Short, but pretty fun (like, really short. The story mode takes less than an hour!)
Have you ever played and enjoyed a game you NEVER EVER thought you would enjoy, let alone play? I'm sure it's happened to every gamer in some instance or another. I'm kind of a big deal on Instagram (this is a big fat lie. Seriously though, follow me if you don't already. I'm the turkey picture named @kalameet), and I'm part of a group of like-minded retro game enthusiasts called the Retro Collective. They did a summer Secret Santa program, and it works like any typical Secret Santa: you get a name, then you send them a bunch of games. Well, I got a bunch of games! One of the bunch of games I got was The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. I vaguely recognized it as a cartoon that used to run on Cartoon Network, but as such I've never seen one second of the show. I decided, despite the fact that I had no familiarity with the source material, I might as well throw it into the ol' GBA and at least try it out. If it sucked, I wouldn't bother with it, but if it was fun, I would officially add it to my collection/backlog. Well, if you haven't guessed, it was fun enough to add to my backlog, but it's not without some serious flaws.
CONS:
- STORY MODE IS INCREDIBLY SHORT! LESS THAN AN HOUR IN TOTAL!
- It's essentially a beat-em-up, but it's very difficult to go through enemy encounters without taking damage (especially since so many of the missions require killing large amounts of enemies without taking damage)
- Controls can be a bit stiff, at times
- All three characters essentially play the same
PROS:
- Great graphics for a GBA game
- Simple, fun, beat-em-up gameplay
- While the story mode is criminally short, the missions you can do (for the most part) are fun and pretty varied
I spent a little over three hours with the game in all. I didn't 100% complete it. I am probably at 90-something percent complete. There are two modes to play: story mode, and mission mode. Story mode has three chapters, each starring a different character: Billy, Mandy, and Grim. Billy and Mandy's story modes take between 12-17 minutes each to beat, and Grim's is the toughest, and takes upwards of 20. Even still, that's daaaaamn short. The whole story is that Grim's Mojo Balls have been released, and you are tasked with retrieving them, lest they destroy everything, or something banal like that. I have no idea if this ties in with the show, but I honestly don't care one iota about the story in a game like this. After beating each story chapter (each ends with a boss), you receive one measly Mojo Ball. There are 54 in total to collect. The other 51 come from the mission mode. I thought it was odd that going through the whole story only nets you 3 Mojo Balls (spoiler: Billy is dumb and accidentally lets all the Mojo Balls loose), yet each singular mission (some which only take ten seconds to beat) nets you one. The whole story mode just seems unnecessary.
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| Billy's story chapter |
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| Mandy's story chapter. Jelly of that red GBA? |
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| And, Grim's chapter. There's a hunk in the background |
I was very happy to discover this game is essentially a beat-em-up. I love these kinds of games. But, part of the problem I had with it is that it's very difficult to dodge enemy attacks. You can either punch or kick with the two face buttons, or you can jump (you can also attack while jumping). There are several missions where your goal is to either defeat all the enemies on limited health, or survive enemy onslaughts until a timer runs out. Usually these ones you can't even take one hit. Maybe this is just me being shitty at the game, but these were infuriating missions. There isn't much you can do in the way of blocking (unless I'm super dumb, and you CAN block), so I usually just hopped around, trying to stay in the air as much as possible. It wasn't fun in the very least.
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| And you'll see these screens A LOT |
Occasionally there were jumping sections that I died on because I hit the jump button, but either a.) I hit it too late, or b.) the controls are a bit stiff and you need weird timing to get some of the jumps. Here's a funny sidenote, though: there's a large jump you need to make in Billy's story chapter, and I died on it probably ten times, because I just could not make the jump to save my life. Perhaps if I hadn't ignored the "tutorial" option on the main menu, I would have known that you can double jump by hitting the jump button while in the air. I'm dumb.
Finally, all three characters play exactly the same. They all have unique power moves (killing enemies fills a meter. Once it's full, you can unleash an extended attack that kills all enemies it touches, and leaves you invulnerable. Standard fare, really). Besides this, Billy's attacks don't do any more or less damage than Grim's, and they don't have any different reach or anything like that. Maybe this is more of a complaint with these kinds of games in general, though.
