Disney's Brother Bear

"A good game that becomes repetitive after a while"

What happens when a movie is successful? Well, you make a game based on it. Too bad that doesn't always mean the game will be as good as the movie. Hopefully, Disney's Brother Bear game for GBA isn't bad. It's a pretty good game, but it's not a must-have either.

Gameplay - 7/10
Following the story of the movie, you play as Kenai and Koda, the two bears. You control them through 4 worlds (forest, ice caves, fire valley and mountain) containing 16 levels total. The gameplay is pretty basic, you can jump and run while avoiding whatever is in your way. You'll basically be jumping over pits, across tree branches, riding currents, crossing logs... to reach the end of a level. The main problem with this is that you'll be doing this the whole game. The level designs never really change, you'll do the same thing over and over in all levels, with no real increase in the difficulty, making world 1 no different from world 4, except for the environment.

In each level, there will be a part where you can control both Kenai and Koda at the same time, by switching from one to the other with the L button. Kenai is stronger and can crush rocks and push big boulder, while Koda is lighter and can jump higher, farther and can climb trees. You'll have to use the right character to get past the obstacles and help each other to reach the end of the level. For instance, if there's a cliff Kenai can't climb, you'll have to switch to Koda, climb up the nearest tree, jump on the cliff and push a boulder down so that Kenai can climb onto it and reach the cliff. That's pretty much how it works.

There's also some levels where you ride a mammoth and must avoid the obstacles in your way but those levels are really too easy. There's also some mini-games you can play after a bunch of levels, like the sliding games. To unlock some of the levels and mini-games, you'll need to find 3 items in each levels, but aren't really hidden and usually pretty easy to find. There's never a place where you'll get stuck in the game, it always feels too easy and simplistic.

Graphics - 8/10
The art style is pretty and the environments look realistic. There are a lot of nice touches here and there. The few levels using the Mode 7 engine look great. The animation is good and the character models are nice. The cutscenes are very well done also. However, some of the backgrounds are bland and a lot of levels look too generic.

Music/Sounds - 8/10
Nice tunes from the movie with a good audio quality. The sounds are good too. There could have have been a tad more variety in the tracks though.

Overall - 7/10
Not a lot of variety in the levels, too easy and the main quest is over pretty quickly. You can still come back to the game for the mini-games and to complete all the levels and find all the items, but once the game is over, you may not be willing to play it again. It's a good game, but it's just too simplistic and repetitive.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/22/05, Updated 03/01/05