Open Season

"An easy but fun game aimed at kids."

Open Season looks like a terrible movie. I hate Ashton Kutcher with a passion. I rented this game because I wanted something easy and something to boost my ego, also known as my gamer score. It may have been short but it was a fun little title. Is it worth buying? Read on!

Boog is our hero; he's a bear and has lived in this woman's garage for a number of years. A simple deer with one antler gets him caught and now he has to live in the wild during the opening of hunting season. How will he and his new friends survive the hunters? Okay, the plot isn't good and I can't tell you if it follows the plot of the movie but it was interesting enough and kids should find it amusing.

Graphically the game is a little less than stellar but the fur and water effects are nice. Just realize this was most likely a port of the other games and not a whole lot of effort went into the graphics. Don't get me wrong, it looks good but it isn't next gen good. Cut scenes are lame still pictures that flick about like one of those tiny paper book things you flip and the imagine moves, except much slower.

Sound wise the game is good. Not sure if they used the actors from the movie but it sounds rather close. Sound effects aren't really varied but work nothing overly exciting though. Music is nice, fit the game well, definitely didn't subtract but the experience.

The game uses a simple control setup. As Boog, who you play 90% of the game as, you use B to grab stuff, L nub to sniff, r nub to hide, R trigger to run, A allows you to growl and I can't remember what L did. It's all really simple and even when you control the Deer character or you are in a mini game; it's very simple and explained to you before hand.

Open Season is split up into 25 or so stages. The first few are painfully linear and short. As you advance they do get longer but not by much and they still remain linear. There is stuff to miss. In each stage there are points to get, which are used for buying upgrades like health, roar upgrades and throw upgrades. Besides that there are badges in each stage. Some in the open, some requiring you to throw your buddy onto a ledge for them. It's simple but great for someone looking for a relaxing time.

The levels are full of enemies. They aren't the smartest guys around and once you upgrade your health and buy the berry upgrade you should never run into another problem. The basic idea of beating an enemy is to walk behind them; a tiny meter appears on the screen. Hide right at the end by holding R nub and the meter restarts get close and hold A until it's in the red and the enemy runs away. Or you can run up and grab them and slam them into something. Usually requires two quick tosses to defeat them.

The levels are pretty straight forward action levels, minus a whole lot of action. Some decent puzzles and fetch quests here and there but little back tracking is required. There are the obligatory mini stages like a mine cart, racing and a shooting mini game. Stuff you see in every game but it changes the pace nicely enough. The game itself is pretty short, took me about 5 hours, if that, to get 100% and all of the achievements. There are mini games to unlock and play but nothing to do on LIVE.

Open Season is obviously aimed at kids but that's all right because even I at the age of 23 enjoyed the game. It's simple yet fun and it didn't require a lot of time or energy for me. Personally, I enjoy that every once in a while. This is a rental but if you have small kids who love the movie and you wouldn't mind the achievements then it might be a worth while pick up. If you don't have kids then there is no reason to buy is what I'm saying. A rental, yes but don't buy it if you're over the age of 10.

Story - 7/10
Graphics - 7/10
Sound - 7/10
Control - 9/10
Game Play - 8/10
Replay value - 5/10

Final Score - 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/19/06