The plot of
Drake & Josh: Talent Showdown revolves around the upcoming show at Belleview High. Both boys are excited about the chance to show off their talents, but there are some bad things afoot at Belleview. One of the competing bands convinces a bunch of jocks to hijack the show by stealing other competitors' instruments and props.
Drake & Josh have the skills to overcome the bullies, don't they? What with a water gun, some magic tricks, good behavior, and fire extinguishers, you know these two will beat the odds and come out on top.
The best pieces of the game for my money are the mini-games. One contains a series of magic tricks. The trick is performed by tracing on the touchscreen and staying in the lines. Each screen contains a different shape and after you complete a sequence of shapes, you'll do the same shapes with a lower time limit. It doesn't sound nearly as much fun as you'll have playing. I was reminded of that old game, Operation, where you would hear the buzzer if you weren't careful enough pulling a bone out of a tight space. The other mini-game is a straight-up music game where you have a guitar fret board and a series of "notes." These notes contains symbols showing one of four directions that correspond to a button press on the left or right. D-pad and buttons work equally well if you happen to be a left-hander. The key to success is timing your tap on the symbol when it crosses the target area. Some symbols come in sets of two or three, so the best way to trigger them is to "strum" on the touchpad . Talent Showdown should have put more focus on these mini-games as the thrust of the game because the rest of the action is predictable and weak.
The main story plays out with a lot of gathering keys and unlocking doors. There isn't even the usual challenge of finding the keys because Josh comes equipped with a compass that leads you right to the key and then the door it opens. You have to switch back and forth between the two characters because Drake has most of the effective offensive capability. The fire extinguisher and water pistol combine to make mincemeat of the jocks. If one of them happens to grab you it doesn't take more than a little rubbing on the touchscreen to break free. Josh can use his magic to create power-ups and can avoid jocks by using his special power that makes them ignore him completely. Most players - unless they just love Josh so much they have to play his character all the time - will play as Drake 80% of the time. And therein lies the biggest problem with Talent Showdown. Unlike co-op games where the characters work together to solve puzzles or defeat enemies, there isn't any compelling reason to switch characters other than looking at Josh's compass or shooting Drake's water gun. The game would be no different if you controlled both characters as a team and had access to all their stuff. The mechanic of switching is just for the sake of making Talent Showdown a little more drawn out.
