One of the hazards of getting older is that you look at current TV programs and think “They just don’t make cartoons like they used to.” At least, this happens to me and my husband. Our kids have missed out on the glory days of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Foghorn Leghorn and the Chicken Hawk — all those “old” cartoons that we grew up watching Saturday morning while Mom and Dad slept in. Now my kids have Cartoon Network, with shows like Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, and their favorite shows are being turned in to video games. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy watching Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends with my kids, at least sometimes. We repeat Cheese’s “I like chocolate milk” at just about every meal, because it’s the only thing my youngest son will drink. But it’s hard to capture the same type of family fun watching a show like Foster’s as watching Looney Toons. And crunching such shows into a video-game-sized cartridge often loses something in the process. But, the development team at Collision Studios actually does a pretty decent job and has made a game for the Gameboy Advanced that has turned in to one of our family’s favorites to challenge one another. And challenging, the game is.
If you’ve read my other “games for kids” reviews, you’ll know that I have a pretty fine line that separates “challenging” from “frustrating,” and all too often, a game falls on the wrong side of that line. I fully confess that I wouldn’t want to be a developer for a game for children between toddler and teenager. There are too many hurdles to overcome in trying to balance a game to be fun and still at the right level to not be too easy or too hard. This is especially true when making a game like Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, because the show has such a wide range of age appeal. My 5-year-old likes the show just as much as my 11-year-old, and the show itself has a humor level that both boys like. But the game my 5-year-old would like is going to be too easy for my 11-year-old, and subsequently, the game my 11-year-old would like is going to be too hard for my 5-year-old. The balance that Collision Studios has struck is an easy and straightforward control system, and the company designed the levels to have a range of difficulty. What this has meant for our family is that there are times when my youngest can easily play through a level, or part of a level, and then hand the game over to my oldest, or to me, to get through the harder parts. And for us, it works. It brings that same family experience that the cartoon does to the video game.
So what’s the game about? The storyline starts way back at the beginning of the show, where Mac’s mom has told him that it is time to give up his imaginary friend, Bloo. But Mac doesn’t want to give up Bloo, and Bloo doesn’t want to be adopted by someone other than Mac. Mac finds out about Madame Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, and they strike a deal. So long as Mac visits Bloo every day, Bloo can stay at Madame Foster’s without fear of being adopted. And this is how the various adventures of the show start. For the game, the story centers on meeting the other friends who live in the house and getting to know their personalities. The first real challenge, for example, is going around the house to collect items for Dutchess, the most demanding of the friends. The humor as you read the story of the game matches that of the show really well. It isn’t a laugh-out-loud sort of humor but a chuckle here and there.
There have been some points of the game where we were really stuck and were a bit frustrated because of it. But the reason this wasn’t a “throw down the game and quit” sort of frustration is because each time we played through a part, it was easy to see where we went wrong and to learn from the mistake. You had that feeling of “so close” even while saying “frustrating, stupid, rotten game.” As my son put it, this is a “home that kids created, and these kids have some really mean minds.” In fact, he’s sitting beside me even as I write this saying “I love this game, but it’s making me mad.” And goes right back to playing the same level again, of course. I don’t quite have the heart to tell him that I’ve gotten beyond that level and what’s coming up isn’t any easier but is still just as much fun.
The graphics are very well done and remind us of the cartoon simplified for the GBA setting. The music gets repetitive only because we’re stuck playing the same parts over and over. Were it not for this little problem, I don’t think the music would have gotten on my nerves. As it was, though, most of the time we had to have it turned off.
Our overall feeling about the game is that if we had a walkthrough for it with a few hints every now and then, it would be great. I wish that developers, or publishers, would set up a site where they provide a hints section for their games, which would make some of these moments so much better. But even without it, the game play is simple enough that we are having a lot of fun with the game. It doesn’t require that “hit multiple buttons all at once faster than your fingers can possibly move” issue that many side-scroller games for kids have. Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends for the Gameboy Advance is as much a winner in our house as the TV show is. It’s great family fun for “kids” of all ages.
I’ve played computer games since college, addicted first to story type games like Might and Magic. I have 3 children who also love computer games. My oldest son is a typical kid who loves the challenge of pressing the right combination of buttons and levers on a joystick in just the right way to make something happens, and frequently gets frustrated with mom’s slow fingers. ;) We use computers for both education and entertainment, and sometimes even bribery for good behavior.
The “glory days” of computer gaming for me were when games like Spectre Supreme, Pirate’s Gold, the Might and Magic series, the original Prince of Persia… those sorts of games were coming out on a regular basis. Back then I owned a Macintosh and was a die hard Mac fan. I was one of the first in my area to buy an iMac and on it learned the joy of playing games on the internet like daily crossword puzzle and “mind bender” type puzzles. My first online RPG was given to me for Christmas the year EQ was released, and I was hooked from day one. I played EQ for about a year. I started playing DaoC during late alpha testing, and was hooked on it.. well, to be honest I still am. I’ve tried pretty much every MMORPG I can get my hands on, from big names like EQ, to more obscure ones such as Underlight. I’ve been writing for IMGS since the first DaoC guide, and find I love the challenge of learning a game and presenting what I’ve learned (and sometimes my opinions), to other players.
I’m not a very strong player as far as learning PvE or quick reaction times, so I tend to stay away from games where I’m pitted against someone else in a way that requires physical (rather than mental) response. I still enjoy story and puzzle games, and in a way that’s how I still approach online games. I would much rather spend hours working through a quest than 5 minutes in combat against another player. I still get lost in simulation type games, obsessing over them until I’ve gotten them beaten. And I like being able to sit down at the computer when I’ve got less than half an hour and playing through a few levels of a puzzle game. I tend not to like first-person shooter type games, or anything with person to person violence, so I steer away from them unless they are fantasy based settings. All in all, I enjoy computer gaming so much that my life feels incomplete somehow when my computer is down.
