As mentioned, following the course of the movie has begun to seem like the winning formula for licensed games. Why nobody ever thought of this as a 'rule' is a little strange, considering the fact that people are likely drawn to a licensed game because of what they saw in the movie. But, interpreted games have on the whole seemed wrong to me while games that followed the plot of the movie/show/book or at least drawn strictly from the source material have done very well. Stuart's efforts here go toward defeating Falcon, who leads a band of nere-do-wells in New York City and has a passion for shiny baubles. Falcon is trying to coerce Margalo to carry out bad plans, but Stuart aims to put a stop to the whole Falcon issue once and for all.
We take on the role of Stuart and have a chance to do a little training immediately. The training introduces gamers to some basic Platformer rules, and gives you a chance to feel out the controls. Stuart Little 2 is a standard platforming title in the sense that you get to jump, explore, throw objects, attack enemies and do some mini-games. The unusually fine thing here is how well everything is integrated and the solid execution across all fronts. Within each level, a very open-ended system for clearing the level can be seen in the 'jeweled ring' system. To move into a new area, you need to collect these rings. Any level will contain 6 rings, each earned through a different set of objectives. For example, a mini-game successfully completed might earn you a ring, and finding a certain number of objects will do the same. The idea is solid, and the execution is well done. So, in the beginning only a few rings will be needed to move along, but objectives for the number of rings needed to move on become more challenging. This type of 'bank' concept for progress in a game has become very popular, and fits the platforming genre well.
The mini-games are really fun, and just tooling around each level is a blast. The full range of activity is available for Stuart, like climbing on objects, using balloons to float around the level, and pushing blocks to solve puzzles or reach new heights. The enemies you'll face will generally be defeated by a swift tail-spin, but you can also throw objects at them. Health power-ups work as you'd expect, but add different dimensions to your strength by giving lives, health and the amount of health you can have in total. Obviously, all staples of good platforming action.
