Blender Bros.

"Whats more fun then destroying purple and yellow teddy bears?.. Well lots of things, but this is fun too!"

Introduction
The platform gaming genre! The genre most of us modern day teens started on in the video game world. Whether it was Mario or Sonic, most of us played one(or both!) as a kid, and most of us fell in love with it. As time went on some of us may of grasped at it even more, went to a platform casual style, or just quit playing them altogether. I personally played them casually as I played RPGs more. Now, here in 2007 playing consoles less and less I looked for a good platform game to refresh the feelings from the past. I think I picked a pretty good game.

Story - 1/10
Well, I want to start with the bad and ugly before I get to the good. The story here is absolutely horrid in any possibly way you could think of. There are no cutscenes at all other then boss battles to fill you in with what is going on at all, and not even the boss battles do that. Now, I realize its a platform game it is all about gameplay, the story should not be considered at all! No. Most platform games have a story of some sort. Most platform games explain what is going on most of the time. This game reminds you of a NES platform more then anything. You get thrown into the world with no idea what was going on. It really hurts the game, while the gameplay was very fun, the lack of story was bad.

Now, for the story I could figure out by playing the game. You are part of a team or planet or something called Cosmos that is out to try and stop an evil team called Zollarian, or something like that. You play as a cute bunny like creature that uses his over sized ears to hover, fly, sense things, and attack. Thats about it, really. Its bad people, nothing we can do about it.

Gameplay - 8/10
The gameplay is amazing for this to be a GBA game as far as I am concerned. The controls are smooth and the levels are amazing for two specific reasons. The first is how the levels are set up. Almost every level aside from the car type levels are set up into layers, think Metroid, except the different areas stacked on each other instead of up and down. This allows for the players to take more routes to complete a level and leaves a wide variety for challenges.

The second thing to note about levels is the variety. The level types in this game is honestly staggering to most platform games. I was amazed at how many levels had different goals and how un-repetitive it was. I loved it very much. Some of the level types include your normal run and make it to the goal, timed levels, forward only levels that force you to race the screen, levels with no gravity, and many many more. It may not sound like much but it makes for fresh gameplay rather then the same thing over and over again. Another type of level is the car style levels. They each differ in layout, but the goal is the same. You ride in jet like car and go around the level collecting key fragments to stop a bomb that is going to blow up the planet. While this is exciting and all, it gets really boring with the not so great system. The car is hard to drive and some levels purposely make you go backwards, yet it will tell you that you are going the wrong way as you do it.

Next, the game offers something called Mini Bros. Mini Bros add a twist to the game that a lot of platform games lack, minor customization. Mini Bros. do a variety of things from boosting your attacks to protecting you. A lot of these are nifty, but only one is required to actually beat the game. I will say though, some of them are wasted. For example, early on you will get one that allows you to float on water. Now this may sound amazing but there are two problems. First off, its pointless seeing as you swim, yes swim, the same speed as this thing moves. The second flaw with it is the fact there is no where to use the thing, there are only 4 levels total with water even in them, and only 2 levels that it can be really used in, and the amount of water actually in these levels is only a few steps, that you can actually jump over. Thus it is something that is interesting to see in the game, but incredibly useless.

Overall, the gameplay here is amazing compared to most platform games, with only a few minor flaws it offers for a fun time.

Sound - 9/10
The sound here is pretty good for a GBA title. Sound effects are really nice and clear, music is catchy and somewhat customizable. No tunes are exactly anything you will remember for years to come but they have a good upbeat rhythm that can make you want to tap your foot along... or something.

Graphics - 6/10
The sprites for the enemies and players look very nice. They are clean and crisp when you jump, attack, and move through the layers of levels. I also really enjoyed how the main character just sits there after you stop moving for a period of time in a very calm manner. It all looks well. The levels themselves though could use A LOT of work. They get very repetitive very fast. They begin to mesh together so much it can be annoying. Also the levels are just bland in general. There is not many exciting things to look at, and the lack of enemies is really annoying.

Conclusion
It is a good platform game to pass a few hours by. I beat it in 2 days of casual playing and it was an enjoyable experience. My biggest gripe with the game is how easy it is, but that can be a blessing for keeping a younger kid entertained and not frustrated. So yea, buy it used, have some fun.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/13/07