Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots
Score: 70% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: THQ Developer: Bluetongue Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Platformer
Graphics & Sound: Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots isn't all that bad visually. The levels have a lot of detail in them and, for the most part, the Nicktoon characters are distinct and easily recognizable. Where the visuals don't quite seem right is when up-close in cut scenes. I found myself looking at Timmy Turner and seeing some pretty odd folds in the model that just didn't look right when he talked. Granted there weren't any huge issues, just a lot of little things that didn't quite look right. But overall, the graphics aren't really bad. Audio is so-so in Attack of the Toybots. The background music is forgettable and might as well not be there. While it kept my speakers busy during the game and didn't get annoying, I found myself not caring if the volume was turned on at all. The character voices seem to be done by the same actors as the series (though I have to wonder about some of the older Nicktoon characters like Stempy and Rocko) and come through pretty good.
Gameplay: Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots starts off with Jimmy Neutron's enemy, Professor Calamitous, devising a new evil plot that involves using Fairy Gas (he feeds fairies from Timmy Turner's universe Krabby Patties from Spongebob's universe), and hundreds of mechanical, evil toys. Exactly what his plot is isn't clear; all we know up front is that he is competing in a game show called Real Genius where he is required to do something diabolical with themed ingredients (very similar to Iron Chef... yes, even the diabolical part). When Patrick is sucked into the toy factory, it is up to Spongebob Squarepants to free him. Along the way, you will free up characters like Tak (this would be Tak's first appearance in a Nicktoons game), Timmy Turner and Jimmy Neutron. As you progress in the game, many other Nicktoons will become avalibale like Danny Phantom, Robot Betty (from "My Life As a Teenage Robot"), Zim (from "Invader Zim"), Stimpy (from "Ren and Stimpy") and Rocko (from "Rocko's Modern Life"). But just because you don't get to play as more characters doesn't mean that they won't make appearances. Calamitous seems to be trying to make toys out of characters from each of the Nicktoon universes. To do that, he captures the character and makes a Master Mold of them. As you go through the game, you will collect these molds, so you will see characters from many other shows like "Avatar: The Last Airbender" or "Rugrats" though it would have been nice to see a few more of the older shows like "Aahh!!! Real Monsters" or "Doug" (though there might be some legal reasons there since ABC/Disney eventually took over that license). The game is very much a side-scrolling (though you have some 3D control) platformer. In fact, I would say if you have no patience for platformers at all, you will want to avoid this game with a passion. There were quite a few elements in this game that said "you know, platformers sometimes do this, so let's do it all the time" which got really annoying really fast. For example, early on, while in the factory, you have to jump between gears spaced vertically in different manners. Sometimes the spacing requires a double jump, sometimes just a single (and if you double, you die). The first time I came across this type of area, it took me no less than 50 tries to get past, I was very relieved to be beyond it. Unfortunately, it wasn't long before I found another area that was basically the same thing, except there were trampolines as the floor - not fun. Let's just say, it's a good thing there is no limit to the number of lives you have in Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots.
Difficulty: If nothing else, the last paragraph of the Gameplay section should have told you that Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots isn't all that easy. I'm a very experienced platform gamer and I have a lot of patience when it comes to timing my jumps and making the same stupid mistakes over and over again, but I don't think I've ever had to repeat areas as frequently as I did in this game. There are just a ton of places where, if your timing is off by just a little bit, you are gone and start back up at the last checkpoint. Thankfully, those checkpoints are very frequent and, for the most part, properly placed so you never have to redo a whole lot of stuff before getting to the area that is causing you problems. I just found it really odd that most of this game's content seems to be the same type of areas over and over again in increasingly difficult combinations. While other games have done similar things in the past, even the very first encounter is a doozey.
Game Mechanics: Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots lets you play two characters or each player can control a character in a pop-in/pop-out fashion. This is always nice (with the possible exception of the above mentioned platforming issue). Where this game fails at this mechanic is what the extra character is doing while no one is controlling it. In most games, the second character helps you in attacking the enemies; albeit it doesn't always do a good job, but at least it tries. In Attack of the Nicktoons, I rarely saw him/her doing anything proactive. The only times I saw the character doing any kind of attack was when the enemies accidentally hit it. I say accidentally because, for the most part, the enemies ignore the second character about as much as that character ignores them. And while the mass of enemies was never really too much for me to handle, I frequently felt like the other character was a waste of space and did nothing more than die when I tried to make it through some of the tougher jumps. It is really hard to recommend this game. While it lets you play as more Nicktoons than ever before, and most of those you don't play as have cameos, the gameplay itself is just too hard or tedious for me to say is fun. While it is a challenge, unless you have a whole lot of patience and time on your hands, it might be too much of a challenge for most players.
-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer
Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots Dementium: The Ward