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IGN Review of Tom & Jerry Tales
Tom and Jerry hold a special place in my heart. I used to watch the cartoon with a religious fervor, and then reenact my favorite scenes on the family cat. Now 16 years and four cats later, Tom and Jerry have a new cartoon, and a new videogame from Sensory Sweep. The new Gameboy Advance title, Tom and Jerry tales, attempts to bring to life the wacky antics of the cat and mouse, but much like all the stuff Tom is subjected to, this is a painful experience.
The plot is simple enough, as all Tom and Jerry plots are. The family has left the house, and Tom, in a preemptive move, has hidden all the cheese that was in the fridge. Jerry devises a plan to not only get the cheese back, but to get Tom kicked out of the house as well. The story is told through just a couple screens. Since Tom and Jerry are not of the talking animal variety, no dialogue enters into the mix. The menus are all from Jerry's point of view. The map of the house is a homemade blueprint, stuff like that. It's a nice touch fro normal menus.
Minigames are the theme of the title, and players will have to maneuver Jerry through the house, competing in a variety of minigames in order to get back the precious cheese. There are a handful of minigames, a few of which are used repeatedly. One of the most common involves players dodging falling objects, by running back and forth, then attacking the table legs on either side of the screen, making the table fall on Tom's head. The minigames are all pretty basic, and before each one, instructions tell the player exactly how to beat it. I appreciated the heads up on the first few, but every time I played any of the games, I was reminded exactly what to do and that got annoying. Most of the games are totally self explanatory, and even if they weren't I just played it a few minutes ago!
In between the minigames are platforming levels in Jerry's mouse hole. Players have to collect all the cheese in the mouse hole before moving on. The level design on these is so annoying, that any fun that could be derived from playing it is lost. It doesn't help that this type of level is the most common gameplay element in the title. Much of player's time will be spent jumping around on bricks, gathering pieces of cheese. The levels get progressively "harder" which really just translates to the levels being more drawn out. There's nothing interesting about any of these levels, and as they start to get more difficult they only become more ridiculous. In one of the levels, Jerry's mouse hole is filled with teleporters that players have to go through to find all the cheese. It's such a completely random addition to the otherwise no frills, '50s suburban style of the rest of the game.
The biggest problem with the game is the lack of save slots. When publishers decide to save a few bucks by skipping that feature, it really ruins games. Does Warner Bros. Games really expect kids to keep writing down passwords and keep track of those? The average 10-year-old probably loses his DS on a regular basis, where is he going to keep passwords? The game doesn't even keep track of your progress enough to let you return to the title screen. Which means if players go to view the house map and accidentally press B (back) instead of A (accept), all progress is lost.
It's such a shame that this game isn't very fun, because it looks pretty nice, though only on the surface. The characters are well done, maintaining the William Hanna and Joseph Barbera style that America has fallen in love with. The animations aren't very fluid, especially Tom's. After each minigame, a screen pops up with artwork showing the aftermath of Jerry's mischief on Tom. It would have been nice to get to view the artwork in a gallery of sorts, but that probably would have required a save slot.
A save slot could have helped save this game. A few things, like getting to play the minigames without having to go through the whole game, seem like no brainers. I don't doubt that the developers probably would have liked to include things like this too, so it's a shame the game is limited by budget.
©2006-11-14, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
The plot is simple enough, as all Tom and Jerry plots are. The family has left the house, and Tom, in a preemptive move, has hidden all the cheese that was in the fridge. Jerry devises a plan to not only get the cheese back, but to get Tom kicked out of the house as well. The story is told through just a couple screens. Since Tom and Jerry are not of the talking animal variety, no dialogue enters into the mix. The menus are all from Jerry's point of view. The map of the house is a homemade blueprint, stuff like that. It's a nice touch fro normal menus.
Minigames are the theme of the title, and players will have to maneuver Jerry through the house, competing in a variety of minigames in order to get back the precious cheese. There are a handful of minigames, a few of which are used repeatedly. One of the most common involves players dodging falling objects, by running back and forth, then attacking the table legs on either side of the screen, making the table fall on Tom's head. The minigames are all pretty basic, and before each one, instructions tell the player exactly how to beat it. I appreciated the heads up on the first few, but every time I played any of the games, I was reminded exactly what to do and that got annoying. Most of the games are totally self explanatory, and even if they weren't I just played it a few minutes ago!
In between the minigames are platforming levels in Jerry's mouse hole. Players have to collect all the cheese in the mouse hole before moving on. The level design on these is so annoying, that any fun that could be derived from playing it is lost. It doesn't help that this type of level is the most common gameplay element in the title. Much of player's time will be spent jumping around on bricks, gathering pieces of cheese. The levels get progressively "harder" which really just translates to the levels being more drawn out. There's nothing interesting about any of these levels, and as they start to get more difficult they only become more ridiculous. In one of the levels, Jerry's mouse hole is filled with teleporters that players have to go through to find all the cheese. It's such a completely random addition to the otherwise no frills, '50s suburban style of the rest of the game.
The biggest problem with the game is the lack of save slots. When publishers decide to save a few bucks by skipping that feature, it really ruins games. Does Warner Bros. Games really expect kids to keep writing down passwords and keep track of those? The average 10-year-old probably loses his DS on a regular basis, where is he going to keep passwords? The game doesn't even keep track of your progress enough to let you return to the title screen. Which means if players go to view the house map and accidentally press B (back) instead of A (accept), all progress is lost.
It's such a shame that this game isn't very fun, because it looks pretty nice, though only on the surface. The characters are well done, maintaining the William Hanna and Joseph Barbera style that America has fallen in love with. The animations aren't very fluid, especially Tom's. After each minigame, a screen pops up with artwork showing the aftermath of Jerry's mischief on Tom. It would have been nice to get to view the artwork in a gallery of sorts, but that probably would have required a save slot.
A save slot could have helped save this game. A few things, like getting to play the minigames without having to go through the whole game, seem like no brainers. I don't doubt that the developers probably would have liked to include things like this too, so it's a shame the game is limited by budget.
©2006-11-14, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved