The Ant Bully
Yet another port to the Wii, but this one is actually okay.
Tags: Ant Bully Categories: Reviews, Wii Reviews
Posted by Mike "Two Tone" McConnell on Jan 14th, 2007
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ant Bully (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
While it may be easy to slam the Ant Bully’s incarnation on the Wii as yet another shameless port to a system full of them, this will not be one of them. The Wii was *the* gift for the holidays, and they are still in short supply, and while many of the ports would have been better served with a traditional controller, The Ant Bully uses the Wii well. The motion sensing is not what it may be on more Wii centered releases, the uses they have are still intriguing. A cautionary note however, if you aren’t the type to play a game adapted from a kid’s movie, you aren’t going to like this.
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Now issues of target age group aside, The Ant Bully is an adventure game in the spirit of Zelda. It breaks format with a mission select system that makes for broken immersion that doesn’t take long to get annoying. Allowing you to go back and collect bonuses, and items after clearing an area should be given, and so should save points. Instead of just moving along and allowing you to explore freely, you are always transported back to the cave to select your next mission. This is because there are five Ants that guide Lucas’ quest to become and Ant, and each of their missions emphasizes different skills. For those our there who’s kids aren’t ready for the 60+ hours of a standard adventure game, this is a great introduction.
The controls are fairly easy to master, and eerily similar to Zelda. The attack is mapped to the remote swing, however it is much easier to just use the trigger buttons. The nunchuck use really stands out as innovative, albeit a tad excessive. The camera controls, and aiming are both mapped there, so posture can become a factor. Especially when you relax your hand and the camera starts spinning wildly. Featuring a lock on, the aiming function is almost useless, as it is mapped to motion of the nunchuck. It isn’t worth the effort to master such a touchy system, when a simple button press and viola your hours of frustration and death to kill a mosquito are over.
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The enemies could have used some work in this game. Even the supposedly fearful earwigs don’t present too much of a challenge. The enemy design could have used some work as well, since the enemies stay the same throughout the levels, and their increased difficulty is shown through new colors. This method of changing enemies is tired, and was boring when they did it on the Genesis and SNES. When your enemies were a blobby pixel, yes a changed color meant a lot. After sprites this should have been done and over with. We are in the 21st century, and yes there are no flying cars, but it shouldn’t be too much to ask that you get a reasonable guide to insects, and think a few new enemies up.
The levels themselves are well designed, and a keen attention to detail. They are rather well laid out. It’s a plus that they are easy to memorize, as there is no map. Maps, c’mon. There are some clever uses of household items as set pieces.
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Flaws and all this is a great game for the preteen audience. It does bear on the repetitive side, but in light of more recent licensed game, at least there is more than two hours of game. The Ant Bully is no epic, but it works well for what it is. It does sell the movie as well, mostly due to the fact the Bruce Campbell is in the movie and the game.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ A good starter adventure + Innovative use of the nunchuck + Bruce Campbell. |
6.5 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Yet more enemies difficulty who is defined by color - The game repeats itself a little too often |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| While most licensed games end up being commericials that you pay for, The Ant Bully draws well from the source material, but still manages | |
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Tags: Ant Bully
Posted by Mike "Two Tone" McConnell on Jan 14th, 2007 and is filed under Reviews, Wii 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.
