Camp Lazlo: Leaky Lake Games

"A game not too hard to forget about."

Back in the summer of 2006, when I first heard about a Camp Lazlo game for GBA being made, I had mixed emotions. I thought, "All right! A Camp Lazlo game!" but I also thought, "I hope they don't mess it up." Later on I saw a few screenshots, thought it looked OK, and decided to get it.

Story: 6/10
The story goes with the title pretty well, but could use some work. Basically, the Leaky Lake Games are going to start soon, and Scoutmaster Lumpus (the scoutmaster of Camp Kidney, the area you play in) wants Camp Kidney to be in it, but doesn't think he has any qualifying scouts. Lazlo assures Lumpus that he can do it, but being the stubborn guy he is, doesn't allow him to unless he proves himself... by winning minigames!! Once you win a certain amount of mini games, only then will you be allowed to compete. It sounds simple enough, but if it wasn't for the mediocre game play, it may have worked better.

Graphics: 6/10
Camp Kidney itself is a pretty big place, and the game did a pretty good job of capturing the "camp-like" feel. They made most things pretty tantamount to the show (for example, they made sure the Mess Hall is blue.) There are cabins scattered around camp (although, it seems like there's more cabins here than in the show) that sometimes you have to go into to look for stuff. Everything looks pretty bright and colorful, but since Camp Kidney seems so big, sometimes you only get to enjoy one-color backgrounds with an occasional sprite or tree along the way. Speaking of sprites, the sprites do their job. They kinda "bounce" when standing (better than nothing!) or when talking to someone. When you're in a conversation with someone, they have a portrait of the person you're speaking to (as if you couldn't tell the difference!), but it's so small it feels kind of useless. Also, they don't have any different facial expressions. I know it's just a minor disappointment, but when a character's upset, I like seeing their face to go along with it. And looking at their dialogue, I know they're not emotionless! But since the sprites seem kinda small, I guess it'd be hard for them to do it. Facial expressions aside, the sprites look OK, but a few details seem a little misplaced.

Sound: 5/10
When you make your way around camp, different songs will play. Although they fit the show's theme somewhat, they're kind of short, and are kind of annoying. Depending on who you play (Lazlo, Raj, or Clam) there are different songs, but it doesn't matter much. There aren't many sounds, fortunately, but when there are, they're annoying too. When I do play the game, I keep the sound off because I have much better replacements! xD The sound gets especially aggravating during games. When you'd think they'd want to help you concentrate better by toning the sound down, they tone it up.

Gameplay: 6/10
After having your first big talk with Lumpus, Slinkman suggests you walk around camp and gather flags. Get used to it, because you'll be doing a lot of similar events like that when you aren't playing mini games! To get a game to occur, you normally have to look at the bottom of the screen towards a little compass that shows where a certain person or event is. Often before the game starts, you have to do errands for the people at camp. But when you think you have the item you need, it turns out you have to talk to another person to get another thing, then trade it for the thing you need, and then go back to the person who originally asked it. Annoying, yes? This happens a lot, and there's nothing else to do besides this and mini games. "But can't I talk to people to keep myself entertained?" you ask. Well, although they have just about every character from the show (that's right, even the people with not that much time on the show is here!), they won't say much unless they're needed for an event. No chit-chatting here. If you do walk up to someone anyway, they'll say something like "Don't talk to me," or "I can't help you,". Sometimes, if you're lucky, they'll say random things like "I heard there's a Leaky Lake Monster" or "I need clean underwear" or something else unimportant. But there's not much conversation. You can't ask them about your day, or anything. With all the characters, you'd think they'd add more interaction with them, but sadly, it doesn't happen.

After all your (time consuming) work, you finally get to play that mini game! But... what do you do? The game shows you the controls, but absolutely nothing about the objective of the game or what you're supposed to do. Because of that, you might end of losing the first time you play because of lack of instruction! However, they give you unlimited tries, so that's a good thing. But once you do figure out what to do, you'll probably get bored fast because a lot of games take 5 minutes each to do. And I thought these were mini games! You'll most likely be hoping the game will be over soon. And when you win? Back to more errands!

And there's a basic idea of the rest of the game. You'll spend it doing errands and then a boring game. Although a few of the errands did perk my interest once or twice, I had to keep going back and forth to get different items, so it got tiring fast. And finally after you win about 12 or so games, you get to go to the tournament, right? Well, wrong. I won't spoil the ending, but it's not much of a tournament. I didn't even know it was the tournament until it was over. All that work for nothing!

Replay Value: 4/10
Once you win, I don't think you'll want to play it again. It's the same thing, over and over. Even a big fan of the show like me wouldn't be interested in playing again. I don't think anyone would play it again.

So even though it might be $20 or less, don't get it unless you really really like the show and don't mind a short, repetitive game. I think the game could of been better if they had more interaction available with the characters, different facial expressions, more than 2 different things to do, and so on. Maybe it's something to hope for in the future? In the meantime, if you do get the game somehow, it's not bad for a time waster or something to play while on a big roadtrip or something.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 05/29/07