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Disney’s That’s So Raven

Score: 70%
ESRB: Everyone
Publisher: Disney Interactive
Developer: Disney Interactive
Media: Cartridge/1
Players: 1
Genre: Action/ Adventure

Graphics & Sound:

Disney’s That’s So Raven brings the Disney series into the interactive world for the first time, letting you play as the girl with visions. But Raven’s graphics are below par a lot of the time. It reminded me a lot of games from the Game Boy Color era. While the image and quality of the video come off as clean and crisp footage when Raven returns from a vision and the camera zooms out of her eye, as well as the freeze-framed stills between missions, everything in-game is extremely flat, and the halls of the various buildings all look that same. It doesn’t take long to get turned around and confused while attempting to complete Raven’s tasks.

Surprisingly though, the images used to portray the characters from the show come off as somewhat recognizable. However, as I got about halfway through the game, I lost track of who was who, and at that point all the male characters seemed to look the same, as did all the female ones. You can walk more than just left and right down the halls in the game, you can also move up and down -- unfortunately, the Raven character only seems to side-step her way up and down, she doesn’t actually turn. This seemed really cheap and got on my nerves early.

The music is extremely repetitive and also gets annoying fast. I played through the game with the volume off for the most part and found the silence to be much more enjoyable.


Gameplay:

Raven is your average girl, except she has visions. She can see the future sometimes. But most of the time she misinterprets what the vision means. Disney’s That’s So Raven spans four episodes -- each with five missions in them. Most of the time, you will start a mission by getting a vision, and Raven will say something like “Oh no, I have to keep that paint from falling on her” -- which means you’re off to find your friend who has a date with a ladder and a paint bucket.

You will navigate your way through endless halls of the school, mall, and other very similar locations. Keep in mind that Raven will lose health if she gets dirty or hit, so you have to avoid people pushing big things like AV carts or baskets. People will also be throwing food, books, or various other items at Raven. You can deflect these projectiles by swinging Raven’s purse, and you can easily avoid the people pushing objects.

There are also two “weapons” that Raven can collect along the way. Raven can hold up to 20 water bottles and 20 bottles of perfume. You can pour the water in front of one of the pushers to make them stop for a little while, or you can spray the throwers with the perfume to keep them dazed.

There are also bonus missions in most of the levels. You will typically find someone to talk to that lost his homework, or wants you to find him some hamburgers or something like that. On the top of the screen will be a box saying how many of those bonus items you’ve found and how many there are in all. Once you have them all, take them back to the person and you will get some life back.

These bonus missions are only mildly interesting and quickly repetitive -- though if you do go after them, it does lengthen the game time since you typically find the person at the beginning of the level, and the last item at the end, thus, making you traverse the halls all the way back through the pushers and throwers.


Difficulty:

Disney’s That’s So Raven isn’t a hard game. I ran through it in no time at all. The younger gamers the product is geared towards might encounter some challenges as they attempt to sneak by hall monitors or navigate their way past people pushing AV carts. But it shouldn’t keep them too set back as both the cart pushers and hall monitors have ways of being stopped (with water or with hall passes), and they all follow very predictable back and forth paths.

Game Mechanics:

Disney’s That’s So Raven has a simple control scheme. You move Raven around with the D-Pad, and you swing your purse with the B button. You spray the perfume with the Right Shoulder button and pour the water out with the Left Shoulder button. And when you come across someone you are supposed to talk to, you press A (you will know who they are because that have word bubbles over their heads with the A button in them).

This game’s target audience of the younger gamer will probably find it more appealing than the rest of the demographics. But then again, the rest of the demographics probably won’t be interested in buying this game anyway.


-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications
AKA Chris Meyer

Microsoft Xbox FIFA Soccer 2005 Windows SuperPower 2

 
Game Vortex :: PSIllustrated