It's based on the Disney animated movie, so I was half expecting something lame.
It's not lame! It' actually pretty good, with lots of variety in gameplay and a super smooth learning curve for the game's 2D platforming and movement mechanics. I did start to get a bit tired of the repetition, but I'm - again - surprised by how much Disney was pushing it's Disney meta-game service (you get bonus unlocks in this game for the meta-service whose name I forget now AND for also linking up with the Wii version of this game!!).
Things I enjoyed/thought were interesting
(a) There's a music mini-game that's very much DDR style - falling notes, but wider than just DDR's four. BUT - you can do whatever you want since (the game explains) it's jazz music and improvising is part of jazz so follow the dropping notes if you want or make your own tunes!
(b) Cooking is a big part of the game - NPCs often ask you to cook stuff for them and you spend time in some levels hunting down ingredients. The cooking itself has three mechanics (regardless of the recipe, though the visuals are different - even if everything is in a pot). You stir the pot in a direction, you drag ingredients into the pot from a ladle/cup, and you blow into the microphone to cool things down when the temperature of the pot gets too hot (there's a meter that fill up). The game's extras also have real recipes you can learn/cook as well! (real recipes for the things you've cooked in the game)
(c) I think the game generally follows the movie's plot? It's been a long time since I say the movie...and I'd forgotten how much the story was about a strong, independent, and competent female protagonist (who is not a princess) and the idiot guy - who if I recall eventually becomes the love interest?
(d) The platforming is interesting in that they game introduces new stuff via a lightning bug that has different powers you toggle between. One zaps enemies turning them into platforms, or bouncy-things on the ground. There's even a blow in the mic mechanic! (clear cobwebs for NPCs).
Anyways, I don't think I'll finish but I did get 1/3 of the way through (completed the first chapter). Lots of collectibles too - many related to the Disney meta-service...
I really wonder how successful that was for Disney? It feels strange to see links to the service and wonder if it failed because it was too early? What with everything metaverse happening now (again, after Second Life was metaverse and I guess this was the Disney metaverse?)
Still playing, still having fun, and I've bought 3(?) season passes - I know I skipped at least two. I've decided not to buy any more mostly to limit my spend on the game to what I think I'd spend if it was a typical boxed release (which I know it's not - but hey).
At this point I've started to resent the competitive ladder a bit, mostly because I don't play enough to really climb and the reset feels like a real setback for me - and then you start climbing again. But, this is a mionr thing and I still have fun with the game. At this point I've got almost all the cards I want and can play a bunch of fun decks, though I mostly stick to two - a trusty Lockjaw deck I've been using from almost since I got Lockjaw and a electro/sandman ramp deck... I haven't had much luck with other "good" decks - but this might be mostly due to my not being good enough at understanding when to bail on those decks.. something I think I've got figured out pretty well with my other two regular decks.
I generally make it to 50-60 before the reset...and I've also noticed that most of the cards I used regularly have been nerfed. It's interesting to see how often and how dramatically they change cards and I enjoy reading the notes that accompany the changes since they explain what they're going for. Usually it's "this card is never played and that sucks" or "everyone is playing that card, so that sucks too".
I picked this up because it seemed interesting and the name on the cover (Benoit Sokal) was one that I thought I recognized from somewhere... It turns out that Sokal is a franco-belgian comics guy, but also did Syberia! But, I think I was going off the game?
I started playing this on a plane trip - and didn't get very far. It's an adventure game in the tradition point and click sense...and, man, the precision on the pointing and clicking (here tapping with the stylus) is pretty terrible. Like, the first puzzle I also didn't solve because there was a location/screen I was supposed to see and could find it....until at one point it worked. So, pretty frustrating to get started. Sigh.
The saved files on my copy also didn't seem to have made it very far - so, I'm not exactly hopeful for this (especially because I stopped playing when I got stuck - and I hope it's not a "you missed this pixel with your too-thick-stylus"). I'm going to take a quick look at a guide to see what's what - perhaps the style of puzzles is different from what I'm expecting so calibrating my understanding might help? (also, the DS games are still at a moment where many have manuals that are useful/helpful in learning to play the game...)
My sense (no data, just a feeling from the game's presentation and timing) is that Playmobil saw what Lego was doing with videogames - more fairly what Traveller's Tales was doing with Lego-branded (parternship?) games (e.g. Lego Star Wars) and said, "whoah, how do we get a piece of that action" and that's where this game came from. I don't know if there are other Playmobil games or not - probably yes (I haven't looked) and I wonder if there are other things as well like TV shows and such.
This game seems in that vein - you play with a Playmobil character, it's set in a Playmobil fantasy world and there are animated CGI cut-scenes like in the Lego games. The gameplay is quite different, obviously! (and, to be fair, worse IMO).
I was playing along, seeing what the game was about - lots of short quests by different characters that move forward a plot that's silly (on purpose, it's trying to be humorous like the Lego games) - it's something about an evil person messing up a kingdom (and now there are no knights left!) and you're a pig farmer of sorts and you're the only one who can help, so off you go.
Most of the gameplay is 2D platforming - simple at that - with some fighting (sword swings). The levels are super short, you can pick up coins along the way and also get hurt. The end of the level is usually the goal of the quest and then you head back to town where you can buy upgrades and such. There are different locations, some are on different islands, and to travel you fly on your dragon (which you must buy!) there are different dragons and they have different stats (can carry more cargo, which you can use to trade between towns to earn more cash) such as attack, hit points, and capacity.
I didn't really engage with the trading (arbitrage, really - buy cheap in one town, sell high in another, limited by how much your dragon can carry) and this might be why the game really has a nightmare challenge in terms of grindiness...
(a) Your weapons degrade every time you swing - so you need money to sharpen them back up. OR, buy a new one if you completely waste one. I did this by mistake and I had to do a few levels to grind out coins to buy another sword. Pff!
(b) Your other upgrades are also "one shot" things - I thought I was improving my permanent armor - but no, it was just like a shield that would take one hit and then disappear!
(c) I decided to try out dragon combat - when flying to a new island you can see other dragons patrolling - I had avoided them until I decided to try combat out! I killed one, but was taken out by another....and I started back at a town - without a dragon! I had to grind to get money to buy a new one!
By this point I'd done enough missions to unlock a new area on the island/overmap...but wasn't particularly enjoying the platforming nor the flying (super slow) and I realized that the grindiness was just a pain...So, I'm done with this one!
