The Problem with Licensed Games: Difference between revisions

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*** Very few reviews exist for the third game, ''[[The Powerpuff Girls: Battle HIM!]]'' (which as the title implies, has Bubbles go up against HIM) possibly because nobody wanted to play it after playing the first two. Any masochist who ''does'' will feel the urge to throw their Game Boy Color away. Bubbles is a lot stronger and faster than Blossom or Buttercup was in the previous games, but the controls are still bad. This game also has bad level design and Trial and Error Gameplay; you never know whether the pit you’re flying over has an item below that you need to fly down and take or whether it’s a bottomless pit that will kill you if you try. The Boss Battle with the Boogie Man is even glitchier than the one with Fuzzy in the previous game; sometimes Bubbles’ punches simply don’t harm him at all even when the stun attack works.
*** Very few reviews exist for the third game, ''[[The Powerpuff Girls: Battle HIM!]]'' (which as the title implies, has Bubbles go up against HIM) possibly because nobody wanted to play it after playing the first two. Any masochist who ''does'' will feel the urge to throw their Game Boy Color away. Bubbles is a lot stronger and faster than Blossom or Buttercup was in the previous games, but the controls are still bad. This game also has bad level design and Trial and Error Gameplay; you never know whether the pit you’re flying over has an item below that you need to fly down and take or whether it’s a bottomless pit that will kill you if you try. The Boss Battle with the Boogie Man is even glitchier than the one with Fuzzy in the previous game; sometimes Bubbles’ punches simply don’t harm him at all even when the stun attack works.
*** In the end, these three games were pretty much three versions of the same game, and all were bad. More than likely it was a shameless cash grab done to exploit a popular series.
*** In the end, these three games were pretty much three versions of the same game, and all were bad. More than likely it was a shameless cash grab done to exploit a popular series.
** ''[[The Powerpuff Girls: Chemical X-Straction]]''. This game was released in 2021, and the reason it’s not under Sixth Generation titles is because it was released for [[Nintendo 64]] and [[Playstation]], meaning they released it when the superior [[Sega Dreamcast]] and ''[[PlayStation 2]]'' were already out and both [[GameCube]] and [[Xbox]] were only a few weeks away. But then, this game was little more than a shameless reskin of ''[[Tom and Jerry: Fists of Fury]]'' (a video game adaptation of a movie adaptation of a cartoon, made by the same company as this game) so at least they have that as an excuse. Again, the [[Excuse Plot]] of this game is pretty dumb; the Girls are baking pies, and Bubbles decides that, since the pies are made with sugar, spice, and everything nice (the three base ingredients the Girls themselves were made of) why not add some Chemical X (the accidental fourth ingredient) to make the pies “super”? Unfortunately, Mojo Jojo steals the pies, he and the other Townsville villains eat them, they gain superpowers, and the Girls have to go and beat them all up. The gameplay here is, well, if you’ve ever played ''[[Power Stone]]'', start with that, but give it bad controls, bad animation, a lot of input delay, and difficulty that’s all over the place, and you have a general idea. The fights range from too easy to drawn out and frustrating, and ''all'' of them are boring. The game is incredibly short (you can finish it in about an hour) and while each Girl can unlock something by beating Mojo, the [[Final Boss]] it’s impossible to unlock everything, as once you beat him with one Girl, you can’t unlock anything else. Each Girl has a story mode, but all three are pretty much the same, although the “true” ending can only be achieved with Blossom. For some reason. Not to mention, this is a Fighting Game with
** ''[[The Powerpuff Girls: Chemical X-Straction]]''. This game was released in 2021, and the reason it’s not under Sixth Generation titles is because it was released for [[Nintendo 64]] and [[Playstation]], meaning they released it when the superior [[Sega Dreamcast]] and ''[[PlayStation 2]]'' were already out and both [[GameCube]] and [[Xbox]] were only a few weeks away. But then, this game was little more than a shameless reskin of ''[[Tom and Jerry: Fists of Fury]]'' (a video game adaptation of a movie adaptation of a cartoon, made by the same company as this game) so at least they have that as an excuse. Again, the [[Excuse Plot]] of this game is pretty dumb; the Girls are baking pies, and Bubbles decides that, since the pies are made with sugar, spice, and everything nice (the three base ingredients the Girls themselves were made of) why not add some Chemical X (the accidental fourth ingredient) to make the pies “super”? Unfortunately, Mojo Jojo steals the pies, he and the other Townsville villains eat them, they gain superpowers, and the Girls have to go and beat them all up. The gameplay here is, well, if you’ve ever played ''[[Power Stone]]'', start with that, but give it bad controls, bad animation, a lot of input delay, and difficulty that’s all over the place, and you have a general idea. The fights range from too easy to drawn out and frustrating, and ''all'' of them are boring. The game is incredibly short (you can finish it in about an hour) and while each Girl can unlock something by beating Mojo, the [[Final Boss]] it’s impossible to unlock everything, as once you beat him with one Girl, you can’t unlock anything else. Each Girl has a story mode, but all three are pretty much the same, although the “true” ending can only be achieved with Blossom. For some reason.
*** Now, if you’re playing it on Playstation, the problems end there, but the Nintendo 64 version is much, much worse. First of all, it’s way too easy. Each Girl has an “explosion attack” which is practically a [[One-Hit Kill]] attack because it depletes the enemies’ health quickly when used in succession. The limited memory of the N64 cartridge causes many of the better content in the Playstation version to be omitted. There’s no voice acting, the cutscenes have no animation (just pictures with lines of dialogue) and only one piece of music (the cartoon’s theme tune) plays throughout the whole game, [[Ear Worm| on a continuous loop!]] Even fans of the show are going to find that annoying sooner or later.
*** Now, if you’re playing it on Playstation, the problems end there, but the Nintendo 64 version is much, much worse. First of all, it’s way too easy. Each Girl has an “explosion attack” which is practically a [[One-Hit Kill]] attack because it depletes the enemies’ health quickly when used in succession. The limited memory of the N64 cartridge causes many of the better content in the Playstation version to be omitted. There’s no voice acting, the cutscenes have no animation (just pictures with lines of dialogue) and only one piece of music (the cartoon’s theme tune) plays throughout the whole game, [[Ear Worm| on a continuous loop!]] Even fans of the show are going to find that annoying sooner or later.


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