Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge

"Everyone Heil to the Pumpkin Song!"

In 1993, The Nightmare Before Christmas, was released to the world, in video format. Though never reaching such high-profile status as movies like Aladdin, or The Lion King, its dark tone, along with its strange humor, and amazing songs, did get it nominated for several awards; It it picked up quite a number of fans. Strangely, it was never transferred to a game format; That is, until SquareSoft released Kingdom Hearts, in which, Halloweentown made an appearence. Following that, three Nightmare Before Christmas games were announced. Oogie's Revenge, being the first to arrive, and being another great action adventure from Capcom, sets the bar rather high for the remaing two projects.

The first thing you'll notice after turning the game on, is that some of the original music is back. This is not the reality of it, though. All the original music scores were indeed used, however, now they have new lyrics that fit into the new story. Yes, you heard that right, this is not a playable, interactive version of the movie. This game, takes our hero Jack Skellington , the Pumpkin King and a hero to the citizens of Halloween Town, further along his journey, in what could very well be, the first musical action-adventure; This not only demonstrates an amazing resemblence to the movie itself, hearing Jack sing as he is facing the evil Oogie Boogie's henchmen, it will deliver a great stimulationto your ears. Furthermore, all of the original voice actors and acrtresses, form the movie, have been hired to do voice acting, in both the English and Japanese versions of the game, save a few. Once again, this really helps to bring you a game, that feels just right, to Nightmare fans.

As soon as the recreation of the Halloween Town theme ends, in the opening cinema, you will find Jack entering a dreery, and empty town. The atmosphere and graphics are dreary, dark, and spooky; Which is exactly what fans of the movie remember. The only difference, is that the streets are not filled with the happy, and to a point, disgruntled, people of Halloween Town. In fact, it's quite the contrary. The streets are completely empty. That is, except for a group of evil skeletons, that seem to be wanting to pick a fight with Jack. This relatively simple opening will unravel, into a plot involving Oogie Boogie, Sally, The Mayor, and of course, the trio of trouble, Lock, Shock, and Barrell, among others.

The story is admittedly a grey area, however; Fans will love it, and be happy to continue to follow Jack's Story. Admittedly, people who were not fans, or haven't seen the movie, probably won't like the story. There's a high probability that they won't even be able to follow it, due to not knowing what previously happened, or who the characters are. To keep it simple, this game caters to the will of followers of the movie, not to the casual gamer. In fact, the truth may very well be, that if you need to be convinced whether or not you want this game, you are not a big enough fan to enjoy the game to its fullest.

But beneath all the padding of story, and visual/audio effects, there is a solid game. At best it can be compared to Devil May Cry; And it is in many ways better. However, in many ways it is worse - And in these cases, it is usually far worse. For example, in battle, you can string up combos, using a green "Soul Robber" which is for all intents and purposes a whip. Using it, you can swing, whack, and tug forward your enemies. You can even throw or swing one into another for more damage. You can also switch to Jack's infamous Santa costume, or his Pumpkin King costume, at any time with the touch of a button - That is, once you unlock them. In these suits, you can add fire, and exploding packages into Jack's collection of attacks. This all works well, for Jack, and it will seem like a near perfect battle engine.

The aura of greatness is shortlived though. You'll quickly find yourself in a tricky situation where you need to dodge that enemie's projectile, or get around that last Skeleton. The problem is, it isn't always easy to do so, because Jack is all but incapable of running. That is correct, as long as the Pumpkin King's legs are, he must resort to flipping, sliding, and spinning to get out of the way of attacks. And though you will learn to get used to these techniques, and though they have been pulled of flawlessly, there's just something about not being able to run, that feels awkward - Especially, in a game with a genre such as this.

The lack of a running feature, is really, one of the only features that keep this game from ranking among the best of its class, because there's really nothing else that you could want in a Nightmare game, that isn't there. All the characters you could want are back; Everyone from The Mayor, to the Clown with a Tear Away Face; The music is as great as it ever was The story was pulled of in a way, that you'd really believe it was a sequel; And there's an excellent mixture of adventure and puzzle solving, and fighting. There are even interesting boss battles thrown into the mix. Once again, if you're a fan, pick it up. If not, consider passing on it - That is, unless you are fine with not following the storyline.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/22/04, Updated 11/08/05