence of the show.
For anyone not familiar with the series, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy follows a style similar to PowerPuff Girls mixed with a bit of Fairly Odd Parents, adding in a dash of the aforementioned classic Ren & Stimpy. In the premiere episode, Billy and Mandy stumble upon the grim reaper, who's stopping by to take Billy's sickeningly pathetic hamster to the land of the dead. Though the kids aren't ready to give it up, the reaper insists, going as far as to challenge the kids to a battle over their eternal souls (in a more kid-friendly way, of course). Amazingly enough, Grim fails, and has to hold up his agreement to be the kid's best friend forever. From then on, it's all about random acts of hilarity and off-the-wall scenarios per usual in a children's show.
But all that really doesn't matter for the game. Instead of making the millionth 3D action adventure, developer High Voltage went a different route, emulating 3D fighters such as Power Stone by making a free-roaming multiplayer beat-em-up. Whether it's story mode, mission mode, or vs. mode, players will grab a character, drop them into a world, and beat the crap out of the competitors in a number of ways.
Of course it doesn't take a genius to see where the game could become a bit shallow, as cranking out combos and running around the same levels over and over can get repetitive. To keep things fresh, there are a ton of unlockable costumes, weapons, and gameplay modes that help the longevity of the product. Players can attack baddies with maces, wands, halberds, swords, bones, hammers, clubs, and scythes, or fire from long distances with flamethrowers, goo cannons, mind control guns, plane-o-glass guns, and even a vacuum cleaner. The list of total weapons grows as the game progresses, as does the ability to open up new battle modes for vs. play.
Within the vs. mode, players can select up to four different teams and any of 15 characters. To mix things up, nine different modes can be selected once unlocked. Some of our favorites include the classic Last Man Standing fight, which has players battling in either single or team competition to eliminate the opposition. Other games include the ever-popular Bask-eye-Ball, Crush the Horde (which has players fighting a never-ending mass of AI baddies), Capture and Hold (multi-point king of the hill), and Skull Keeper (where everyone attacks the one holding the skull, hence the name). The different modes add a ton of replay value to the game, and four player battles promise to be amazingly hectic.
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy has a solid amount to offer fans of the series aside from the general gameplay as well. The overall presentation is very strong, having the show's voice actors delivering 3D animated cut-scenes in story mode, and a fair amount of in-game dialogue as well. The overall graphical style isn't as sharp as we'd like, but that's due in part to the limited power of the systems and the necessity for cell shaded artwork. Even still, there's a ton going on at all times on the screen, and the effects and animations are still very strong, it's simply obvious that the franchise belongs on a high-res display to achieve the true look of the show. As a final note on presentation, we love seeing Weird Al Yankovic as the announcer, as he bring a solid "White n' Nerdy" feel to the game. Cheers, Alfred.
Bringing it to Wii
In the true fashion of a "Wii-make", not much has been done to up the production value or overall content in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy for Wii. To be fair, the conversion is actually a bit more solid than a few others we've seen thus far, adding another tier of story mode (about an extra hour of play) and managing to keep everything that was fun about the GCN version in tact when bringing it up to Wii. In all honesty though, there's just not much here that sets the game apart from last-gen versions. Control can be done with either the GameCube controller or Wii-mote/nunchuk combination, and aside from the heavy attack being added to general Wii-mote flicking the game is essentially the same. The only other addition is in the finishing moves, which has players using the IR sensor to move a cursor over to a target rather than tapping buttons in the GameCube version. If using a GCN controller, you'll get the previous button combo finishers.
What irks us about the Wii conversion is the general lack of effort on the technical side. The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy has a solid style, but for some reason 480p and 16:9 wasn't included in the GCN version. Well here we are on Wii with those tech specifications being the unofficial standard for any and all software, and again no jump in technical presentation was made. There's no reason for it, and it's a shame it wasn't included, as the game has a generally interesting look that ends up being brought down by low-res display. It may be a licensed game, but even a small step into the next generation would be nice, and the lack of effort really does show when compared to other licensed games on Wii thus far.
