It’s the 11th day of Shitsmas. We’re almost done with game after horrible game, but not before we hit the final two, and today we have a pretty big one to contend with – Universal Studios Theme Parks Adventure for the GameCube.
Now, this seems like an awesome idea — a video game where you get to experience a Universal Studios theme park! Awesome, right? Of course not, since it’s in this list! Oh no, this one is a pretty interesting case and, oddly, one we already had a “preview” of, in a sense – this was played prior to this episode on a James and Mike Monday’s episode… or was it still James and Mike Play bad then? I can’t recall but that’s not important — what is is that James clearly saw the insanity here as a candidate for a Nerd episode, if even a small one, and it worked out well.
Naturally, given that this game is based on a theme park based on movies from what certainly has to be James’ favorite studio, the Nerd is excited.. sort of. He takes a moment to vent about the destruction of cinema history that the theme park itself played a role in before acknowledging how fun the actual park is – call it mixed emotions. It sets the stage well for this review, at least – we even get a bit of a reference to the Wizard, before finally getting to it, and what it is isn’t much.
You’re a kid running around the park picking up trash. The first complaint is the camera system — this game uses pre-rendered backgrounds (think Final Fanatasy 7,8 and 9, or Resident Evil 1 and 2) which isn’t working well for the Nerd.
What also doesn’t work well for the Nerd are the lines in the game — they don’t actually work like you’d think. Turns out the entire goal is to collect enough trash around the park (or interact with theme park characters) to earn enough points exchange for a special hat you need to ride the rides — those rides being mini-games loosely based on the actual rides at the real theme park.
Yeah, it’s seriously that kind of game and yes, the mini-games are terrible. They are short, they don’t play well, and given what you have to do to actually get to enjoy them, well… is it even worth it? Certainly not, as far as the Nerd certainly doesn’t think so. All this is done to collect stamps. Yep, that’s the actual ultimate goal of the game.
We close with a mock commercial for the theme park commercials and a comparison of the mini-games featured here to the many LJN titles based on Universal properties before taking a peek at the final gift for Shitsmas.
What do we see but that oh so familiar rainbow of doom — yep, the final gift is an LJN product, one I certainly wasn’t expecting!
Final Rating: 3.5/5