Biker Mice From Mars (Nintendo DS) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

Biker Mice is another one of those kids animated series that attempts to entice viewers simply because of its incredibly obscure name. Obviously this worked for Bananas in Pyjamas and Spongebob Square Pants but failed miserably for these rodents from another planet. Developed by Rick Ungar, the series began airing in 1993 only to be cancelled three seasons later. The story revolves around three, wise cracking, motorcycle riding mice who have escaped a war on their home planet of Mars. You do have to wonder who this game will appeal to with the series clearly not too popular but it's here and we're going to take a look at it.

Gameplay

Biker Mice allows you to play as any of the three characters over a number of levels featuring both motorcycle riding and platforming, with the latter taking up most of the game. The platforming is a simple 'a to b' affair where you must battle it out with a variety of henchmen whilst also picking up the odd collectable. The problems though are numerous, the first being the difficulty level so while some enemies can be defeated with a single kick or punch, others will be able to do the same to you. This is especially true when they are attempting to dodge or avoid your current weapon and, even if you actually hit them, they'll still come at you with full health. Worse still, the pace never appears to change so you just get wave after wave of exactly the same henchmen and to make matters worse, there are not nearly enough checkpoints so death means starting right from the beginning yet again.

The Motorcycle sections don't fare much better. They are both confusing and frustrating. Mostly this is down to just how simple the completion criteria are and while you may assume there is something more complicated or involved, it's simply a case of crossing the finish line within the time limit. There are multiple pick-ups and enemies to interact with but you can pick most of these off with a guided missile. There's no Multiplayer either and the whole thing is over in a matter of hours, which is probably a good thing if you've read the whole review.

Controls

The control system is one of the poorest we've encountered for some time as not only are the various combat moves poorly implemented but, unforgivably, the collision detection is very hit and miss, which is incredibly frustrating when being attacked from all sides. The motorcycle sections are similar and not only is your bike difficult to control but it will also grind to a halt with even minor collisions.

Graphics

Although some of some of the backgrounds aren't too bad, the overall design is very poor and the levels are populated by wooded henchmen, who do nothing to retain your interest. In fact the whole thing is more like a high-end GBA title than a DS title released at this stage in the DS's life cycle. This is not one to show off to all your PSP owning friends.

Sound

The sound effects and music are awful and you get the impression that, when the sound designer was on holiday, the rest of the development staff simply reached for the generic movie/TV tie-in audio jar and poured it into the cart. I know that's not very technical but that's how it feels. There are no voice samples and the sound effects become repetitive very quickly indeed and let's not even mention the terrible music.

Dual screen

There's been no real attempt to use the DS's enhanced features at all which is yet another reason why this looks and feels like a GBA title.

Final comments

Every so often a movie/TV tie-in is released providing even more evidence of just why this type of game gets so much criticism from the gaming community and Biker Mice is most definitely in this category. It's difficult to think of any redeeming features in this DS and what they should be good at (i.e. fighting and racing) they're not. It's difficult to imagine just who this will appeal to and, after spending some time with it, we quickly realized just why it's spent so much time in the 'to do' pile in the office.

Pro: Not Much Really
Con: Awful Combat System, Terrible Sound, Too Short.
Final score: 2.5

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