Danny Phantom Urban Jungle
More action-packed than Crossing Over with John Edwards, at least.
Tags: Danny Phantom Urban Jungle Categories: DS Reviews, GBA Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Michael Hanning on Oct 30th, 2006
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Danny Phantom Urban Jungle (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
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Danny Phantom is a show by Nickelodeon that seems to be about a superhero who fights ghosts using ghost powers, or might be a ghost who’s a superhero fighting other ghosts. I really can’t say for sure. Either way, it seems to be a mildly alarming look into an afterlife of drifting from right to left across a screen and firing intermittent laser bolts. I was really hoping to work up enough good karma to be an endboss.
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Danny Phantom: Urban Jungle is more or less a pastiche of Ikaruga. You control Danny as he drifts from one side of the screen to another firing at waves of enemies. A force field surrounds Danny that can be switched to either red or blue, which is then used to absorb matched energy shot at Danny. Absorbing energy powers up his ghost powers, which seem to be mostly about capturing ghosts or blowing them up real good. The only ghost power that adds something really unique is his ability to move straight through solid objects at the cost of your energy, letting you fly through some enemies or through obstacles. Unfortunately stages aren’t designed to make you use this in any new or unique ways – in fact, stages don’t seem to be designed to do anything but throw bad guys at you in indeterminate waves. What made Ikaruga interesting was how intricately the enemy attack patterns were coordinated, challenging the player’s reflexes and skills to navigate the dangerous zones and constantly switch to the right energy. You really don’t have to worry about any of that in Danny Phantom if you can shoot a big enough laser.
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The two versions of Danny Phantom play a little differently – the range of movement is a little freer in the GBA version, but the touchscreen lets you choose between different firing modes for Danny on the DS. Ironically the touch screen makes that version than its GBA cousin. Picking up a heart on the Advance gives you health. Picking up a heart in the DS version drops it in a tank of hearts on the touchscreen that you have to tap to gain health. In theory it’s good that you can save health for when you need it, but when you do need it you probably don’t want to take a hand off of the controls in the first place. A good attempt to integrate the touch screen, but seemingly without thinking the consequences all the way through.
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Another problem the game has is that it’s meant to be the game version of a single episode rather than of the series itself, an unusual move. The game could have chosen to be much more closely plotted taken you through areas in-depth, but instead it chooses too use this as an excuse to recycle enemies and backgrounds repeatedly. The saving grace there is that backgrounds are so bland you may not even notice the third time that you fly through the same school hallway. Recycled bosses are a bit more of a nuisance – every time they’re the same, except maybe with a new attack or two. The final battle is worse because you simply fight the game’s two most-used bosses, repeatedly. The boss battles themselves aren’t even particularly interesting – their attacks are easily dodged or absorbed, and there aren’t any glaring weak points or grand strategies. Just keep hammering the A button and dodging, they’ll go down eventually.
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There are some minor differences. The DS version looks much better, naturally, and there are differences in enemies between the two. There’s even a few stages of more Panzer Dragoon-inspired gameplay on the DS that would be impossible to recreate on the Advance. All that really did was make me wish Sega do a proper Panzer Dragoon for the DS.
Danny Phantom: Urban Jungle is a game that’s playable but never outstanding. Fans of sidescrolling shooters may find something to like here and the Ikaruga-flavored gameplay will appeal to some, but in the end the only real reason to pick this up is if your kid is a fan of the show. They’ll relish the chance to fight a giant ghost meatloaf monster, where gamers looking for something a little more complex might wait for a higher-quality game without the TV tie-in. If you absolutely have to choose between the two the DS is probably a slightly better buy for the sharper graphics, though your kid is probably going to be fine with either one.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Remember Ikaruga? So do they. + Well animated, at least + Panzer Dragoon-esque levels are fun |
4.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
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- None of the challenge or complexity of the old games it freely referances. - Lots of recycled enemies, bosses and backgrounds. - Non-fans probably won't understand or care about what's going on. |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Most of its best parts are taken from old games, but kids who just want to play a Danny Phantom game aren't going to care about that. Good for fans of the show. | |
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Tags: Danny Phantom Urban Jungle
Posted by Michael Hanning on Oct 30th, 2006 and is filed under DS Reviews, GBA Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