©2006-12-05, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
For anyone not familiar with the series, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy follows a style similar to PowerPuff Girls mixed with a bit of Fairly Odd Parents, adding in a dash of the aforementioned classic Ren & Stimpy. In the premiere episode, Billy and Mandy stumble upon the grim reaper, who's stopping by to take Billy's sickeningly pathetic hamster to the land of the dead. Though the kids aren't ready to give it up, the reaper insists, going as far as to challenge the kids to a battle over their eternal souls (in a more kid-friendly way, of course). Amazingly enough, Grim fails, and has to hold up his agreement to be the kid's best friend forever. From then on, it's all about random acts of hilarity and off-the-wall scenarios per usual in a children's show.
But all that really doesn't matter for the game. Instead of making the millionth 3D action adventure, developer High Voltage went a different route, emulating 3D fighters such as Power Stone by making a free-roaming multiplayer beat-em-up. Whether it's story mode, mission mode, or vs. mode, players will grab a character, drop them into a world, and beat the crap out of the competitors in a number of ways.
Of course it doesn't take a genius to see where the game could become a bit shallow, as cranking out combos and running around the same levels over and over can get repetitive. To keep things fresh, there are a ton of unlockable costumes, weapons, and gameplay modes that help the longevity of the product. Players can attack baddies with maces, wands, halberds, swords, bones, hammers, clubs, and scythes, or fire from long distances with flamethrowers, goo cannons, mind control guns, plane-o-glass guns, and even a vacuum cleaner. The list of total weapons grows as the game progresses, as does the ability to open up new battle modes for vs. play.
Within the vs. mode, players can select up to four different teams and any of 15 characters. To mix things up, nine different modes can be selected once unlocked. Some of our favorites include the classic Last Man Standing fight, which has players battling in either single or team competition to eliminate the opposition. Other games include the ever-popular Bask-eye-Ball, Crush the Horde (which has players fighting a never-ending mass of AI baddies), Capture and Hold (multi-point king of the hill), and Skull Keeper (where everyone attacks the one holding the skull, hence the name). The different modes add a ton of replay value to the game, and four player battles promise to be amazingly hectic.
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy has a solid amount to offer fans of the series aside from the general gameplay as well. The overall presentation is very strong, having the show's voice actors delivering 3D animated cut-scenes in story mode, and a fair amount of in-game dialogue as well. The overall graphical style isn't as sharp as we'd like, but that's due in part to the limited power of the systems and the necessity for cell shaded artwork. Even still, there's a ton going on at all times on the screen, and the effects and animations are still very strong, it's simply obvious that the franchise belongs on a high-res display to achieve the true look of the show. As a final note on presentation, we love seeing Weird Al Yankovic as the announcer, as he bring a solid "White n' Nerdy" feel to the game. Cheers, Alfred.
Bringing it to Wii
In the true fashion of a "Wii-make", not much has been done to up the production value or overall content in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy for Wii. To be fair, the conversion is actually a bit more solid than a few others we've seen thus far, adding another tier of story mode (about an extra hour of play) and managing to keep everything that was fun about the GCN version in tact when bringing it up to Wii. In all honesty though, there's just not much here that sets the game apart from last-gen versions. Control can be done with either the GameCube controller or Wii-mote/nunchuk combination, and aside from the heavy attack being added to general Wii-mote flicking the game is essentially the same. The only other addition is in the finishing moves, which has players using the IR sensor to move a cursor over to a target rather than tapping buttons in the GameCube version. If using a GCN controller, you'll get the previous button combo finishers.
What irks us about the Wii conversion is the general lack of effort on the technical side. The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy has a solid style, but for some reason 480p and 16:9 wasn't included in the GCN version. Well here we are on Wii with those tech specifications being the unofficial standard for any and all software, and again no jump in technical presentation was made. There's no reason for it, and it's a shame it wasn't included, as the game has a generally interesting look that ends up being brought down by low-res display. It may be a licensed game, but even a small step into the next generation would be nice, and the lack of effort really does show when compared to other licensed games on Wii thus far.
©2006-12-05, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved