Pssst…boo! Review

Pssst…boo!

So, Monsters, Inc. didn’t win the Oscar. Oh well. If it’s any consolation,

their PS2 game beats out Shrek on the

Xbox. But not by huge strides, as this below average platformer doesn’t quite

have what it takes to be a graveyard smash.

In

the bustling ‘burb of Monsteropolis, James P. Sullivan (Sully to his friends)

jumps through trans-dimensional closet doors to scare the bejeebus out of unknowing

kids. Monsters get their energy from the screams of children. Ironically enough,

these monsters are actually scared of the kids. Craziness ensues when one of

the kids crosses into the monster realm. Oh, go see the movie.

In fact, Monsters, Inc. on the PS2 is truer to the movie than its predecessor,

Monsters, Inc. Scream

Team on the PSX. In Scream Team, monsters Mike and Sully had to go

through a training ground of sorts, scaring robotic children left and right.

This time around, the game follows the course of the movie, from the corporate

headquarters of a monster power plant to the snowy tundra of exile. However,

this time you can only play as Sully.

The levels are singly focused on item collection. Whether it’s the ubiquitous

gold coin – in this case, ‘screams’ – or a level key, you will spend your time

gathering things. Find the five especially well-hidden scare canisters to open

up half a disk worth of bonus stuff. The other half of the disk can be obtained

by scaring five monster mice (yes… tiny little mice that apparently have some

monster DNA) within a certain time limit. Opening up both halves grants yet

another video clip from the movie. Whoopie. Is there a Disney game that doesn’t

have unlockable FMV? At least they’ve also added other “scream” quotas that

will net some mini-games.

In general, the level design is too difficult for its intended audience of

little tykes. Within the first level, Sully has to jump onto a moving vehicle

that only stop for a moment while avoiding his boss, Mr. Waternoose, in a cheap

sneak sequence. You have to rush into his office when he leaves it, then vamoose

out of before he comes back in. It’s hard enough for a master geek like me…I

can’t imagine how a 9 year-old would fare.

There are other things that seem too tough for kids, like plenty of tricky

jumps. Maybe I’m not giving enough credit to the wee ones, but I think some

of the harder challenges could have been handled differently. As it stands,

the game gives you unlimited lives to outweigh the difficulty. Kind of a cop-out.

The

last level, however, manages to visually approach the frenzy of the Door Warehouse

sequence in the movie. Unfortunately, it doesn’t play out in the same frenetic

manner. It’s still run-of-the-mill platform jumping. They also missed a chance

to do something really cool with jumping in and out of the closet doors at the

end.

The rest of the levels are mediocre. Though the draw-in rate is impressive,

the textures are rather dull and dated. On the other hand, they did a great

job with the character textures. Sully actually looks like a big, furry, baby-blue

cookie monster. The spotting on Mike’s skin looks mottled and, well, like a

monster.

Even though they don’t have the actual stars doing the voices in the game, the makeup voices sounds pretty close. There’s one great sequence in particular when the Abominable Snowman just rambles on and on, even when you’ve stopped talking to him.

Monsters, Inc. also includes the equivalent of DVD extras – interviews

with the peeps involved with making the movie and developmental art. It’s a

nice addition, though doesn’t make or break the game.

While the movie has an appeal for all ages, only the elementary school crowd

will want to buddy up with these monsters. Younger kids who can enjoy a game

on the merits of simply making a nice looking character move around will dig

it, but its strange difficulty might be too much.