Madagascar

Madagascar for the Nintendo Gamecube is based on the new movie by Dreamworks, and follows four best friends that plot to escape from the zoo. Oh yeah, to avoid confusion I should probably mention that they are a zebra (Marty), a lion (Alex), a giraffe (Melman), and a hippo (Gloria). Assuming that they are missing what’s really out there by being in captivity, the animals escape from the zoo to explore the wild kingdom. What they find is that maybe their life at home isn’t so bad, and what the real world holds isn’t quite what they expected.

Madagascar begins with a very simple, very easy introductory level. It introduces you to each character and their basic abilities. You’ll begin as Marty the zebra, and he walks you through the zoo in search of coins and cards. To get anywhere you must first collect the three cards lying out in the open. These cards, when collected in triplets, grant you a new ability. In this case, Marty gets his kick ability that allows you to kick down some gates to move along.

You’ll next meet Alex, who can double jump to help reach higher places. You’ll also meet Melman, a giraffe that can spin fast enough to knock objects around or hover for a short time, and Gloria, a hippo that relies on her size and weight to power through obstacles.

In this first level, though simple, you can figure out the kind of stuff you’ll find later in the game by simply exploring your surroundings. They make the hidden items in the first level pretty easy to find, but it gives you an idea of what sort of objects to explore later on.

After the introductory level you’ll immediately notice that each character sort of gets their own time in the spotlight, and their levels (or sections of levels) will cater to their abilities. For example, one of the early levels is split into sections for each character. Gloria’s section is a straight street race with chili peppers laid out in her path. When you pick up one of these peppers she will kick it into high gear and plow through cars and enemies in her path for a limited time. The peppers are spread out evenly enough that you can go through pretty much the whole level while on the pepper. