Yogi Bear: The Video Game (Nintendo DS) - 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 1st Playable Productions. Does this do the bear justice or does it leave you feeling like you've had your picnic basket swiped?

Gameplay

Taking on the form of a side scrolling platformer, Yogi Bear The Video Game is your bare bones platforming game which has become the staple for many a movie tie-in recently. While other publishers and studios have made strides forward in making tie-ins worthy of your time, you'll quickly become aware of how lacklustre everything is on offer here and how it definitely feels like it's been dragged kicking in screaming from the early eras of gaming into a modern age.

Following the story of the film essentially, you'll take control of Yogi through a number of stages as he goes about his task of stealing picnic baskets and food littered throughout them. Each stage has a set number of picnic baskets to collect, as well as a set of pie pieces and gears which can be used to create power-up items such as spring boots to allow you to jump higher or a propeller hat. These are placed throughout in an attempt to stem the tide of boredom and to provide you with what little incentive the game presents to come back again and try to get 100% completion on each level. The issue, however, is that after a few minutes of play, you'll have already seen all the 'thrills' that the game has to offer and you'll find it hard to justify continuing on through this paltry effort let alone considering coming back to have another go at completed levels.

As has already been mentioned, Yogi Bear is a bare bones platforming affording you the staple platforming actions such as running and jumping, with a slice of ground pounding thrown in to shake things up. It's very simplistic in what it offers both in terms of what you can achieve and in terms of what you'll be playing through, with level design that will be hard pushed to tax even the youngest and most inexperienced gamer. Each of the levels is split into a number of sections but apart from the threat of being discovered by tourists, disturbing the other inhabitants of the park, or being barked at by a dog to alert Ranger Smith to your mischief, the sections never add anything to the proceedings and you'll be able to run through the levels with ease in a number of minutes, with the entire game completed within an hour or two. Attempts have been made to make things interesting, such as requiring you to continue to get caught on film by tourists, but these again fail to liven up the stagnant gameplay.

For successfully collecting all of the items in a level, you're given the opportunity to take part in a short mini-game starring Boo Boo, where you'll have to collect a set number of pieces of pie which are inexplicably falling from the sky. It provides little in the way of fun, with easy objectives you'll clear well before the time runs out. The game is bolstered by two other mini-games, a maze game where you have to move a picnic basket from one end to the other and a food throwing game where you'll need to throw the correct food into Yogi's mouth. These provide at least a fleeting glance at something fun but they're short lived, as is the entire game and beyond a quick go, you'll not opt to come back for anything more.

Controls

All of the main gameplay is controlled purely by way of the d-pad and face buttons, thankfully leaving out any awful touch screen controls. Although it may feel like you're walking about on ice making things very clumsy at times, the d-pad does its job well enough and the face buttons, with jump being your only real action other than a ground pound-esque move and the ability to run, similarly feel natural if a little heavy in their working, especially when trying to link jumps together for the platforming. Some touch screen controls have been brought in, primarily for activating created items with a simple tap when needed and in the 2 mini-games and although the former instance feels unnecessary, the touch controls work well in the latter instance offering little in the way of issues.

Graphics

While some big movie tie-ins manage to at least present themselves well, the visuals here are a bit of a mess. With an aesthetic that harks back to the Super Nintendo era, environments, while being the very best of a terrible job and initially looking amicable, are repetitive in design and overall look with absolutely no variety throughout the stages as they're very set in having you play through one particular type of area. Slight flourishes such as leaves which kick up into the air when you run through them do little to instil any form of atmosphere or reprieve the otherwise bland level design which holds the game's already basic gameplay back further.

Character models don't fare any better, with Yogi and Co. given an almost pre-rendered sprite look which would have been ok at best several years ago but makes them all look blurry now. Menus and cutscenes are really the best of what's on show here, as everything is cleanly designed and the images taken from the film of the actors of a good quality but it does little to rescue this dull visual effort.

Sound

Music is minimal throughout the run of them game, leaving you wondering more often than not whether they bothered to tie anything to it as you'll rarely here it or take much notice of it. Sound effects are repetitive and the small pieces of voice work from Yogi and Boo Boo aren't particularly outstanding in terms of their quality.

Dual screen

With the gameplay situated on the top screen throughout the entirety, the touch screen is relegated to stat tracking and holding your created item power-ups. It at least frees the top screen and keeps things tidy but it's hardly the best use of the screens. A smattering of touch screen mini-games and the odd tap to use an item are all the touch screen are used for, although in these instances it has been implemented well.

Final comments

Steps have been made to better the movie tie-in game but any of those steps have been completely ignored here to make a quick buck off of the back of unsuspecting young gamers. Yogi Bear the Video Game is perhaps the worst movie tie-in game in the last few years with a severe lack of content and a completely lacklustre side scrolling adventure which will leave anyone who bothers to play the thing completely hollow inside. There's absolutely nothing here to justify a purchase. With much better games already available on the DS for younger gamers, your best bet is to look at those and give this debacle a complete miss.

Pro: Levels provide a small incentive to be replayed
Con: Gameplay is basic and dull, presentation is poor to say the least, controls feel clumsy, you'll be finished it in the same amount of time as the film runs for
Final score: 2.5

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