Reviewed: December 21, 2006
Reviewed by: Arend Hart

Publisher
Midway Games

Developer
Midway Games

Released: November 19, 2006
Genre: Fighting
Players: 1-4
ESRB: Everyone

8
6
8
7
7.0

Supported Features:

Just for an example of how great the show is; one episode titled Modern Primitives finds Billy uncovering a frozen caveman in the yard – a’la the Pauly Shore flick Encino Man. Only instead of Brendan Frasier playing the caveman, it is the legendary Fred Flintstone who runs amuck in town shouting “Yabba-Dabba, yabba-dabba!” and even boosts a car using what-else…his feet.

It was only time before Billy & Mandy made their way onto the game consoles, and last fall saw the first emergence of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy on the last-gen machines. With the release of the Wii, the game was ported over to Nintendo’s little powerhouse and given a few tweaks in an attempt to utilize the Wii’s unique motion-sensitive controller – but the results are less than impressive. Thankfully, the game holds up under its own merit despite the lame controls, resulting in a solid button masher that is definitely better than most licensed fare.

The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy does a surprisingly good job of tackling the over-the-top melee-fighting genre (see: Super Smash Bros, Powerstone, or Kung Fu Chaos), while still incorporating the humor and ingenuity of the cartoon series. True, the game won’t win any awards for innovative gameplay – as the game does not do anything that any of the aforementioned titles have not already done – but it is enjoyable while it lasts.

So, without platforming in any form, the name of the game is good ol’ arena style button mashing melee combat. Pick a character, pick up to three opponents, pick an arena, and furiously crush some buttons – nothing more, nothing less. Sure, there is the requisite “story mode” which takes all of 20 minutes to complete – but that is hardly worth mentioning. Where The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy really shows its worth is in the fun, and surprisingly complex, fighting action.

Much like any other game of this ilk, the characters have both weak and strong attacks – which differ only by how much vigor you shake the controller with. These are the standard punch-and-kick moves and combos. Throughout the course of combat, the characters are awarded with Mojo Orbs, which are used to fill up the characters’ Mojo Meters. A full Mojo Meter will unleash a single powerful Mojo Attack, while a twice-filled Meter will unleash a Mojo Meltdown – which brings up a intricate series of onscreen targets that if fired in the proper order will deal a final deadly blow to the opponent.

Characters can also utilize items and weapons strewn about the area – from rocks to laser blasters, and everything in-between. The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy even features a few goofy weapons, like worm blasters and glass shooters, which are obvious nods to Sony’s popular Ratchet and Clank series.

Players can choose from any of 15 characters from the cartoon series, and play any of the nine different gameplay modes like Last Man Standing, Crush the Horde, Capture and Hold, Skull Keeper, and the creepily-eerie Bask-Eye-Ball. Most of these modes are similar to what you would find in the first-person shooter arena, except maybe the Bask-Eye-Ball, which is just plain weird.

The level design is downright excellent for this genre, and features some very interesting twist and turns as battles branch out into new areas of each arena. Each level is chock-full of destructible or interactive objects that can be used to further the battle.

As is always the downfall with these games – the overall gameplay does begin to drag once the player has learned all the standard moves and found all the special Mojo Attacks. But the hilarious subject matter does help keep The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy pumping on for a bit longer than it would otherwise.

Sadly, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy’s Wii-specific controls are less than exciting – basically boiling down to being a few shakes here or there, and the targeting minigame that accompanies the Mojo Meltdowns. Considering most of us have already clocked in a few dozen hours of Wario and Rayman, nothing here is going to really make a stir. The one cool thing is that the game does allow the use of GameCube controllers, meaning that local multiplayer games can be set-up without having to invest in multiple expensive Wii-motes.

The overall look is a 2D/3D cel-shaded hybrid, and the characters and levels are dead-on for the television series. The character animations are great, and the 3D cutscenes are enjoyable.

All of the characters are voiced by their onscreen counterparts, which adds a real sense of familiarity to the cutscenes, and the background music is quiet and inconspicuous, and does not detract from the action.

Still, while there is nothing intrinsically wrong with the sound quality, there is nothing to make it stand out from the rest of the crowd, either.

However, within the recent weeks, most sources have dropped the Wii version’s price to the budget level, and now the title is a bit more appealing. The simple fact that the game supports GameCube controllers should be enough to make a few Nintendo fan boys happy, and the solid gameplay will keep most gamers coming back for a few hours.

The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy is definitely the best (if only) fighting game thus far on the Wii, and fans of the television series are bound to enjoy duking it out onscreen with their favorite characters.