"This dual life diva is out to solve a mystery, dodge manholes, and explore Malibu's most secret backroom closets"

Hannah Montana

Pros:
+ Decent point and click adventure gameplay
+ Great visual and audio presentation
+ Holds true to the franchise
+ Bikini outfit

Cons:
- Extremely, extremely short
- Walking is a chore
- awkward use of touch screen
- Very repetitive
- I was kidding about the bikini outfit


Hannah Montana is the Disney Channel story of a young teenage girl, named Miley, who lives a dual life as a teenage pop diva and an ordinary Malibu high schooler. Miley does her best to keep her stage identity Hannah Montana secret from everyone but her two best friends Lily and Oliver. However, Miley's world becomes threatened when she gets a strange letter from someone who wants to reveal her secret to the world. Hannah's first outing on the DS starts right here. While not a game likely to be remembered as the greatest licensed title ever, it will probably appeal strongly to Hannah Montana fans thanks to some fun, if repetitive, gameplay.

Hannah Montana takes the form of an a-typical point and click adventure minus any real puzzle solving. Players need to navigate Hannah's world and talk to various characters from the tv show to solve the mystery of the letter mailer. Along the way she'll need to hunt for clues, chat to various tv show characters, and skate her way from place to place. Of course to search for clues you're going to have to get moving, and to get moving you're going to need to tap that stylus.

Miley is moved by tapping a position on the ground to which she will then walk. This seems easy at first, but it quickly becomes annoying as you realize there's no other way to move smoothly except to keep a constant tapping rhythm going on. Once you've navigated to where you need to go, you'll usually need to talk to a roadblock in the form of a character from the tv show. This opens up a conversation branch you need to complete correctly to get the person to move. Strangely enough, you have to draw symbols on the screen to make your dialog choices. It's a different concept, and one that works. What sucks is It fast becomes bothersome to answer questions by needing to draw symbols. Not all the symbols are easily recognized by the game either. I now hate drawing the letter M. The same goes for opening doors. To open a door, you need to draw a symbol on the screen. This bit gets old way too quickly, and unfortunately is a core element of the gameplay. And they're not the only ones...

Another part of the game you'll be frequently repeating is clue hunting. Repetition isn't always bad, but in this case its so dry there's no other way to describe it. All NPC's will give you the same tasks to do over and over again... Go in the back room of a store and look for a clue, or go to a certain area and look for a clue. All you need to do for this is use a "gadget" to hunt for them. Gadget's being a magnifying glass and a flashlight. Both are the exact same thing, only one is used in the dark and one is used in the light. Using them, you sweep the DS screen to look for flashing pink stars to click. Get used to doing this, because you'll be doing it all the time.

After you've completed your objective in an area, you may need to race to another quickly. Lily will hop on her skateboard and run somewhere. From an overhead view, you need to clean the street she rides down to keep Lily from falling. These sections are incredibly easy, requiring you to simply tap objects in the way or quickly drag them out of Lily's path. I never understood how incredibly dangerous Hannah's world was up until now though. The number of manholes left uncovered in Malibu is incredible, and so is the number of boulders left lying on the road. Once you've reached your destination, you'll find another roadblock character. The cycle begins again!

Clue collecting often leads to fashion design too. Wait, what? It's true though. Picking up clues and talking to people will usually end with them giving you various pieces of clothing. Apparently clothing is the currency of Malibu. You can use these fashion articles inside Miley's house to dress up a 3D model of her in various ways. No it doesn't serve any real purpose, yes you can swap these designs over wifi, no there is not a bikini outfit.

At least Miley's world looks pretty darn good. Whoever did the sprite work for the game should be commended. The developers really paid a lot of attention to making sure the game reflected the tv show almost perfectly. There are a ton of characters from the show to see, and all the locations are modeled after places from the show. The music playing in the background are songs from the series made digitized. Anyone who enjoys Hannah Montana will certainly appreciate the game world, and the faithfulness to source material, at the very least.

Hannah Montana is probably a decent game if you're a fan of the show and a young gamer. All the material from the show you enjoy is sitting there, pixelated, right in your hands. Unfortunately, no creative use of a license can be excused for endlessly repetitive gameplay and awkward design decisions. Objectives never deviate from clue hunting with your two exactly the same gadgets, and the whole game revolves around an endless cycle of hunt for clue, talk to NPC, hunt for clue, talk to NPC. Sure you have you fashion closet and skateboard mini-game to break up the monotony, but the fashion closet is pointless and the skateboarding is equally dull and unchanging. The touch screen usage was a nice idea, but it's a shame it was implemented so poorly. Drawing symbols for everything quickly becomes a chore, and you'll immediately be wishing you had basic button and d-pad controls back. Oh, did I mention the game is only a few hours long? There's three chapters to complete, each only an hour or two in length, which is pretty paltry.

Unless you're a hardcore fan of the series, don't bother to pick this up. Doubtless you won't find anything worth enjoying here unless you know who Hannah Montana is and want a slice of her world on the go. The gameplay and controls will probably frustrate and bore even younger gamers who are fans of the series. Still, Hannah Montana is not a horrible game and at least is likely to please anyone who is willing to put up with some frustrations to get their Hannah fix.

Breakdown:

Story: 7/10
Presentation: 8/10
Gameplay: 6/10
Longevity: 4/10

Overall: 6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 03/13/08

Game Release: Hannah Montana (US, 10/09/06)