Despite all that negativity above, I did mostly enjoy my short time with this game! Firstly, the graphics look great. They are bright, and there's a lot of variations on the background themes and enemies (most of the variations come up during the missions). Unfortunately, the pictures I took probably don't look that great. It was tough to get a good picture, what with my damn reflection in all of them, the light behind me, and the general glare of the screen. There are some cut-scenes too, and these also look great.
Let's talk about some good gameplay qualities. Despite my bitching above about not being able to block, this game is still mostly a beat-em-up, and it's pretty fun. Each of the three story chapters have several areas to go through, and lots of enemies to knock around. There's also some platforming sections to break up the constant donnybrooks. It's one of those games where you walk to the right, then the screen stops scrolling with you, then enemies come out. Once you kill them all, the game allows you to go on. It's simple, but for a game like this (a licensed, very short, probably hastily made kids' game), it works. As I mentioned, at the end of each chapter is a boss. They are super bare bones, but I'll get to them in a second.
You can't complete the story mode until you collect a certain amount of Mojo Balls. And since you only get one upon completing Billy's quest (Mandy's and Grim's are locked initially). you have to do a small number of missions. Maybe twelve or thirteen. They are broken up into tiers, with each tier having ten missions, and them getting progressively more difficult as you go up in tiers. The first tier is stupidly easy, while the fifth one gets insanely annoying. They are very varied, and for the most part, fun. They offer much more variety than what is seen in the story mode. Some have you racing through a level as fast as possible; having a gun with limited ammo, and taking out all the enemies with only that ammo (probably my favorite ones); some you have to break open many treasure chests to find pie pieces before time runs out; plus the few I mentioned above. I think there's more too. These are a fun distraction, but they only exist to collect all 54 Mojo Balls. I stopped at 49, because the last few I had I simply did not have the patience/motivation to finish them. Overall, the missions are fun, but they don't last too long either. I more skilled player than I could 100% complete this game in 2 hours I bet.
Okay, I know you've been waiting for it. Here are the bosses!
GENERAL SKARR
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| He looks cool enough, but don't be fooled. He's easy |
This is Billy's boss. He's a general (duh) that puts on some sort of robot suit. He stands on one side of the screen, and shoots these orange bullet-things at you. If you try to get close to him and hit him, he'll blow you back. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to beat him. All you do is just stay on the opposite side of the screen, and jump over the orange things he shoots at you. He'll eventually move to the other side of the screen, and do the same thing. Once you've jumped over a bunch of his bullets, he'll slump down for a few seconds. That's when you run in and hit him. Do this a few times, and he's beat. Easy as pie.
JACK O'LANTERN
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| That's him, on the right! |
Mandy's boss is a humanoid thing with a pumpkin head. This is the toughest boss in the game. Jack stands up on that tomb, and you have to deal with exploding pumpkins. When you hit one, it flies off, and when it lands, it explodes. The plan is to hit one up to Jack, where it'll explode, and he'll fall down to where you are. Then, just pummel him (being careful of other exploding pumpkins that are bombarding you). After he takes a beating, he'll jump back up, and you gotta do it again. After you do this a few times, he's dead. Annoying, but not too bad.
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| Hurt? Or drunk? You decide |
NERGAL
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| Yikes this picture sucks. Sorry, I let you all down |
This is Grim's boss, and I guess you could say the final boss? Well, he's one of the EASIEST bosses I've ever fought in any game. First of all, since you can't tell from the picture, I'll describe him: he's a black humanoid thing with legs and arms, and also some tentacles for good measure. He walks back and forth, and touching his tentacles hurts. They are electrified or some shit. Anyway, all you have to do is jump over him. After he walks back and forth a few times, he'll get tired. Then you beat his ass. Supremely easy.
Whelp, what else is there to be said about this game that I haven't said already? Honestly, I wouldn't have ever played this if I didn't get it for free. I wouldn't spend more than $1 at the absolute max. If you see it at a thrift shop for $1.01, you should probably just move on. Unless you're a HUGE fan of the show, I guess? I'm glad I did play and experience it, but it's just not essential to any GBA collection.
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| My final loading screen, because the game doesn't even have a credit roll or "The end" screen. Psssh |
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