Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd you steal our garbage?!!
Game by Wayforward Technology
Reviewed by Philip "Pocket Squirrel" Wesley
Save: battery/ 3 Slots
Released: 2012
Works with: 3DS Models
ESRB Rated: Content Rating
Rating Descriptions: Content Descriptors
Quick Opinion: Own if you like the series.

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Opening Snide Remarks: Adventure Time is an animated series developed by
Pendleton Ward and Cartoon Network in 2007 that is based off of a short film
Pendleton ward created in 2006. In the short film, Finn is named "Penn."

Anyhow, the short film involves Penn (Finn) and Jake following a Rainicorn
that belongs to Princess Bubblegum and discover that The Ice King is
holding her hostage. They battle The Ice King and save Princess Bubblegum
before running off to battle ninjas. The short film was intended to sell
the show to networks like Nickelodeon. In fact, the show was rejected by
Nickelodeon twice before Cartoon Network picked it up for production. The
show has been going for five seasons at the time this review is being
written and has a bit of a cult following.

The story takes place in the Magical Land of Ooo, which is essentially an
alternate version of Earth in another dimension where a nuclear event
called "The Great Mushroom War" has killed almost all life. Of course, The
Great Mushroom War also led to a rebirth of magic and the Earth (Ooo) has
become inhabited with strange creatures like Candy People or House People.

Finn and Jake live in this world. Finn is an extremely moral 14 year old
boy prone to fighting and doing "hero stuff." Jake is a magical dog who
can stretch himself into all sorts of shapes, whenever he feels like it.
Together they deal with all the weird things that happen around them. The
show uses surreal imagery similar to animated classics like "The Point" or
"The Yellow Submarine" when telling stories with a sense of dark humor to
them. The show is pretty critically acclaimed for some of the stories and
the subtext below the show can be both profound, touching, and tragic all
at the same time.

I really like this show because of the "subtext" storyline in it and the
characters. Naturally, I was a bit worried when a video game based on the
show was announced.

I felt a bit better after it was revealed that Wayforward Technologies.
Wayforward Technologies is one of my favorite video game developers. I have
been a fan of them from their Game Boy Color games. They ended up with some
pretty weak licenses but they made games with those licenses that were much
better than anyone would have expected. Then it was announced that the game
would take inspiration from The Legend of Zelda II: Adventure of Link and
be an "action RPG."

That sounds like it would be a great idea and the Land of Ooo is full of
interesting creatures. The game takes place sometime between Season 3 and
Season 4 of the television series. So, shall we see if this game is any
good? Well, let us make the obvious, terrible, and cliche "IT'S REVIEW
TIME" joke and move on to the actual review.

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Gameplay Description: The main story of the game is that Finn wakes up from
a nightmare involving The Cosmic Owl. Upon waking up, he and Jake decide to
have some fun breaking cups in their Secret Basement. Then they decide to
leave the house and discover that the garbage they had outside has been
stolen by The Ice King for some reason. After much debate between Finn and
Jake, they decide they should go and retrieve their garbage from The Ice
King because he MUST be up to no good. The story of the game involves them
chasing the Ice King all across parts of the Land of Ooo and helping the
various residents of Ooo with their problems.

The game has two different styles of play, the majority of it takes place
in a side scrolling view where you can talk to things, get "quests" from
them, beat up enemies, and use various powers to get past obstacles. The
other style of play is an overworld where you can use various powers to
access new areas and travel. Sometimes, you get attacked by enemies along
the road. When this happens, the game switches to a side scrolling view
again until you beat all the enemies. Beating up the enemies gets you
various items for use in healing yourself or beating enemies.

Finn starts with two hearts and you gain more hearts, speed, and strength
by finding hidden chests in the side scrolling areas or the dungeons. You
lose a bit of a heart when you fall into a pit or are hit by an enemy. In
order to regain hearts, you have to save at a Save Fountain or eat the food
that you find from defeating enemies. You can also match food items with
various condiments to make them more potent. This is similar to what you
can do in Earthbound (Mother 2) on the Super Nintendo.

The flow of the game revolves around talking to characters, getting items
for them, and then unlocking abilities to get to the dungeon or next area.
There are four dungeons, a few bosses, and -later in the game- a decent
amount of back tracking. For example, in order to open a door to get to
another area, you need to find a few Band Bugs who have been taken away by
Marauders. The Marauders need help or want to trade other items for the
Band Bugs. This means you go out and kill something or search for something
else. This back tracking feels a little bit like padding but it does mean
you get to explore the Land of Ooo a little more in depth as the items you
need usually are accessible with abilities you earn. The game has some
clever references to the show in the items you can earn and has some
interesting bosses and abilities. The game is more action oriented than
puzzle oriented as most of the puzzles revolve around "hit this switch"
or "pass this obstacle" puzzles.

