The California Raisins: The Grape Escape

"The Raisins come to the NES"

The California Raisins: The Grape Escape, was an unreleased NES game that was hyped up and then disappeared. It's a platformer and is slightly reminiscent of Megaman. You are a Raisin setting out to rescue the California Raisins from the Wild Bunch. You travel through 5 levels to rescue them, making this a relatively short game.

Graphics: 8/10
The graphics certainly were not groundbreaking, but I thought they suited the mood of the game. It set the stage for a generally cheery atmosphere, and it wasn't blocky, as many games tend to be on the NES. The enemy sprites were humorous and the scenery depicted the level description very well. Overall, the graphics were very good, but they weren't groundbreaking. I however thought the raisins' purple color was excessively bright. It should've been a much darker almost black purple.

Sound 6/10
The music suited the atmosphere well. It was cheery tunes, and some of them could easily get stuck in your head. It's not the best music or even one of the best, but it was good. The sound effects on the other hand, were merely mediocre. The sound effects were nothing to be remembered and bring no benefit to the game. It brings the whole Sound category score down.

Story 3/10
The story is pretty pathetic. The California Raisins have been kidnapped by a rival band called the Wild Bunch. You must defeat random boss enemies and earn 4 golden music notes, before you can defeat the Wild Bunch leader and
rescue the California Raisins. This leaves me to wonder, whom I play as. If all the California Raisins are kidnapped, am I just some regular old raisin, or what? Also, how do golden music notes allow me access to the final boss? No explanation is provided for either of those questions and it makes the story seem even more useless.

Controls 8/10
The controls are extremely simple for the most part. There are however exceptions. Climbing is very finicky and if you don't know the secret of perfect climbing you'll often times find yourself falling when you swore you could climb the ladder or vine. That problem alone would give the controls a low score, but moonwalking by pressing select is rather innovative and that brings this score up.

Gameplay/Strategy 5/10
The gameplay was ok, but not great. It felt like a lot of poor platformers I've played. You go through a level, find the boss, defeat him, repeat. It is very linear. Though you can choose the order you complete the levels and the levels are a bit trickier to navigate than Megaman levels, I still find it average. The bosses are a bit random and don't seem very well thought out. What does a banana with a bandana have to do with a factory?

Replayability 3/10
There is a more difficult mode, but I doubt after playing through all the way one time you'd want to go again with slightly harder enemies. Though it is a rather quick game, so if you really wanted to, it wouldn't take forever.

Overall 5/10
This game had been unreleased so long after it generated so much hype, that it's almost a disappointment that it isn't some awesome groundbreaking game. However, that isn't the game's fault and it certainly shouldn't be penalized for it. It's a decent game, that's worth at least a look. I'd recommend it to anyone who has already played all the big name NES games, and wants a look at some more obscure titles.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 05/21/04