Jackie Chan Adventures

"Avoid this at all costs!"

Boring, repetitive, and unoriginal; those three words describe Jackie Chan Adventures. What was Activision thinking when it agreed to publish this putrid game? No publisher with any self-dignity would want to have its name associated with Jackie Chan Adventures, and these harsh words don’t even begin to describe how sloppy, unpolished, and dull this game is. Following the unofficial “beat-‘em-up” genre of senselessly punching and kicking everything in sight, Jackie Chan fails to offer any innovation over other games of the nature, which is Torus Games’, the developer, biggest mistake. Moreover, it’s apparent that this game was rushed, as one can’t help but get a feeling of incompletion from playing it. There is no climatic battle like in most games where your fingers sweat from anxiety and anticipation, just a silly-looking, super-evil being who foolishly walks about the screen. But this is just one of many problems that plague this game, and as any who will read on are bound to find out, there are too many problems in this game to count.

Jackie Chan, an archeologist and the game’s hero, starts his adventure in San Francisco, where eight scrolls from his store had just been stolen. Jackie immediately goes wondering through the streets of the city, looking for the man who just stole the scrolls. Upon finding one scroll, Jackie discovers that the seven remaining ones have been hidden throughout the planet, and it is his job to find them. This storyline, to say the least, is quite unoriginal in itself. The main characters are introduced so quickly that it is hard to catch their names, more or less grow attached to them in a way that will actually make you care about them and the role they play in the storyline. The game moves along very slowly, and at times it seems as if Jackie Chan is making almost no progress at all. A key factor in a good game is an addicting story, and this game is a textbook example of how not to play out a story in a video game.

On the surface, colorful sprites, lively animation, and the average sound quality may seem like it blends together well, which for the first ten minutes or so of the game it does. The first feature that one does notice is that the visuals are very attractive, catching the eye off guard. As the game goes on, the quality of the graphics does remain the same, but the enemies that Jackie encounters are a bit on the repetitive side. There are two main groups of enemies, ninjas, and humans. The ninjas look exactly the same except for the color of their belt, and the humans come in many different shapes and sizes, but a wide variety isn’t offered. It would have been nice to see some new faces every once in a while.

But enough with the nitpicky details, because when it comes right down to it this game is just plain repetitive. Jackie Chan comes equipped with a punch, kick, and jump, and it is up to you, the player, to combine and incorporate those moves while attacking hordes enemies for hours on end. The thing with Jackie Chan Adventures is that from the first level to the last nothing changes except the agility and power of the enemies. This does get very repetitious about halfway through the first level, and you will have to endure through this in subsequent levels in order to finally beat the game, which is not rewarding in the least.

The levels themselves, while they may be well designed with colorful backdrops seem more random than anything else. It seems as if Jackie jumps from place to place, going halfway around the world, with very little transition from one level to the next. If anything, this only damages the only the already neglected storyline, as no one knows why a scroll has ended up in that specific place; how it got there, who took there, and why that location was chosen for a scroll. It is mind-boggling to say the least.

The sound isn’t what one would call bad, but it isn’t great either. The tunes seem rehashed from earlier Game Boy Advance games, and at times playing with the volume on mute won’t be a bad idea. Each level has its own theme music, and while the music does fit in with the current environment, it is very annoying and ten minutes of listening to it is usually enough. A practical solution that should have been implemented with the game is multiple themes for each level, so players who have to play each level a few times to finally beat it wouldn’t feel so annoyed. Alas, the rushed feeling that is apparent throughout the horrendous thing also takes its toll on the sound category, so if you find yourself turning the music all of the way down, just keep in mind that you’re not the only one.

The Game Boy Advance is filled with potential. Unfortunately, from time to time, unbearably horrible games like this will be released. But as a gaming community, we need to learn how to cope with such games by avoiding them at all costs. This game is not worth the money for a purchase, and I’m even uncertain to say that it’s worth the money for a rental. Historically, movie characters don’t make good games, and unfortunately we have games like Jackie Chan Adventures to continue this embarrassing tradition. From one gamer to another, please do yourself a favor and save your time, money, and finger power for a Game Boy Advance game that is really worth your time, because Jackie Chan Adventures is not. This game, it can only be described as boring, repetitive, and unoriginal.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 06/12/02, Updated 06/12/02