Reviewed: December 4, 2005
Reviewed by: Brendon Hivner
Publisher
Buena Vista Games
Developer
Capcom Production Studio 3
Released: October 11, 2005
Genre: Action
Players: 1
ESRB: Everyone
2
6
8
6
5.0
Supported Features:
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
It’s a bit mind boggling that a game based on a stop-motion film from 1993 is now appearing in 2005, and though Tim Burton’s film was popular then (and now) in Japan, there is very limited interest in the U.S. So The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie’s Revenge feels out of place to begin with, but on top of all that, it just isn’t fun. In fact, it’s one of the more boring games to be released as of late.
If nothing else, Oogie’s Revenge does have atmosphere; that is, the ambience of the film, in the graphic scenery, the voice acting, and the music. But aside from this, Oogie’s Revenge is nothing more than a generic beat’em up, which so many other games have done better in the past. In the end, Oogie’s Revenge is a dated game and a sequel to a twelve-year-old movie.
Without ruining any of the game’s story elements, Jack Skellington is going on an adventure to rid Halloweentown of Oogie (again) after some vile little kids stitch Skellington’s arch nemesis back up and unleash him upon the land. After Jack returns from trying out his new item (Dr. Finkelstein’s soul robber), he discovers that Halloweentown’s denizens are scared to death and the doors leading to other holiday towns have vanished. So Jack sets out (with soul robber in hand) to stop the terrible Oogie once and for all.
With the soul robber being Jack’s primary weapon, the gadget comes with a few attacks; too few considering how repetitive the action is. While you can whip it upon enemies, the most damaging of these attacks grabs the enemy and smashes it on the ground or into other enemies. It’s kind of cool at first, but becomes old much too quickly. And unfortunately, the action is the exact same thing all the way through the game, making the combat a chore rather than fun.
As the game progresses, new costumes can be opened up for Jack, and these costumes allows for additional powers, but the soul robber will still be Jack’s primary way of dispatching almost every enemy type who, by the way, doesn’t seem to care whether Jack succeeds or not. They all kind of simply mosey around, not really paying much attention to him, and they’re pretty much all pushovers, offering no variety to the combat at all.
The boss fights are neat, considering that they throw some rhythm gaming into the mix. As you battle the boss, musical notes burst forth, filling a meter, and when filled, you go into a musical rhythm mini-game. If you’re successful, Jack unleashes a powerful attack that does tremendous damage. While you can still damage the boss by failing at the mini-game, the damage is much lower. They don’t show up often, and the boring parts of the game aren’t worth getting to the boss fights.
Oogie’s Revenge does get the twisted Burton world down pretty well with details any hardcore fan would spot, and the angular design of the environments and whimsical characters are all here. But surprisingly, there isn’t very much to look at.
The graphics are jagged, the lighting isn’t impressive, and the textures are smeary and drab. The look of Burton’s film has actually been captured better in other games that his work has inspired over the years. In addition, the framerate is a bit hit-and-miss, despite there not being all that much going on, effects-wise.
The one truly bright spot of Oogie’s Revenge is in the audio. There isn’t one bad spot of voice acting; it’s all great. The only bad point that can be said of the voiceovers is that editing created a repetitive line of the same exact thing in certain places during combat, and after a few times of hearing it, you’re ready to mute the sound. Chris Sarandon returns to voice Jack Skellington, and is voiced by talented, veteran actors for support cast.
The musical numbers suffers the same repetitive fate as seemingly the rest of the game. Though excellent, much like the rest of the game, they loop and repeat over and over, lyrics and all.
Playing through Oogie’s Revenge will take you about 10-12 hours, give or take. Playing through doesn’t offer any substantial reward, and after playing it once you’ll likely never touch the game again, even if you’re a hardcore fan of the film.
The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie’s Revenge isn’t a fun game to play, even for the genre it’s in. Almost everything here seems like there’s been little effort put forth to make a good or entertaining game.
On the flip side, the ambience and Burton-esque feel of the game is present and well accounted for in the music, storyline, and character voices. In fact, it’d be good enough to make another film out of it all. Too bad you’re supposed to play it rather than watch it.