Gremlins: Stripe vs Gizmo

"The most Beautiful Gremlins you will never see"

Being a HUGE fan of the gremlins movies, I found this game to be both a blessing and a dissapointment.

First, its made by Dreamcatcher games, while they have put out some great games in the past, such as Gore, Hedgemonia and Iron Storm. Gremlins: Stripe Vs. Gizmo (the full title) seems to be, more or less, one of their weaker titles.

Gameplay: You play as either stripe or gizmo, trying to stop the other in virtually the exact same manner, get the presents. The controls are suprisingly responsive, and accurate, climbing around and jumping is very natural, as is tearing cute little mogwai to shreds, and melting gremlins. A save feature would have made this game a ton better, but they insisted on using passwords, making this game one you want to just site with for a few hours to beat.

Graphics: Well, you can tell that they are gremlins and Mogwai, edges are very clean, very few jaggies to be seen, a high framerate makes the game run smoother than silk. A lot of effort was obviously put into making the gremlins move realistically, you can almost feel like you ARE Stripe! Gizmo moves well, but can be stiff at times.
The enviroments will remind you of home alone, and are quite boring. they all serve their purpose though, with dressers to stand on, and drapes to climb.
In between levels there are scenes that explain the storyline, but they aren't even needed.

Sound: No recognizable tunes from the movie, no gremlin laughter, but some interesting grunts groans, and etc. from Gizmo and Stripe. VERY convincing! You would think that Frank Welker and Howie Mandel lended their voices to the Game itself!

Replay: LOW! This is the games biggest shortcoming, It lacks depth and unlockables. You will play through it twice, once as Gizmo, the second time as Stripe. Then you will get rid of it.

The reason I say that you will Never see this game, is it was a VERY limited release, Gamestops and EB stores dont even have them in most of their systems! This along with the other Dreamcatcher game for GBA (Extreme ghostbusters) are both primarily European releases and very hard to find in the states. This REALLY hurts the games sales potential, and by that, potential for a better sequel!

Buy or rent? well if you can find it and are a gremlins fan buy it! otherwise just pass this one up, Its an old school Super Nintendo platformer, just with Gremlins!

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 04/02/03, Updated 04/02/03