Happy Feet (Game Boy Advance) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

I'm sure I've mentioned before just how many CGI movies there are this year and just when you thought it was all over, along comes another one. Happy Feet is undoubtedly this festive season's big film, Warner Brothers invited selected members of the press (and us) to a preview in the sweltering July heat. In a nutshell, the story revolves around Mumble, a young penguin born into a nation of Emperor penguins - where each needs a Heartsong to attract a soul mate. Unfortunately Mumble is the worst singer in the world... however, as it happens, he is a brilliant tap dancer! Whether you anticipate this as a must see or not it's certainly causing my nieces and nephews some excitement but what's the game like?

Gameplay

Initially Happy feet plays like your average mission based platformer with heaps of detailed instructions of where you must go and what you must do there. This could be locating four penguins or going to speak to the Emperor. Fortunately it's not nearly as one-dimensional as it first appears. No sooner have you reached your destination than you'll be set one of a number of challenges. They start out with a simple fishing game, which plays a lot like the classic Ecco the Dolphin, where you must amass a given number of squid or fish whilst avoiding the obvious dangers. Another underwater element involves you attempting to escape the hungry leopard seals, a high pursuit game in which you are the prize. Another of the more obvious winter pursuits is sledging which is either against a timer or, again, collecting fish. This is a little trickier than the fishing because of the introduction of sheer drops and seagulls attempting to steal your fish. Finally there's the reason why you bought the game in the first place: the dancing penguins. As you'd expect this is a kind of 'Dance, Dance Revolution' game where you must hit the correct button (or buttons) at the correct time in rhythm to the music. All this is saved automatically to a battery back up. The game is reasonably lengthy and thankfully most of these mini-games can also be played from the main menu and, what's more, because of the save function you can constantly attempt to better your high score.

Controls

The developers have cleverly 'locked' off controls until you need them. This can make you feel a little constricted to begin with but it does mean that younger gamers will become far more confident with the various game elements and the quality of instruction almost does away with any need for the manual.

Graphics

Because of the snow and ice setting a lot of the backgrounds can appear both bland and repetitive, which I'm sure was unavoidable. The sprites are a little better although the animation is nowhere near as fluid as we've seen in some recent GBA titles. It seems that all the development time (in the graphics department at least) has gone to the dance sections, which are quite simply wonderful. This is because all the animation here has been lifted from the movie resulting in large, realistic dancing penguins that really have to be seen to be believed.

Sound

As you'd expect with a title based around singing and dancing the audio is spectacular. It not only includes five sampled tracks with everything from Stevie Wonder's 'I Wish' to Brittany Murphy's rendition of Boogie Wonderland, but also the GBA's sound chip working overtime producing a range of incidental music. Unfortunately there's little speech from the penguins themselves but when the soundtrack is this good we can let minor details slip.

Final comments

Given the average quality of movie tie-ins, Happy Feet certainly ranks a great deal higher than other offerings in its genre but it's not without its problems most of which stem from its age suitability. It's clear that the game and film is going to appeal to the pre-teen set but if that's the case, why have the developers placed so much text in the game which can't be ignored as it directly relates to the gameplay. It may be a minor gripe but I just can't see younger gamers sitting there and reading line after line of text not to mention wondering around looking for missing penguins. On the plus side this GBA version includes much that will make the film a hit: a great soundtrack, wonderful animation and, of course, those dancing penguins. I began by saying that the movie is going to be hard to miss this December and, even with this game's shortcomings, it's still an entertaining accompaniment to the big screen offering.

Pro: Great Audio, Fun Mini Games.
Con: Too Much Text, Can Become Repetitive.
Final score: 7.5

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