Jimmy Neutron: Attack of the Twonkies is based off of the one-hour episode of the same name, but only in concept. Like in the show, Jimmy visits the comet Twonkus-3 and discovers a new form of life. He accidentally brings home one of the Twonkies, it multiplies and grows (in a manner very similar to the “Gremlins” movies) and chaos ensues. Also like the episode, this change in the Twonkies’ manner is caused by music and certain sounds. But that is pretty much where the common ground ends.
Besides a few lines and actions that are similar to the show, Jimmy Neutron: Attack of the Twonkies (the game) goes off in a different direction that makes the overall story much more in depth.
Jimmy Neutron: Attack of the Twonkies’s invention system is great and vast. Just by collecting certain items throughout the levels, you will be able to make dozens of new objects. These objects fall into three categories: Gizmos, inventions, and super inventions.
Most of the objects you will be able to build are Gizmos, and will typically be used only once. These are for particular events. For instance, if you happen to find the right objects at the radio station, you can “MacGyver” together a gizmo that can deflect small discs. Soon afterwards, you’ll find a room where a Stomper is throwing CD’s at you. But you won’t need that gizmo again. Gizmos are made of two items.
Inventions will be used frequently. These are a combination of three objects and are used to make things like the Sheenograph and VDR. The Sheenograph and VDR are Jimmy’s main weapons against the Twonkie invasion. The VDR (or Vacuum Demodulating Reciprocator) will allow you to suck up the small bouncing villains, while the Sheenograph uses Sheen’s horrible singing voice to devolve the Stompers and Gromps back into regular Twonkies.
The super inventions are used in the boss battles. Here you will put four pieces together to drain Lightning Twonkie boss’ energy, radiate light at the Dark Twonkie boss, or shoot fiery explosive pucks at the Ice Twonkie boss. These items will be used in the individual boss battles, as well as the major battle at the end when Jimmy faces off against all three of the bosses combined.
As you progress through the game, you will unlock four different bonus items. One is movies and previews of other games, another is a series of concept art. The third one is a series of classic games with Jimmy Neutron twists (like Space Invaders, where the invaders are the Yokians, or Breakout where you are trying to free lab animals). You unlock this slew of arcade goodies after you get past the retro-land level (after you beat the arcade games themselves). The last bonus is a level that lets you race against Sheen and Carl on jet packs. This one was fun, but it got tedious fast.
