He-Man: Power of Grayskull

"Repitious"

BY THE POWER OF GREYSKULL!
You may have watched the cartoon, or have bought the action figures, but perhaps you have not played the game and are thinking of doing so, that's where I step in. I will list out the details and give information about them, then in the conclusion I will sum up the game overall.

Sound: The sound is excellent. Wether you like hearing beast mans gurgling, or the chimp mutants shrieking the sound is pretty good for the GameBoy's capabilities. Much better than most.

Graphics: Most of the character models are fairly accurate, the only one I couldn't see working out was clawful. The graphics are some of the best for the game boy advance, and the game really does give you this 3d feel.

Gameplay: Ok now this is what I really want to talk about. The game is really just a huge rip off of the new gauntlet games with the levels designs. Although the battle cat mission was fairly cool. The fighting style is totally repetitous however. You could be fighting a boss for 30 minutes until you finally defeat him. There is no real skill to the game, just keep blocking while waiting for the queue to strike hit him, repeat until he's dead. The jumping from pillar to pillar or land to land is really ridculous as well, sometimes you can be right on it and it will knock you off. The part of the game that aggrivatese me the most though, is that even the simple bad guys throughout the levels take forever to finish off, and when you do another one comes until you break the little entrance way they come through which takes forever to destroy as well. I really think they were aiming for a Gauntlet feel gameplay, but without the 10 bad guys rushing out, instead they put 1 guy out with the endurance of 20 bad guys. The gameplay is what really turned me off from the game.

Conclusion: If you are a He-Fan, grew up on him, or just love the new cartoon and or toys, this game may suit you. I kind of like seeing my favorite characters like trapjaw animated into GameBoy graphics. I don't however like sitting on my butt for an hour trying to defeat one boss. If you are looking for a stellar game to entertain you on say a roadtrip or such, I would go with Super Mario Advance 2 or Metroid Fusion. If you are looking for a rushed game to make some quick cash before the holiday season ends, then buy He-Man: Power of Greyskull.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/27/02, Updated 12/27/02