The Fairly OddParents Shadow Showdown

Poor Timmy, it's the season finale of Crash Nebula and his TV suddenly goes on the blink! What's a kid to do? Wait until his parents get around to fixing it? Not if you're lucky enough to have fairy godparents, which of course, Timmy does.

For those who may not be familiar with the various weird and strange shows on Nickelodeon, Fairly Odd Parents is one of the stranger ones, with an offbeat style of manic humor. This humor, coupled with the vibrant cartoon colors of Timmy's world, is a good choice for translation into a video game, but Fairly OddParents: Shadow Showdown really only scratches the surface of the type of game it could have been.

The game begins with Cosmo and Wanda, Timmy's Fairy Godparents, trying to grant Timmy his wish of having his TV fixed. However, try as they may, their wands just won't cooperate. They both break out their emergency wands, and end up transporting into a training film for wand usage. Then, it's off to fairy world, to figure out why everyone's magic is gone.

This is a typical platforming game, featuring a combined focus on item gathering and locational puzzle solving. Timmy will collect crowns (currency) for use at the store to buy powerups, and stars to give to his godparents to help power up their weak, standby wands for wishes. Each level features a problem that needs to be solved in order to finish the level and move on, with most of the puzzles requiring Timmy to figure out how to access high, seemingly unreachable places.

The main force moving the action along is Timmy's wish list. This is where the action falls a little flat, as the wishes are somewhat mundane in nature, when they could have been so much more. In the first level, Timmy's wish is to move the cows, and he becomes a cow herder by placing a cow mask over his head. Then, he simply moos at the cows and they follow him. This is not very exciting, at least to me.

While each level is drawn differently, they each feel the same. There isn't much interactivity, either, as the buildings are all just for show; Timmy can't actually enter any of them. They look great, though, and reflect the show admirably. The voices all sound the same as the ones on the show, though I don't know if they are the same actors. The jokes are funny, and feature some pretty awful puns, which are cool.

The gameplay is pretty easy, as this is clearly a kids' game. Timmy's moves are basic run, sprint, stomp and jump moves, which work well most of the time, although his stomping on buttons can be problematic at times, as sometimes it's difficult to center him exactly right on the target areas. Timmy can die, but it's a rare event, this is a very forgiving game when it comes to health points. There's always a cloverleaf around to rejuvenate his health. While there are some enemies around, they move slowly and Timmy can outrun most of them. The hazards mainly consist of falling or jumping into empty spaces inadvertently. It is possible to get lost in a level by simply not knowing what to do next, though, as there is no task list as such and the help offered by the godparents isn't really much help. A check list of tasks would have helped in this area.

Again, this is a franchise that could have been exploited a whole lot more than it is in this game; the whole wish motif is only lightly scratched, and the environs, while vividly drawn, don't offer much in terms of things to do besides run to the next locational puzzle. On the other hand, the game does a great job capturing the quirky humor of the TV show, and the gameplay isn't bad, it's just that it could have been so much better. The inclusion of six multiplayer games is also a nice addition, and will add to the longevity of the game. One odd note on these mini-games, one Asteroid-like game fires up when the directional stick is down, and vice-versa, for some reason. While Shadow Showdown isn't as good a game as Spongebob Squarepants: Bikini Bottom, it is a slightly easier game for young kids, and is a decent game in its own right.