Yogi Bear: The Video Game (Wii) - Review by Chris

Introduction

Many younger people will no doubt not have heard of Yogi Bear. A charismatic animated bear starring in his own kids TV show many years ago, it was one of the cornerstones of kids TV for the time but has since sadly faded into obscurity in the wake of more modern shows such as Ben 10 and YuGiOh. It was therefore strange to hear that it was being brought back in the form of a movie, and even stranger to hear it would be a live action one. Still, Yogi has returned to a new generation and D3Publisher have snapped up the license to publish the tie in game from Monkey Bar Games on the Wii. Does this do the bear justice or does it leave you feeling like you've had your picnic basket swiped?

Gameplay

Like many movie tie-ins being released these days, Yogi Bear the Video Game takes on the form of a platformer, specifically a side scroller. The story propelling you through this sparse and short endeavour is that Jellystone Park hasn't been seeing many visitors recently and word is that it's going to be shut down. In an attempt to drum up some business, Ranger Smith has photographed the park's rare species to draw in the crowds but when Yogi inadvertently loses the pictures while stealing the Ranger's lunch, he's tasked with recreating the photographs in an attempt to help save the park, with Boo Boo in tow working the camera for him. It's a simplistic premise to keep the game moving forward but the target demographic will largely gloss over the semantics to get to the gameplay. Unfortunately, in doing so, they'll probably realise the game's shortcomings sooner rather than later.

As mentioned, Yogi Bear is a side scrolling platformer where you'll take control of Yogi as you traverse Jellystone looking for the rare species needing to be photographed for Ranger Smith. You won't be doing any of the photography yourself, rather enduring some dated and run of the mill platforming that fails to ignite any feeling of enjoyment from the outset. It's your typical running and jumping setup, with some belly flopping of porcupines and skunks and some vine swinging added to flesh things out. There are clear nods to some modern platformers in terms of some of the level design but here it never comes close to being as imaginative and effective as any of those games, although it's far from being terrible.

To progress through the game, you'll have to collect 3 medals hidden throughout the levels. At later stages you won't be able to progress unless you collect all of these medals as they are necessary for you to get the much needed picture of the rare animal at the end of the level. As such, due to some of the medal placements, it's incredibly easy to skip over them without noticing it and so you'll have to trek back through the levels more than once just to be able to progress. It's a dated mechanism used here to extend the length of an otherwise short game but does more damage than good as the repetition of going through the same levels again with little in the way of any true incentive will leave many younger gamer out in the cold.

Unlike the DS venture, this one provides a little more peril to the proceedings as you only have a finite number of lives in this version in comparison to the infinite number the DS version affords you. But even with this added element of danger, which you'll succumb to thanks largely to some slightly off jumping mechanics and off collision detection for platforming, gaining lives is incredibly easy thanks to being able to collect pieces of pies which litter the park, as well as picnic baskets which also add to your total, and after collecting 50 or so, you'll be gifted another life. It provides another area within which people can venture if they want to try and get 100% of all the pie pieces but this is a statistic that isn't tracked after completion and so there's no incentive to do so.

Some on rails flying sections, which see you collecting pie pieces with Yogi and Boo Boo, is the only deviation from the platforming and adds little to the overall game. Outside of this, there's nothing else to the game bar this single player component with there not even being any mini-games or unlockable gallery pieces, something which even the DS version managed to shoehorn in. It means the ride is over very fast, even with the repeated play of levels, and although it's at a higher standard than that DS version, the severe lack of content here really is inexcusable given that the demographic the game is aimed at generally prefer to play in multiplayer and even some mini-games would have helped to flesh out this rather deadpan platforming experience.

Controls

You'll only need the Wii-mote to play the game, with it being held horizontally like many other platformers on the console. The setup is incredibly simple to get to grips with as it mirrors other games nearly button for button, with 2 being used for jumping and the d-pad being used for moving. It works well, although the jumping does feel a little loose but thankfully there isn't any precision platforming required of you during the run of the game. It stays very much as it is when the game changes to the on rails flying segments and works well. Thankfully, motion control has been kept to a bare minimum but the small instances that make it into the game don't work well at all, requiring you to shake the controller to look in bushes and such but you'll find yourself shaking the controller frantically just to get the game pick it up.

Graphics

Average best describes the visuals on show throughout this game. While things generally look tidy and level design isn't bad, with plenty of nooks and crannies hidden away for you to find although it does give a distinct feeling of a game from generations previous in this department, texture work is noticeably below par for the console, with characters and environments looking as though they've simply been painted on and look blurry at times and just generally poor even in comparison to other movie tie-ins. Environments do at times look decent but at other times they do look a little rough around the edges, with some poor water effects that look bad even by Gamecube standards and some 2D work which looks pixelated at times.

Character models look considerably polygonal throughout, and you'll even be able to see the general polygonal design which has gone into Yogi and Boo Boo in some of the cutscenes thanks to some less than perfect character design which really shows some of the short cuts used to get the game to market. They're not animated particularly well either which doesn't help in setting up Yogi's charismatic character at all.

Sound

Looped audio tracks aim to set a pleasant atmosphere as you move through the levels in Jellystone Park and they're pleasant enough to listen to, never intruding on the gameplay but never really speaking up for itself. Sound effects will begin to grate though, through repetitive use, and while there is voice work provided for all the major characters in the game, it's not quite up to scratch with a poor script and just some generally cringe-worthy dialogue.

Final comments

Yogi Bear the Video Game is another bare bones movie tie-in that fails to build upon the more recent solid foundations for licensed games on consoles, with a lacklustre presentation, a lack of content and some tedious and dated gameplay. On a console populated with big name platformers and much better movie tie-ins, Yogi Bear feels like a lazy cash-in attempt, offering up little in the way of enjoyable entertainment for gamers or those who've been to see the film. It at least betters the effort on the DS but that's not saying much considering just how poor everything is here. For the asking price, there are far, far better platforming titles available on the Wii and you're best bet would be to invest in any one of them.

Pro: Controls work well, some replayability in finding all the items
Con: Gameplay feels tired and dated, presentation isn't quite up to scratch, no alternative content besides the main game, having to replay levels is tedious
Final score: 3.5

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