Forget Christmas, this is the story of how the Grinch stole a few
hours of my time thanks to this unappealing interactive game. Dr.
Seuss' 'How the Grinch stole Christmas', much like 'A Christmas
Carol', is a holiday classic. Earlier this year, Ron Howard, Jim
Carrey and company brought this magical tale to the big screen in
the form of 'The Grinch'. It was a juggernaut waiting for a push and
now that the movie has achieved box office success, the
bandwagon is rapidly filling up with Konami riding shotgun.
Brightly coloured lights, gift-wrapped presents and carols, this can
only mean one thing, it's Christmas time in Whoville. If there's one
thing the Grinch detests, its Christmas, and as he sits atop Mt.
Crumpit observing Whoville, he ponders what dastardly deeds he
can perform to disturb the festivities. How can he deprive the
residents of Whoville of their favourite holiday? How about
smashing their gifts, destroying their snowmen and defacing public
property? It's all part of the Grinch's master plan of stealing
Christmas, so let's get to it.
The Grinch is a third-person action/adventure game where you
play as the Mean One himself. The object of the game is to
complete a series of tasks, designed to ruin holiday preparations,
before Christmas day. The Grinch has a decidedly console feel to
it. Not only is the gameplay simplistic, the graphics are well below
par for a PC title. Toss in the usual aches and pains that are often
attached to third-person action games and you've got The Grinch
in a nutshell, a poor effort that fails to appeal to it's target
audience, let along gamers in general.
After an introductory scene sets up the Grinch's tale, the first bit of
action involves a set of tutorial rooms that teach and showcase the
Grinch's many talents. Fortes such as his super-human strength, his
unique ability to butt-slam (for lack of a better word) and his stank
breath. It's also here that you'll bear witness to some of the game's
biggest downfalls. The camera work is terrible, often facing
directly at the Grinch rather than following closely behind him,
over his shoulder. The controls are finicky and plagued with
delayed reactions. Rather than a running jump, you can literally
jump straight up in the air, press the forward key, and the result is
a jump forward. Gravity has nothing on the Grinch. But wait, that's
not the worst part. In terms of the graphics, there's more clipping
going on here than at my local barbershop. The only high point by
this time is the voice of the narrator, which is fantastic. As for the
Grinch, his voice needs a whole lot more personality.
The game gets better though, doesn't it? I'm afraid not. Once you
finally arrive in Whoville, the game continues on its unimaginative
journey. There are four locations to explore including Whoville,
Whoforest, Wholake and the Dump, but each locale is less
appealing than the previous one. There's no life in the game, no
atmosphere. Visually, the environments are dark and bland. For
the love of St. Nick, the snow is grey. And since when was
Whoville evacuated? Besides the police officers, that help indicate
which buildings are accessible and which are not, the only other
residents of Whoville are often Grinch-molesting children who
have nothing better to do than touch, feel, and hug the big green
guy. The town is void of interaction, except with items and
buildings that are necessary to interact with in order to complete
the tasks.
The Grinch mostly involves wondering around the game's
locations, smashing gifts and collecting items including blueprints
required to build gadgets. The gadgets are often involved in the
grander scheme of things, such as completing the objectives
required in order to ruin Christmas in Whoville. In order to put
together a gadget, you'll have to gather and re-arrange the
blueprints properly, back at the Grinch's lab. The gadgets range
from a Rotten Egg Launcher to a Rocket Spring, which allows the
Grinch to jump higher. Once you've put together a fancy gadget,
new environments will open up and new missions unveiled.
The biggest problem with The Grinch is the fact the game just isn't
much fun. There's no challenge for older gamers and the younger
audience will quickly grow tired of the tedious tasks and the lack
of interaction and atmosphere in the game. For instance, near the
beginning of the game, you have to find a disguise in order to
enter the Whoville post office. Ok, that's cool. Once inside,
however, it becomes a question of whether you can manoeuvre
through a maze in order to unlock certain doors, which lead to
more present smashing and blueprint gathering. Such tasks are
dull, uninspiring and will undoubtedly be unable to hold the
attention of a younger gamer.
The only real unique feature in The Grinch is the ability to switch
between the Grinch himself and his dog Max. Some of the puzzles
in the game were not meant for such large green creatures, so this
is where Max becomes a valuable asset. Max isn't much of a dog
however, as he can't even jump. All he does is run around, often
resulting in camera views that will have you tearing your green
body hair out in no time.
When the Grinch finally realizes the true meaning of Christmas
and all is well again in Whoville, this title is simply a dreadful gaming
experience. It lacks entertainment, atmosphere, colourful visuals,
solid voiceovers, challenging puzzles, a steady camera, good
controls, and anything else a game should have. It's gar? gar?
garbage. The only thing it has going for it is its name, The Grinch,
which kids will instantly fall for after having watched the movie.
This holiday season, The Grinch is stealing something alright, but
it's not Christmas.
Ratings:
[ 16/50 ] Gameplay
[ 04/10 ] Graphics
[ 05/10 ] Sound
[ 04/10 ] Storyline
[ 02/10 ] Fun Factor
[ 02/10 ] Replay Value
See the Game Over Online Rating System