Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island
Marvel’s got nothin’ on Nick.
Tags: Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island Categories: Game Cube Reviews, PS2 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Tracy Erickson on Nov 8th, 2006
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Party | No | ||
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When you have a veritable pantheon of animated stars, why make a game for each of them when you can just make one for all of them? The newest addition to THQ’s stable of Nickelodeon-licensed games, Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island, does just this by bringing together all of the network’s biggest animated heroes for a totally original adventure. While this cartoon caper may not carry oodles of content, it will satiate any Nickelodeon fan’s thirst for a bit of animated action. Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island is an entertaining romp for young kids, but its short length limits its value.
Due to a rift in the space-time continuum, Battle for Volcano Island plops the cast of Nickelodeon’s top cartoons on a mysterious island in another dimension. SpongeBob SquarePants and Danny Phantom kick off the adventure when they meet a talking crab that warns them of the malevolent Mawgu. This mean monster is spreading toxic ooze throughout the island, causing everything to turn evil. Only by finding the nine Chosen Ones (of which SpongeBob and Danny are the first two) can Mawgu be defeated; naturally, it’s up to you to lead the search for all of the Nicktoons and confront Mawgu.
Battle for Volcano Island is a straightforward action platform game that has you traipse through ten levels beating down Mawgu’s evil creatures, tackling platform challenges, and hunting down collectible items. There are tons of items awaiting collection including objects native to the island and special salvage items that unlock bonus levels. Finding items and defeating enemies not only opens up new levels, but also earns you medals for notoriety. None of this is especially difficult, which makes it ideal for younger kids; knowing that your child can complete the game is much better than hearing the sound of a controller being thrown across the room.
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If anything, you’re likely to hear laughter from all of the campy dialogue and smiles thanks to the appearance of six different playable Nicktoons. In addition to SpongeBob and Danny Phantom, you can also play as Timmy Turner, Patrick Star, Samantha Manson, and Sandy Cheeks. All six characters move together as a group and you can switch between any of them on-the-fly by standing next to the cartoon you want to control and then using the right trigger on GameCube or R2 on PlayStation 2. Aside from their appearance, there are no appreciable differences between the characters; more specifically, each character possesses the same types of attack and controls. While it would have been nice to incorporate unique abilities in each of the heroes, Battle for Volcano Island presumably keeps it simple for its target audience.
As enjoyable as Battle for Volcano Island might be, it is extremely short. With only ten levels, expect your kid to rip right through the game in a matter of a few hours. Even when accounting for item collection, the game still offers less than five or six hours of gameplay. Eight bonus levels attempt to extend the fun, but all of them are nearly identical. Finding a character’s salvage items unlocks a new level that requires you to race against a timer through simple environments. Instead of offering unique challenges, each level is just a differently themed race. While the levels look great, they become old quickly due to the blatant lack of variety.
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At least you can enjoy the convincing visual presentation during the short few hours Battle for Volcano Island lasts. The graphics do well in bringing the cast of cartoon personas to digital life, even if the voice acting is a little off in places. For the most part, the game runs well on both systems; however, there was an unusual bug in the GameCube version that causes a return to the main menu when the game auto-saves. While it doesn’t occur every time the game saves, it is annoying that you have to load your game back up because of the error.
Overall, Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island is an entertaining spin on familiar characters that will certainly keep kids engaged—for a limited time. The short length prevents it from being a completely worthwhile purchase; but while Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island lasts, its fun and that’s all that really matters.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Appropriate difficulty level for kids + Ability to play as six different Nickelodeon characters + Good visuals |
7.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Less than six hours of gameplay - All eight bonus levels are identical - Voices occasionally don’t sound like actual characters |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island is a good pick for kids that love Nickelodeon; of course, expect to buy another game shortly after gifting due to the unimpressive length. At least it looks good and is a bit of fun. | |
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Tags: Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island
Posted by Tracy Erickson on Nov 8th, 2006 and is filed under Game Cube Reviews, PS2 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.
