Videogames based on movies are bad, but maybe thus one represents a change in the pattern?
You know movies games have a bit of a bad rap, they are often buggy, half assed, cheap, and not very fun at all. The sad thing abut this is that video game movies usually earn every single point of their bad raps. Game developers aren't even trying to hide the fact that these games are mostly just made for cash-in purposes and half of the time they are just slapping the name of the movie onto another game and changing the characters.
This is the exact same case with Igor, a game that pretty much has little or nothing to do with the actual movie outside of the setting and a needlessly complex "gotta catch 'em all" aspect. Once you strip all of that away you have a very mundane and much slower version of Super Puzzle Fighter II.
Graphics
The graphics in Igor could've done with the time and care that went into the film, but sadly they are a pretty mixed bag. The bottom screen is usually filled with text and the horribly slow puzzle games that include the bulk of the gameplay. These graphics looked much borrowed from the jaggy and abstract Tim Burton-esque film, but they don't really give you a reason to go 'wow'. The top screen is filled with the actual gameplay portion of the screen. This part is where your Monster Battles play out among to correspond with the puzzle movements below. I'd like to say that the 3D graphics here are impressive but I really can't. Out of the entire game there's only about 8 or so different models you see in regards to 'monsters' and they all share the exact same movements for attacking and stance. All in all this isn't the ugliest game for the DS (unless you find the games overall art style ugly, and if you did I wouldn't blame you) but it doesn’t really do anything else outside of that.
Gameplay
The gameplay in Igor is actually a pretty good try. This game could've easily gone the route of being a mediocre beat 'em up game in the vein of most movie tie-in games. But they decided to think outside of the box a bit and build the game as a puzzle game and it almost would've worked if it wasn't so damned slow and boring.
The game borrows heavily from Super Puzzle Fighter II's style. You basically need to match colored gems together to create larger gems; these gems will be detonated when they come in contact with a gem of the same color. As an added twist each color of gem correlates to a type of attack your hodge-podge monster will make on the above screen. You're goal is to build up these attacks in order to take the enemy monster down.
You monster plays a big role in this game as well, as he is the centerpiece. You will constantly find pieces and parts of new bodies to create your disasterpeice. They all have special things that go with them such as stats...but they are all very confusing to work out and even then really don't do anything overall. The only stat you need to be worried with is HP, and even then if you are decent enough at the game it should never even come into play.
If only it were that easy, Igor.
The game tries very hard to get you interested in trying to do better in order to get new parts, but it's all very tedious. In order to make a SINGLE new body part, you need to buy a recipe from a store, which you need gold to do. Which means you have to do a ton of long and boring battle (which, due to the games speed, last anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes) just so you can get enough money to buy the recipe. Then afterwards you need to get enough materials (such as slime from slime monsters, rock from rock monsters, etc) in order to make the part. Which means once again doing more battles? Seeing as you get a laughably small amount of material each battle this means you have to do at least five of these (which takes about an hour) just to get a single BODYPART made. It's something that gets very tedious after while and takes all of the fun out of this game.
I'd like to say that the more you play it the better it gets, but sadly after awhile you'll just lose interest trying to get the better parts. This is a shame because if this game was a tad bit faster or maybe a bit rewarding it could’ve definitely broken the mold for bad video game movie tie-ins.
Sound
The sound design is very, very, very bad. There are a total of THREE songs throughout the whole game with little to know sound effects. Really. That's it. There's nothing else I can comment on because there really is nothing else THERE. After the first 10 minutes you've heard everything the game has to offer and it's not very good in the least.
Lasting Appeal
If you ever actually beat this game, I highly doubt you'll come back to it again. There's little to know replay value to be had and the multiplayer offerings are very slim. Sure, you can battle your monster against others but that is only fun for so long, and like many DS games you actually have to find someone else who OWNS the game before you can ever get to that point. The only thing that will last about this game is the fact that it really could've been so much more if it didn't seem so cheap.
See this screen? You'll be seeing it a lot.
Fun Factor
Once you see that this game decided to take a different route in regards to how it plays, you do see there is fun to be had there. But once you realize it will take you 8 hours to get to said fun you'd already be disappointed by the paper thin gameplay and unbearable pace of the game. Where there are some glimmers of hope here, Igor just ends up disappointing you.
The 411
Igor is a bit of a glimmer of hope. Despite its shortcomings and its failure it shows that maybe the movie tie-in games are shifting to a new direction. If it weren't for a few small things Igor could've been a lot better than it ended up to be, but instead all we got was a pretty poor puzzle fighter with horrible speed and an even worse 'reward' system. But it deserves at least a little bit of credit for thinking outside of the box, it's a shame that box was held a pretty dull and boring game.
Graphics
6.0
They aren't completely ugly, but there's nothing else to them.
Gameplay
4.5
This game could've easily took the easy way out and been a boring platform title, but instead it became a boring and slow puzzle game.
Sound
3.0
Three to four songs on a soundtrack this day and age is uncalled for.
Lasting Appeal
4.0
The game takes WAY too long to get going, and sadly by that point you'd probably have already given up on it.
Fun Factor
5.5
The game is fun the first few minutes, but then you realize it takes HOURS for it to continue being fun...that is when it ironically stops.