The real problem with the game comes from an issue in Game Design which I
will address in that section. Other than that, the game is fun, although it
is a bit short. The completion amount by the file has to do with the
treasure chests in the game.

Liked: The game takes the concept of The Legend of Zelda 2 and fixes some
of the minor problems I had with it. For example: Falling down a pit only
takes part of your hearts instead of killing you instantly. If you get a
Game Over, you start back at the last Save Fountain you visited. When you
beat the game, you can start over with all of your power ups in a "New Game+"
mode. The enemies take a few more hits, but that seems to be the only real
difference.


Hated: The game feels like it is over way too quickly and the back tracking
aspect of the game could become tedious for some players.

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Graphics Description: This game manages to capture the feel of the show in
side scrolling form perfectly. The backgrounds are excellent, the animation
is great, the designs are funny, the conversation sequences are great, the
writing is solid, and the 3D effect is used to separate layers of the
background, which gives the game a wonderful feel. Items are distinct from
each other, the only real complaint I could have on the graphics is that
some of the later enemies are just pallet swaps of earlier enemies. The
overworld looks a bit like the Super Nintendo game Earthbound because of
the level of "simplicity" added to it.

The graphics are easy to see, although much of the graphics come off as a
bit of a tease. There are visual references to characters, enemies, and
events that do not happen in the game. Example: On the file select screen,
you see Finn and Jack fighting a Bear with an Axe strapped to it, a Pig
with a Goose strapped to it, and a bunch of Hammer Turtles. (Turtles with
Hammers strapped to them.) Only the turtles show up in the game. The bear
does, but it is a bit different when you meet it. That pig is nowhere to
be seen. The map looks like it could have been a bit larger at one time too.

Liked: The game looks great and feels very close to the show in style. The
animation is awesome and the writing is great too.

Hated: Some of the enemies are pallet swaps of earlier enemies, some of the
backgrounds, sprites in the end credits, and other graphics reference places,
bosses, and things that did not happen in the game. In a way, I suspect that
this game was originally supposed to be longer. Hey. In the ending credits,
there are sprites for something that would have been AMAZING TO PLAY AS IN
THE NEW GAME + OPTION... but alas... it is not to be.

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Sound/Music Description: OH MY GLOB! The graphics work well with the look of
the show, but the music NAILS IT. There are a few songs with lyrics that
reference events that do not happen in the game, but they are still awesome.
The music in this game is top notch. There are no songs from the TV show,
but those would not make sense in the context of the game. The music also
borrows a bit of The Legend of Zelda 2 in the Dungeon Themes which works
really well. Some of the remixes of the main theme and Marceline's "Fry
Song" are just so great. This is high energy music that just pumps you up
to play the game. Lots of metal guitar and drums mixed with referential
musical cues that reference The Legend of Zelda 2.

There is a song about flying.. oh.. I can not tell you. It is too awesome
to spoil. Anyhow, Rebecca Sugar consulted on some of the lyrics apparently.
If you love the music in the show, you are going to love the music in the
game.

As far as the sound goes, there are reasonable hits and swipes and they
sound fine. Finn sounds a lot like Link when he falls into a pit though.
The sound effect that is made when you initiate a battle on the overworld
is extremely close to the sound effect from The Legend of Zelda 2. Some of
the vocal clips that show up in the game are excellent. I would have loved
to see voice acting in the game, but I have a suspicion that they were on
a schedule to get this out in time for 2012.

The title theme is so good and the slow melody version of it when you win
an enemy encounter is amazing. I wish I could buy a soundtrack for this
game. The next best thing is that you get a Sound Test when you beat the
"New Game +" mode. I spent a lot of time with the game hooked up to a
Bose Soundlink II or with headphones. Nothing like sweet bass and wailing
guitar.

Liked: The Music and sound are "Mathematical!" That means "good" in the
far flung future of Ooo.

Hated: I really have nothing to complain about in the sound and music
department.

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Play Control/Game Design: The game controls pretty well, hit detection
requires you to get in close to some enemies and that means you will take
a few hits. Now, healing would be much easier if it were not for the
cluttered and tricky to navigate item menu. The items you pick up go to BMO
who acts as your bottom screen through out the game. You can hold 40 items
in BMO and you activate them by holding L and cycling through them with the
Directional Pad or by touching them. You touch something once to highlight
it and then you can drag it to another area or apply it if it is a usable
condiment. You have to double tap it to use. This becomes very awkward
during boss fights, so you have to find a safe spot in their pattern if
you need to heal. I suggest that you stock up on the "Crystal Eye" power
up item.

