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Stupid Invaders
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Graphics & Sound:
Games based on cartoons don't always make for stellar entertainment, a point Disney has been making repeatedly over the last several years. But, with the right inspiration, a cartoon would seem the ideal vehicle for game conversion since it already exists in a medium that makes anything possible and can provide boundless amounts of source material. Plus, the struggle to buy into CG versions of real-life actors is immediately overcome since CG can make cartoon characters look even better than they usually do. And with Stupid Invaders Ubi Soft completely proves that even simplistic, sophomoric source material can produce a great game. The cartoon in question is Space Goofs, which enjoyed a brief run on either Fox or WB, and was a combination of Full House and Lost in Space. Not only is the 50's decor of the Space Goofs' house shown in all its technicolor glory, but the Lounge vibe is heightened further by some great music. Since the style of this game is point-and-click, you'll find a lot of little cut scenes as a character moves from room to room or uses an object. These are done in the game's engine, without much more than a little loading, and the big CG effects are reserved for longer scenes that advance the story significantly. Also, you'll find that you solve a bunch of little puzzles to earn a big CG movie at the end, with a particularly nice one at the end of each 'stage.' Every room seems to have a new musical setting, and the character voice-overs are true to the original series. Most of what you hear is bawdy, bathroom humor which fans of the show might expect. Most parents listening in on this game will feel the Teen rating is well deserved, especially when the first 5 minutes of the game has Bud on the toilet complaining about last night's meal and blowing huge farts. |
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Gameplay:
I love to harken back to the days of text adventures, and good old Infocom. Before 3D worlds and real-world physics, we had to depend on a spirit of adventure, good memory and a willingness to try anything once. Stupid Invaders really is the 3D descendant of games like Zork, with Myst holding a middleground as some kind of near Uncle or second Cousin. What point-and-click means for you as the gamer is that action only happens when you interact with your environment, so each click earns you a resulting action. Stringing together events depends on how well you can organize the environment, and if you want to catch a balloon tied to a string in a tree, you may have to kill the spider that keeps the key that unlocks the ravenous beaver's den that can gnaw down the tree and release the balloon. Okay, I just made that up, but the events in Stupid Invaders are no less strange, I promise. Space Goofs devotees will know that the maudlin band of aliens, 5 in number, who form our cast of characters were stranded on the Earth and forced to live in a run down mansion until they could fix their ship and return home. This theme has been successful for everything from Land of the Lost to Lost in Space to Gilligan's Island, but probably never this weird. In the game, the freewheeling antics of the cartoon are curtailed somewhat by the plotline. Sakarin, a mad scientist type, hires a bounty hunter to bring in the aliens, and it's up to you to keep them out of Sakarin's hands until their ship is ready for take-off. It's a little hard to sell point-and-click with all the fancy technology available today, and Ubi Soft doesn't even try. The packaging for Stupid Invaders is about as vague as it could be, and the boxshots are all cut-scenes. So, at the point where the first CG movie ends and the little pointing hand appears, some folks may be a little confused. Add to this the fact that the puzzles in Stupid Invaders aren't exactly the most vanilla to appear in this type of game, and you may end up with some disappointed gamers. But, everything is so appealing about the game that I can't imagine too many people unwilling to give it a whirl. Pacing can be an issue for those times when a puzzle seems unsolvable and you find yourself walking through the same rooms again and again to get an item or hit a switch you missed the first time. Combining items is a big part of success, but mostly the rule is: Find something you can interact with, and use everything in your inventory on it to see what happens. None of the really complex puzzles we associate with a game like Myst are part of Stupid Invaders since the target market is somewhat different, but challenge is here for the gamer who hangs in and keeps playing. Problem is, when you're just getting warmed up, it's all over. There's a good amount of action as you play scenarios with each of the 5 Space Goofs, but not enough for me. Keep 'em wanting more, I guess... |
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Difficulty:
Luckily, whether through focus groups or testers, Ubi Soft identified the most difficult areas of the game and included a mini-strategy guide in the DC manual. I found that it covered only puzzles that could prove to be show stoppers and left the simpler ones undocumented. It's nice to see this in a puzzle game, since everyone has different perceptions of what is easy. If you factor in the hints, Stupid Invaders shouldn't give anyone trouble, and I firmly believe these games are good teachers of logic and puzzle skills anyway. Most of the people who write code these days probably played text adventures in their day, and the influence on Stupid Invaders is undeniable. Take key. Put key in door...
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Game Mechanics:
Those of you who got the Dreamcast mouse will appreciate your purchase in this game. Working the controller isn't bad, and the analog stick moves the pointer nicely, but sometimes the speed and response just wasn't what I would have liked. Using the D-Pad to move is also fine, but with more course corrections. Most of the controls boil down to moving the pointer on screen to an object and selecting it either to add it to your inventory or perform some action. The DC controller maps one button exclusively to your inventory, and another to selecting an action. So, if you are in a room with a character, you'll see the pointer or cursor change to a little 'talking' action, so when you push (A) you'll see a list of responses. Another button on the controller lets you switch actions and try to take an object that you had previously looked at, but with the DC mouse, your inventory button also changes actions. Dragging items is probably easier with the mouse, and in Stupid Invaders you can both drag to the screen or drag within inventory to combine. The actual objects are presented as icons in a little pop-up menu at the bottom of the screen, which is wonderfully unobtrusive. If only action games like Tomb Raider would have implemented something like this... So, if you think you can combine two objects, you simply click and drag. Or, if they need to be used in sequence, you'll likely be dragging out in order to the game screen. And, that is about it for inventory. Moving the characters isn't much more difficult, except that instead of clicking to take an object, you click to move to a certain area. You can also click an object across the room and move next to it immediately. But, be careful about clicking potentially dangerous objects before you have a chance to go check them out. With a 'save anywhere' system and very little memory overhead, you can experiment to your heart's delight without fear of replaying too much, which counts for a lot in a game where one wrong move can mean Game Over. I love this game, not only because it brings me back to a gaming style based more on substance than style, but also because it's great to see cool material being well adapted. The cartoon was funny, and the game is funny. If you enjoy point-and-click but think of yourself as more of a 'heavy hitter' Myst person, you still might give Stupid Invaders a try. It proves to be highly inventive, and my biggest issue is that there's not more game. For those who haven't played a point-and-click game before, it's worth a try and Stupid Invaders is the game to try it with. If you fell into the Myst promotional machine and came out bruised and bored with long loading and mind-bending puzzles, the seriously warped humor and lighthearted approach here will put a smile on your face and may even bring you back into the fold. |
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-Fridtjof, GameVortex Communications AKA Matt Paddock |
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