The Wild Thornberrys Chimp Chase
Score: 20% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: THQ Developer: Helixe Media: Cart/1 Players: 1 Genre: Platformer
Graphics & Sound: As a case-in-point for why we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, allow me to present The Wild Thornberry's Chimp Chase. This title has all the visual cues to recommend it as a piece of fine gaming. Clean, bright graphics and recognizable characters from the Nickelodeon show grace every minute of screentime. If only gameplay were equal to appearance... Chimp Chase has a cel-shaded look with the black lines around characters to give them definition against the wild locations and background images. There are varied settings to play in, from snowy Arctic to African veldt, and plenty of creatures to fend off in each location. The sound effects don't come near the music, but no bit of flashy graphics or catchy musical number could overcome the gameplay doldrums Chimp Chase has to offer. With this game, I believe we've officially reached the point we did in movies many years ago where computer animation and big effects were a dime a dozen. At first, we were just all so thrilled to see big-budget effects in movies that we were willing to forsake all story and just bask in the glow of computer animation. And, with Game Boy Advance, I have to admit I forgave a few of the first generation titles their limited gameplay or depth just because I was enjoying those fantastic graphics. Well, I'm over that now, and Chimp Chase illustrates only too well what happens when gameplay gets left on the cutting room floor.
Gameplay: What you'll find in Chimp Chase is initial elation followed almost immediately by deflation. The promise of its graphics in no way prepare for the poor experience of actually working through the first level. The story revolves around Darwin the Chimp, who is captured by Kip and Biederman, nasty poachers. You play the first short level as Darwin until the chimp-napping actually transpires, and then quickly switch to playing several members of the Wild Thornberry family to rescue Darwin from his predicament. The style of play here is straight from the World Platformer Rulebook, a well thumbed volume that seems to have made its way into the hands of every major game development house in the world. You'll climb, jump, swing on ropes, collect items and fight enemies to complete each level. Some interesting spots come through when you'll work with partner animals who can help uncover the mystery of Darwin's whereabouts. But really, there's no puzzle to be worked out, just a long string of levels encompassing all the platforming tricks you can imagine. In a well-made game, we platforming fans tend to enjoy all the jumping and item collection, and more than a few titles on GBC and GBA have shown that it's possible to do the genre proud for portables. So what went wrong here? The real issue lies in mechanics, more than gameplay, but suffice it to say that all the great ideas in the world won't cover up sloppy control and environments that just seem to want you dead. The downfall of gameplay in Chimp Chase is repetition. Doing the same stuff over and over again for all the same reasons isn't fun. If the controls were tight and the action were novel, some fun could be had, but neither is the case. What's left under the story and the sweet graphics are about 4 or 5 tricks you'll do over and over again without any real feeling of exploration, achievement, excitement or challenge. Oh sorry, you will be challenged, but that has more to do with terrible controls and bad programming than anything in the story.
Difficulty: What I found in just the first few minutes of playing, is that Chimp Chase fails miserably at the only thing it wants to do, which is offer a fun platforming experience. Climbing trees in the first levels reveals that you can stand on some branches but not on others. You can climb down the tree until you reach leaves, but climbing into the leaves apparently makes you fall to your doom below. Some parts of the tree are safe, but there aren't visual clues to let you distinguish safe harbor from grave danger. This stuff persists across the board, and I won't bore you with the details. What gets boring is dealing with the lowered bar Chimp Chase expects you to hold it to when more than a few excellent Platform/Action games are available for both GBA and GBC. The content is young, but anyone old enough to want this game will be old enough to know the difference. THQ seems to be laboring under the delusion that kids buying Chimp Chase won't also be playing Wario, Mario, Spyro, Pitfall or Lady Sia.
Game Mechanics: There isn't much to mention that isn't at fault for Chimp Chase being so poor under this category, but I would target control and edge detection as the principle architects of this game's failure to please. Simple controls, but why won't they do what I tell them to? If my character is slipping or falling, I should be able to correct. I can jump and move, so why can't I move when I fall? What is it about some surfaces that makes them sticky when I climb up but not when I happen to fall down? Some ledges support me and some don't, but how would I know? Why should I have to fall down just because I climbed over some magic place that wouldn't support me? You let me climb there, so what gives? And when I can't jump over enemies or avoid them, I get really frustrated. In fact, I stop playing. There's nothing wrong with penalizing me for slipping and falling by asking me to climb up again, but I don't even get a second chance here. Pitfall for GBA had plenty of slippery control, but as long as I fell on a solid surface I could climb up again. There's no knowing what's solid or not here, so every screen is an adventure. After the initial shock, if you can hang in for later levels, you'll have the chance to ride animals through levels and be chased on foot, but the climbing-jumping-climbing action doesn't go away. Fighting enemies is frustrating when you have a pitifully limited supply of ammo and can't really do much to avoid enemies in the first place. So, understanding what kind of strategy we're expected to use with even the few enemies present in levels is beyond me. At least one area includes some stealth strategy, but you can imagine how successful that is after you factor in all the weird control issues. Password-Save lets you pick up the action after you've lost all your lives or started over, so patient gamers really in love with The Wild Thornberrys can see Eliza and her family through to the bitter end. It actually is possible to rescue Darwin, but the amount of frustration in every minute of gameplay may lead you as I did, to wish Kip and Biederman had made monkey stew of that dirty ape. Survival of the fittest puts Darwin and THQ's Chimp Chase on the bottom of the evolutionary gaming ladder.
-Fridtjof, GameVortex Communications AKA Matt Paddock
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