Happy Feet
More like sad feet! I kill me… HA HA! Is it hot in here?
Tags: Happy Feet Categories: Reviews, Wii Reviews
Posted by Mike "Two Tone" McConnell on Dec 30th, 2006
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Happy Feet (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
Happy Feet is yet another mini-game collection for the Wii (much like Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz or Rayman Raving Rabbids), but this seems to be the worst in the lot. While there are certainly elements from the smash animated film of the same name, the brief story summaries between the arbitrary story mode seems to be cut and pasted.
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There are three modes to this game, a quest mode that follows the idea of the film without the entertainment. The second is a standard versus mode. The final mode is called “Family Mode” which is a kind of cooperative mode that allows for conflict free family gaming.
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This would be a good idea if these games were any fun. Each one feels like a different idea for the adaptations but none were seen to completion. The first game is a DDR clone, right down to the arrow controls. While I’m certain that the Wii allows for amazing new controls themes, waving it in cardinal directions, isn’t one of them. Half of the fun in DDR is dancing around in an arcade or living room. No one looks cool playing DDR, and that’s the point. It’s like Karaoke everyone is equally nerdy. The Wii controls aren’t engaging at all, as I said all you do is wave the controller. It does take a bit of trying, but in no time even your four year old can master this mode. It may be that was the intent, but really, how many four year olds should be playing videogames?
The second game is a downhill race, called the Belly Slide. There are some speed boost as obstacles you have to break, but all in all there is not anything to see here. In the family mode of this game one player races, while the second player uses a direction sequence to break the ice down slope. While this is similar to the DDR game, the racer holds the controller Excitetruck style. Even these do not manage to hold any interest for awhile. The last game has the same racing control scheme but you move the controller to raise and lower the penguins as well.
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Over all this is a poor showing even for mini-games, and there is a poor system to link all of these together. Even for a quick rush license game, this a new standard in how incomplete a game could be. What troubles most is that each of the games feels like a flash game. These could all easily be played on a keyboard and mouse, than any controller let alone the Wii Remote.
[NOTE: The screens are from the PS2 version - not that it matters.]
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
| + Penguins!! | 1.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
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- Arbitrary controls - Mini-games are not fun |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Just pass, any system, any time, if your kids are clamoring for fabulous Penguin based entertainment, this game has a lot of one but not the other. | |
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Tags: Happy Feet
Posted by Mike "Two Tone" McConnell on Dec 30th, 2006 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.
