Strawberry Shortcake: The Four Seasons Cake
Score: 88% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: The Game Factory Developer: Shin'en Media: Cartridge/1 Players: 1 Genre: Action/ Platformer (2D)
Graphics & Sound: This is the 7th different videogame available featuring Strawberry Shortcake and her friends, well, 8th if you count the version from 1983 made for the Atari 2600. So obviously, Strawberry Shortcake and crew have been entertaining youngsters for many years now. The question is really how entertaining is Strawberry Shortcake: The Four Seasons Cake? I'll go ahead and tell you in advance, I really enjoyed it, even though I was definitely not expecting to. Four Seasons Cake is a very pretty game to play. The graphics are quite well done. The level of detail on Strawberry Shortcake is just plain amazing. She looks exactly like the doll I remember from childhood, down to the tiny strawberries on her hat. I do question why she wasn't cold running around the winter boards without a coat to cover her tank top, but oh well, I guess she just doesn't get cold easily. Anyway, all the lines are smooth on everything. No matter how much you make her jump around or slide really fast, the screen keeps up. You don't see any lag at all. I was also expecting the sounds to annoy me, mainly because I played Strawberry Shortcake: The Sweet Dreams Game with the game on mute. The background music in Four Seasons Cake is actually quite enjoyable. It is upbeat, without being overly annoying. The creatures you need to avoid also make very helpful noises. You can recognize when the enemies move by their noises.
Gameplay: Strawberry Shortcake: The Four Seasons Cake is a side-scrolling platformer. You play the entire game as Strawberry Shortcake herself, except for the last level of the season. The last level is played as one of her friends. She and her four friends, Blueberry Muffin, Angel Cake, Orange Blossom, and Frosty Puff are determined to win the annual Strawberryland baking contest. To do so, they decide to make a "Four Seasons Cake." Strawberry Shortcake, with the help of her friends, roams through many different boards across the four seasons to collect as many strawberries as she can. The more strawberries she collects, the better the cake will be. Yeah, I guess it is a pretty simple plot, but at least it's something. When you start the game, you're first given the option of playing in English or French. Then you start the game playing the boards in Spring. After you pass the first board, you'll notice you have the choice of directions that you can go. A really nice feature of The Four Seasons Cake is that you can choose what order you want to play the boards in. If you get stuck on one, take a different path and go back to it later. There are some boards that you will have to play since some paths have only one way out. There are also signs with a number on them blocking the way sometimes. That number is the number of strawberries you have to have collected to get past there. If you collect the bare minimum number of strawberries you need to get past the signs, 650 is the final sign, and Strawberry Shortcake and her friends will win 3rd prize in the bakeoff. To get 2nd place, you'll need to collect at least 900 strawberries. To earn 1st place, you'll need to collect at least 1000 strawberries.
Difficulty: To tell the truth, Strawberry Shortcake: The Four Seasons Cake is a lot more difficult than I expected. I was guessing that it would be a very simple game to beat, and that it would take me under 2 hours to complete everything. I've probably put in at least six or seven hours, possibly more, and I've collected only 947 strawberries total. I am determined to get to 1000, but I have a feeling it is going to take a while to get the rest! Each season also has a bonus level that you have to find a golden key to unlock. The key is hidden somewhere in one of the boards in that season. So far, I've found the Spring and Summer keys. I have yet to even locate Fall and Winter, much less figure out how to get to them. Quite a lot of the jumps you have to make in The Four Seasons Cake are very difficult. They might require using the pogo stick to jump off of a moving platform to hit another moving platform, to then jump onto a thin ledge. The Winter boards make it even more difficult by adding ice to the mix. Running on ice isn't the easiest thing to learn how to do. You have to make sure to stop plenty early or you'll slide right into enemies.
Game Mechanics: For the most part, Strawberry Shortcake: The Four Seasons Cake is an easy game to play. Almost all of it does not use the touch screen at all. You move Strawberry Shortcake forward and backward using left and right on the D-pad. Pressing down on the D-pad will cause her to duck. You will find this quite useful in keeping your head intact. The (A) button will cause Strawberry to jump. If you press down right after a jump, it will cause her to stomp. Stomping is used to lower poles. There is one major problem I found with this setup. If you need to jump onto a moving platform, and duck really quickly, you'll end up stomping instead, causing you to hit whatever you were ducking to avoid. It would have been much better to use something like the (X) or (Y) buttons, which aren't used for anything else, instead of pressing down to trigger the stomp. As it is, you'll have to learn how to time it so you wait just long enough after jumping to duck so that you don't end up stomping. The shoulder buttons move the camera view up and down. This can be very helpful in finding hidden strawberries. The Start button pauses the game. One thing I really like is that you can't fall of the boards and die instantly. Knowing this, you can fall off of any platform to explore for more strawberries. Granted you might end up back at the beginning when you fall, but you'll find good stuff on the way. There is one board where you have to use the stylus and the touch screen. The end of the Fall season, you play as Orange Blossom. She is gliding above everything. You have to use the stylus to throw the strawberries to her and to cut the leaves so she doesn't get hit by them. To throw the strawberries, tap on it and drag it in the direction you want to throw. The faster you drag it, the harder it will be thrown. To cut the leaves, you simply drag the stylus across the leaf. I found that shorter cuts work much better, because if you make the cut too long, it doesn't register. Honestly, I wasn't expecting much from Strawberry Shortcake: The Four Seasons Cake. I reviewed Strawberry Shortcake: The Sweet Dreams Game for the PS2 and it was an ok game, but mainly meant for young girls. I couldn't see any reason anyone else would want to play it. The Four Seasons Cake would be a difficult and appealing game for anyone to play. It is not overwhelmingly pink; for the most part it is pastels. It looks great, sounds great, and is a challenging but fun game to play. I would personally recommend it, just make sure to wait to duck after a jump to avoid frustrations.
-Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl
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