The Ren & Stimpy Show: Fire Dogs

"When reviewing a game for a little kid, you gotta think like a little kid"

I reviewed this game and it didn't get posted, probably due to the fact that I was bashing the game and looked at it from an older person's point of view. While reviewing this game, I'll try to look at it from a little kid's perspective, because that's the market who this game is being geared towards.

GAMEPLAY: 4/10
You play as Stimpy going around the Fire Station, collecting things scattered around the place to put on the fire truck so they can leave and help extinguish a fire. There are about six or seven items in total that need to be collected, and you don't have much time do it. (barely two and a half minutes)

Stimpy also needs to cover himself in dalmatian-colored paint so the fireman patrolling the fire station won't catch on to Stimpy being a cat and not a dalmatian, because the fire man just doesn't like any animal helpers who aren't dalmatians.

In addition to collecting all the items and not having his dalmatian paint wash off in the emergency showers, Stimpy also needs to watch out for enemies lurking around the firestation (how ironic-your enemies are fireballs) Stimpy will either have to avoid these enemies or extinguish them with water he gets from the fire station. Getting hit by one of these enemies takes half of Stimpy's health.

There's part one of the level. There is a part two, which includes Ren and Stimpy carrying a trampoline in front of the building on fire as they use the trampoline to catch objects and possessions falling from the burning building. If you can catch enough objects without missing too many, then the level is completed. (just to let you know, there's no sign of a fire anyway, Ren and Stimpy could be catching falling items from people pushing the items out the window for the sheer heck of it) Do this entire process 5 times, and the game is won.

Look, I know it's a kiddie game, but even the little kids will get annoyed by the repetitive nature, the lack of time to complete part one, the know-all-see-all fireman in the fire station and the boring objectives.

SOUND: 2/10
Not the best sound I've ever heard-much more likely some of the worst sound I've ever heard. The sound designers used background tracks that are from older, long dead musicians, so it's not original. And there are only about three tracks in the game: the fire station, part 2 of a level, and the game over screen. (oh yes, they also use the Log song from the TV show at the password screen) The sound effects aren't too much better, but this is a cartoon, so I guess I can't grade the game too hard. Still, that doesn't do anything to help the lousy, repetitive music.

GRAPHICS: 7/10
I'll say this much: the graphics in this game look pretty good. Stimpy is the playable character, so you'll see him on screen every waking moment of the game, so you'd want him to look good. Fortunately, they modeled Stimpy very well. Ren, for the brief times he's seen in part 1 of a level and part 2, looks pretty well done. The backgrounds don't look bad, but they are very plain and not very interesting.

LENGTH: 2/10
The game is not very long, it's only five levels. Both parts are pretty annoying, so they make the game seem long, despite the fact that the game itself is short. That's really all there is to say about the game: it's short.

REPLAYABILITY: 1/10
There is no replay value to the game. Since this game is for little kids, they might play it again if they feel like it, but there's really no reason to go back and play it again.

Total Score: 16/50
Averaged Score: 3.2 (rounds down to 3)

Put simply, this isn't a game that younger kids will like a heck of a lot. (and if they do like it, it will be because it has Ren and Stimpy in it) I can only say that it wouldn't be very smart to buy it, because unless you have the mind of a 6 year old, you won't like the game very much.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 10/20/05