Megamind: The Blue Defender (Nintendo DS) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

With PIXAR currently celebrating 25 years in the business, not to mention Toy Story 3 being crowned the biggest movie of 2010, it's easy to see why every film studio on the planet wants a piece of the CGI pie. The only studio to get even close to their success was Dreamworks with the wonderful Shrek and it's this studio, which also brings us Megamind. The film itself is doing pretty good business but can the game do the same and prove the exception to the rule that not all movie tie-in games are rushed, formulaic cash ins?

Gameplay

The Blue Defender has you taking the title role of Megamind himself as you dispose of level after level of dumb henchmen who put up little in the way of resistance. You'll begin your quest with only a small arsenal of weapons and the initial levels see our hero with a single Mega Blaster as his only means of defence. This is effective enough on some enemies but you'll quickly discover you need a little more power especially when you are ambushed. Fortunately you'll unlock several other weapons as the game progresses with our favorite being the Expand-o-Matic which allows you to inflate enemies before 'popping' them.

The levels themselves are quite linear in design although there is a later, docks based, section, which features a sprawling maze, which is easy to become lost in. This does mean you'll fly though the game and the initial adventure is over quite quickly although getting the 100% completion is a little more challenging. This is because some of your abilities are locked off until the very last level making some areas 'off limits' until you uncover the correct weapon or The Electric Lasso which allows you to swing from objects far above your head. There are also a handful of end of level bosses all of which are quite inventive although unlike some other games of the genre, it's pretty easy to work out their weak points. Sadly there's little in the way of replay value and you'll find that the Goals (or Achievements) are almost all completed simply by playing through the game once.

Controls

With this being a platformer, you'd expect the controls to be very good, and they are, with the collision detection being some of the best we've seen for a long time. There's also lots of help on hand and, should you become a little lost, there's plenty of 'pop-ups' along the way. In fact the only problem you are likely to encounter, control wise, is the old age one of camera angles and you will occasionally get mowed down or miss judge a jump due to the fixed camera. The only real way we can see around this is for developer to allow the gamer control of the camera although we're not entirely sure how this would affect the flow of the gameplay.

Graphics

Visually, the game is very impressive indeed with sprawling city landscapes lovingly reproduced on the DS's tiny screen. There's also a generous amount of images lifted from the movie to pad out the story and you can unlock bonus images should you manage to recover enough diamonds. The animation isn't bad either although a severe lack of variety in the enemy department does become very tiresome.

Sound

Thankfully, the days seem to have gone where we have to settle for sound-a-likes due to contractual problems and Megamind has all the main players here present and correct. This allows for some great voice over work helping to make the story more authentic. That's not all though and you'll also be treated to the wonderful movie score, which plays throughout the game.

Dual screen

You'll only ever use the touch-screen to select your mode of attack so you're probably better putting your stylus away somewhere safe.

Final comments

While developers Tantalus have certainly paid attention to the games sound and visuals the same can't be said of the game play and sadly The Blue Defender is another average platformer with little in the way of challenge. There's a great deal of things which would have elevated the game from the rest of the pack such as puzzle elements and a more varied combat system but this would still have done little to address the games replay value. It's still not a bad little game but you do get the impression it could have been so much more.

Pro: Looks Wonderful, Great Voice Acting and Soundtrack.
Con: Nothing New, Can Be Repetitive.
Final score: 6.1

Share on Twitter or Facebook

Comments