About a week ago I blogged about Adventure Time: Hey Ice
King! Why’d You Steal Our Garbage? I commented then about the positive feel of
the game, while addressing concerns about how quickly I was blazing through it.
The final tally for Adventure Time is now just under nine
hours, a figure that I feared going in.
Others could play for more or less time, mainly because of how long I
was wandering around lost on Ice King’s mountain, the first time around. For clarity, this number includes the extra
campaign, which features slightly hard enemies.
They’d have to get a lot tougher to pad out this game.
Value Assessment
I bought the collector’s version for $40, about average for
3DS titles. At that price it kept me
busy for about a week, playing through one hour sessions at a time. It didn’t really stand up in terms of length,
and if I could address that challenge alone, I might simply add two or more “lands”
to the land of Ooo. The battle
difficulty and acrobatic challenges are just about where I wanted them, and fit
a nice difficulty curve.
The extras look nice, but they don’t add much to the
experience. I never really used the
Sword stylus, nor did I need to. The Book
of Beasts and the map seem like nice swag, but are likewise supplementary.
I found the music to be very satisfying, with a surprising
quantity and quality of voice work. It
certainly makes me wish that more work went into the music player. Unlocked at the end of the second quest, it’s
a one button affair that accesses music sequentially and plays until the music is
stopped. Given that all of the music is
ambient, a better player with more common features could allow the game to
double as a music album. I know it’s
standard for video game music player design, but that standard hasn’t been
updated since Kirby’s Dream Land – it
might be due for a redesign.
The question of how worthwhile is this purchase is a tough one. I’m mostly satisfied, as Adventure Time
carries some of the best spritework and music I’ve seen in a while. Fans of the show will no doubt be
disappointed as the actors voices are kept to a minimum. The short campaign is backed by an extra
quest, but it doesn’t lend itself to much replay value.
I think I’ll hold on to my copy, and I think I’ll even take
in some of the show on Cartoon Network.
The sense of humor is addictive.
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