Many of the power up items are clever, but ultimately useless when it comes
to practical use. The special moves are pretty good and can be used in
combat pretty effectively. My favorite move would have to be the downstab
move they borrowed from The Legend of Zelda 2. The downstab can be executed
multiple times in a row, so I find that I can bounce off of the stronger
enemies consecutively. Finn moves slow at first but the speed of the game
flow does improve. If you forget how to do a move, the game has an easy
to access list that shows how to execute every move you know. The level
progression in dungeons consists of finding keys to open locked doors and
finding an ability to get past the obstacles in the dungeon. The real
problem with the game is that it only has four dungeons. It feels like
the game was set on a strict deadline and that this is only half of the
game that it could have been. There are many more places in the series
that were revealed before Season 4. Areas like the Fire Kingdom, and The
Night-0-Sphere. There are a lot of interesting characters that would make
excellent bosses like.. I dunno... THE LICH. There is a part in this game
where you take out a "boss" in front of a giant arena. You never get to
go INSIDE of that arena. It feels like there is a lot of basis here for
a longer game. In fact, it feels like the Fire Kingdom area should take
you to an "underworld" map. where you could have a "Fire Dungeon," a
"Night Dungeon," and so forth. The game story wraps up easy enough though
and the game is fun. I do like that they took the Legend of Zelda 2
formula of fetch quests and jump puzzles to a natural evolution. I feel
that a lot of young fans of the series will be thrilled with the game and
enjoy it a lot. Many of the older fans, such as myself, will find it to
be a delightful roast beef when we wanted rare steak. I feel I have been
fed half of a delicious meal and I really want the rest of it.

The level design is straightforward and easy to understand in the dungeons.
I feel there could have been more complexity in the dungeons, especially
since Shantae on the Game Boy Color and Shantae: Risky's Revenge have some
fairly complicated dungeons. But I try not to compare games to each other
if I can help it.

Liked: The game is fun, has a decent amount of stuff to do, the special
moves are reasonably useful, and play control is responsive.

Hated: It can be difficult to get a few hits in on an enemy without getting
hit which could make the front part of the game frustrating to novie game
players. The inventory system feels cluttered and unintuitive, the game
feels like it was supposed to be longer.

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Improve: I feel this game should have been delayed from 2012 to 2013 to
make the game more robust. The music, graphics, and gameplay are fine; but
too short. Instead of having 40 onscreen items in the menu, the game should
have given gamers four "pockets" of inventory screens. They should have put
condiments into a screen that you can only access in save points, places
where you interact with characters, and on the overworld. This would force
people to deal with the inventory before going into a boss fight or dungeon
so they could plan their recipes. I would have also let people attach
certain food items or battle items to the Directional Pad on the 3DS. This
means that I could instantly use an item by pressing a direction on the
pad and heal or equip power boosting items on the go. The pockets system
would separate items into "Battle," "Health," "Condiments," and "Field
Use Only" categories. You could assign a string of five items in the
"Battle" and "Health" categories to each direction on the D-Pad. This may
sound a bit more complex but it would require just a little more strategy
for boss battles and gameplay. I feel that the game was also held back
because a Nintendo DS version was released at the same time which has a
lot of the same features. In fact, the DS version is missing only a few
sound clips, widescreen, and the 3D effect. Had this been developed as
a 3DS Exclusive game, I feel it would certainly be longer and more could
have been done with it. Other than that, this game pretty much nailed every
thing else. Oh, I want to be able to play as Fiona & Cake. Thank you very
much.

RIYL: The Legend of Zelda 2, Adventure Time, decent action RPGs.

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Final Words: This is a great game for fans of the series, but it leaves a
little bit to be desired when it comes to length and inventory management.
The music, graphics, and concept are extremely sound and less experienced
game players should certainly be given this game. If you have children who
love the Adventure Time series or you are an adult who loves it, you should
check out this game. I had a lot of fun with this game and any fan of the
show should enjoy it too. Just keep in mind that it is not without a few
noticeable flaws. If you are not a fan of the show, you can skip this title.
If you are a fan of the show, you better buy this game so that a sequel can
be made. Please do that as a favor to everyone. Thank you.

Oh! On the title screen, try entering the "Konami Code." Trust me, you will
find it to be funny.

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Score
Gameplay: ****
Graphics: ****
Sound/Music: *****
Play Control/Game Design: ****
Value: ***

Star Total: 60%

Personal Opinion Merit: 23%

Final Score: 83%

Letter Grade: A

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