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Despicable Me
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Graphics & Sound:
Despicable Me is a cute little game and while I didn't see the movie, the sights and sounds of this game seem to match what I know of the film. You'll hear the adorable little grunts, groans and hoorays of the minions and appropriately dastardly sounding music, which sounds very "muhahaha" evil. Depending on whether you, playing as the Chief Minion, are in Gru's lab or house or in his rival, Vector's areas, you'll see the head of either Gru or Vector at the top of the screen, either visually rooting you on or wishing for your demise. They make funny faces when they are happy or disappointed and this is a nice touch.
The levels themselves are well done and look good. Although after a while, they tend to look a lot like one another, I really enjoyed the 8-bit look of the game when you get sucked into Vector's world. Everything was very old school looking and it was a really clever way of handling those levels. Despite the fact that things can get redundant in appearance, the colors are bright, the different types of minions are easily distinguishable from one another and the goal items and extra goodies are easy to spot.
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Gameplay:
The story goes that Gru is trying to be the world's greatest super villain, but along comes his rival, Vector, stealing the idea for his super weapon. Gru and his minions have to get it back and that's what you are here to do. You'll begin the game by selecting which minion you want to use in your game, but I really couldn't see a difference in gameplay regardless of which one you selected. It appeared more to me as just a cute way to get the names and pictures of a good selection of minions in the game. You are then presented with a level where you have a goal item to obtain, as well as other goodies or gold, for added points. Once you get those items, you can pass through the exit and complete the level. The trick is that you have other minions in the level as well, to help you, and they can't pass through the exit until you have procured your goal item. If they do, they "die" and are reset to their original place in the level. Now, none of the minions in a level will be activated until you tap them, so you'll want to employ strategy in who starts going which direction and when. This is basically a Lemmings type of a game, so if one minion bumps into another, they each go the opposite way from each other. There will be traps that lead to death, gaps to let the minions fall to a lower level, thruster buttons to bump them up a level and on and on. You may find yourself doing levels a few times before you finally select the precise strategy for completing a level, but the levels are well designed and some will really twist your brain.
At your disposal, you'll have different types of minions besides your Chief Minion, depending on the level and its needs. You may have a minion who can bust through walls or drill through the floor. Perhaps your minion can hold an electrical charge, fill up with air and rise to a higher level, or even change the pull of gravity and walk on the ceiling. Each one has a specific purpose and sometimes it isn't immediately apparent what you need to do with them. If ever in doubt, back out and read the Tutorial section because it will explain exactly what to do with each minion, whereas the level might not tell you precisely what to do and it may not be clear what you need to do in order to clear the level. |
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Difficulty:
Despicable Me is not a walk in the park. While there are no difficulty settings, per se, the game gets increasingly more tough as you progress through the levels. At first they are really easy, but before long, you'll really have to work to solve them. There will be one solution to completing the underlying puzzle within the level and it may take you a number of different tries to complete the level. Once they began to throw in the levels that flip around and upside down, I had quite a rough time and the many traps that your minions, specifically, your Chief Minion, can befall can be quite fiendish. Wrap that in with the fact that you can't turn your minions around and often, you'll find them simply walking into their death with no way to stop them.
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Game Mechanics:
The controls of Despicable Me are pretty simple and you'll use your stylus for almost everything. The level will appear on the bottom half of the screen and Gru or Vector, whoever happens to be observing you, will appear on top, overseeing everything. Initially the levels will be small enough that they fit on the lower screen, but very quickly they outgrow this area and have multiple floors or will be much wider than your viewing area. You'll need to use your stylus to flick the screen to see the areas hidden from view. All the while, you need to be careful not to activate a minion as you are looking around, plus a countdown timer starts going as soon as you touch the screen, so you don't have a lot of time to look around the level and see what's what. However, as many times as you may do some levels, this won't be an issue.
You'll activate each of the minions by tapping them with the stylus. You'll need to be careful as to which minion you activate first, since they can activate each other by running into one another. The worst thing that can happen is for your Chief Minion to activate too early and go stepping off to his death, ending the mission. As soon as you get your goal item and your Chief Minion hits the exit, you'll have 10 seconds to get the other minions through the exit for extra points. Otherwise, they get left behind. Don't worry, you have plenty of minions and you won't run out.
While I really enjoyed the levels that I played, towards the beginning of the Fifth World in Gru's House, I became stumped and couldn't progress. Yes, it is important for a game to be challenging, but when the intended target audience is children, then there is such a thing as too hard and, much like the game's PSP and Wii counterparts, Despicable Me for the DS falls into the category of those games that are just too hard for their own good. |
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-Psibabe, GameVortex Communications AKA Ashley Perkins |
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