Shingen's Reviews of Horrible Games Options

[Shingen]

In this semi-regular feature on the WAC forums, I will review a game that's less than stellar, pointing out what is good and bad about the game.

Games that are generally viewed as bad will be my main target, and I will be accepting requests for games. I would like to focus on NES/SNES/Genesis/TG16 titles for now, and will occasionally branch out into other systems if and when I feel like it.

And now for the first "victim".

Who Framed Roger Rabbit
LJN Games
Developed by RARE Coin-Op (now Rareware)





The 1988 movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" was one of my favorite movies growing up. Cartoons and humans side by side? Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny on the same screen? Donald Duck and Daffy Duck fighting it out? AWESOME. So when I saw this game I thought "Hey, I could get information from Bugs Bunny and Goofy!"

....Letdown #1. Only the movie characters were in the game, none of the licensed characters. Today, I understand what kind of horrible licensing nightmare that would present. Warner Bros stipulated that their characters require equal screen time as Disney characters (Dumbo solo scene, Tweety solo scene. Bugs and Mickey, Daffy and Donald.) A video game would complicate things, if you got a key item from Huey Duey and Louie, you'd have to get an equally important item from Wile E Coyote or something.

So, you pop in the game and you start at Valiant's office. You have no items, and don't have a clue what's going on. So the first thing I did was try out my buttons and I accidentally punched Roger in the face.

Heh.



Went outside, grabbed the wallet lying on the ground, and got hit by a flower pot... which made me lose a life.



Letdown #2 - This game is "nintendo hard". Everything's randomized when you start the game, so everything's all over the place. This wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that the game's effin HUGE and things could be in any of the dozens of buildings.



So when you finally get the hang of the game, and start making progress, you die and write down your password, which leads me to...


Letdown #3: HORRIBLE HORRIBLE PASSWORD SYSTEM

XXXXXXXX-XXXXXX-XXXXXXXX

Alphanumeric passwords. All caps. So you wrote an O instead of a 0? Tough beans pal. I vs 1... I learned to write my letters in lower case and put a slash through my zeroes.

Now, this game isn't COMPLETELY horrible.

The music is quite good, and adapts some BGM from the movie.
The graphics are nice.

The actual gameplay isn't TOO bad, there's just... THE CITY IS HUGE.

The Ratings

Graphics: P.cool
Sounds: Beep Boop
Music: Catchy
Gameplay: OH GOD I HAVE TO START OVER AGAIN!?

Final Rating: On a scale of 1 to Awesome, this game's pretty mediocre. Barely worth the PCB in the cartridge, Rare fanboys who think that "OMG Rareware gaem!" automatically means the game is awesome can go eat a fish.

[Tylor]

The game also had one of the worst endings I've ever seen in any video game. Just a simple epilogue message over a black screen followed by THE END.

[raptorrob]

If you like excellent adventure games that has Roger, the Weasels, many other characters from the film and more then I strongly recommend you play this game! Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is one of the most different adventure video games! The characters, the action, and the sure thrill of adventure makes this game a fun non-stop playing time!

[Hicpotboy]

If you like excellent adventure games that has Roger, the Weasels, many other characters from the film and more then I strongly recommend you play this game! Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is one of the most different adventure video games! The characters, the action, and the sure thrill of adventure makes this game a fun non-stop playing time!

Yeah...no. This is NOT a good game. Quit advertising your sig.

[Shingen]

Believe it or not, I'm not removing his sig. Please note that his sig says NBA, while it links to a baseball site.