While I normally don’t watch Nickelodeon cartoons, there are two of them that I do watch as often as I can because I find them to be really, really funny. One of which is Spongebob Squarepants, and the other (which has become my favorite as of late) is the Fairly Odd Parents. Fairly Odd Parents always gets me laughing due to the random comments made by Cosmo and some of the zany characters that pop in to cause chaos or throw a wrench in the whole thing, and now THQ has brought the cartoon series to your GameCube console in their newest title called Breakin’ Da Rules.

Breakin’ Da Rules (BDR) of course stars Timmy, Wanda, and Cosmo and opens up with Timmy’s parents going away. This of course means that the psychotic babysitter Vicki is going to show up and give Timmy a bunch of heck, which becomes an understatement since she also manages to get her hands on Da Rules … Wanda and Cosmo’s rulebook for fairy godparents. While it’s bad enough that Wanda and Cosmo are given training wands by Jorgen Von Strangle (the big, loudmouthed, Governor Arnold sounding fairy) and only a few days to collect all the pages of the book or lose their fairy abilities, Vicki getting the book also means that whatever she wishes for comes true … even though she doesn’t realize that she’s doing it. It’s up to you to guide Timmy, Wanda, and Cosmo through a bunch of madcap episodes from the show to get the pages of the book back and undo all of the bad things that Vicki has wished for.

BDR plays out up front like your typical platformer title. Timmy must run around ledges, jump on platforms, and figure out ways to get by obstacles while avoiding enemies and collecting crowns for extra lives, Wish Stars to make wishes, or copies of Crimson Chin collector cards to unlock clips from the TV show. While it’s pretty standard stuff when you first start playing it, the real fun of the game begins to unfold from there. Instead of sticking to the standard platforming style, THQ wound up borrowing some great ideas from other games to help break monotony and give you a little something more.

For starters, Wanda and Cosmo only have training fairy wands but by collecting five of the Wish Stars, Timmy can wish for things to help him get by certain obstacles or move to the next part of the stage. Along the way, he gets to do things like wishing for something to cut down trees to cross streams (which results in Wanda turning Cosmo into a beaver / chainsaw hybrid) or getting a helicopter attachment for his chin in an episode where he becomes The Cleft to help his hero The Crimson Chin get his powers back since Vicki has wished them away. These can also sometimes lead to neat little variations of some games that we’ve seen before, like flying the helicopter attachment around the city in third person view chasing a bad guy or using Wanda as a bulldozer to push ice blocks into pathways to get across to the other side.

On the topic of things that we’ve seen before in games, another really cool thing that THQ did here was add in a lot of cross styles to the gameplay to help break monotony and make it a little more fun and mixed up. For example, one stage has Timmy creeping around a girls camp in a sort of Metal Gear Solid style, then he has to memorize dance steps given to him by some captured Squirrel Scouts, then he has to perform them in timed button pressing (while Cosmo and Wanda cheer him on and make funny comments of course) in kind of DDR style so he can get into Vicki’s lair. There’s a lot of other examples throughout the game, like checkpoint racing, a “whack a mole” kind of game, and even a page from Crash Bandicoot as Timmy runs towards the bottom of the screen with an angry Vicki close on his heels just to name a couple. You never really know what will happen next, and it makes it a lot more fun.

One big issue that I ran into a little too frequently was an unforgiving third person camera. While you can manually adjust it in most places, there were some areas where it couldn’t be moved which caused problems, like trying to sneak out of a doorway undetected without being able to see where the searchlights were. This of course results in getting caught and losing health or a life, and while there are a lot of both laying around … it still is aggravating when it happens. In addition, there were times where the camera couldn’t be moved and all I saw was a clump of tree leaves or something like that which of course doesn’t help while trying to time movement around enemies or a jump. It’s not bad enough to cause you not to play, but it’s annoying enough to be noticed and cause some headaches from time to time.

The graphics to BDR were good overall. The game is cell shaded, so it tries to do a really good representation of the TV show and does so pretty well. The characters all look like they are supposed to while being represented in 3-D, and the animation was good. It can be somewhat repetitive and they don’t have much change to their facial expressions (they will even smile when upset about something). The environments also contain good and bad points as well, and while some are well detailed and have some neat changes to them (like the Tron style level when Timmy gets sucked into his game system), a couple didn’t fair quite as well and turned out to be kind of flat looking and dull.

Overall, I have to say that I really enjoyed BDR, regardless of the fact that I enjoy the show. It’s got some pretty solid platforming (aside from some weird jumps and some camera issues), and the mixture of various styles and ideas from other titles (along with the comedy aspect of it) provided for an entertaining game all the way through. For you or your family that enjoys Fairly Odd Parent’s, this will be a fun title to pick up. If you’re not much on the show but are looking for a fun game, I would recommend a rental first but would definitely say to give it a try.   

Gameplay: 8.0
While the camera poses a bit of an issue throughout the game, the style and design of the levels and the alternating objectives to mix it up create a fun platformer style that doesn’t get monotonous. The story is silly, but so is the show and it is entertaining to watch.

Graphics: 7.6
The cell shading works well to bring the TV characters to life in 3-D. The environments range from looking pretty good to a little flat and dull though, but overall it gets the job done.

Sound: 7.4
The music consists of tracks from the show and some additional songs that fit in nicely. The voiceovers were funny and done well from a voicing perspective, but during the introductions sounded like they were speaking through a tin can.

Difficulty: Easy
The levels were laid out well, and while the game is challenging enough to be enjoyable, it never got too frustrating to go through.

Concept: 8.1
This was not only a good representation of the TV show, but also turned out to be a really enjoyable game as well. While it is designed more for the younger audience, adults will have fun with it as well.

Overall: 8.1
Don’t let the fact that most Nick Cartoons are geared towards kids fool you. The game is challenging for both young and old, and was designed well enough to be a lot of fun for both kids and grown ups to have fun with. Fans of the show should check it out, and even if you aren’t a big fan of the cartoon, I would still recommend checking it out.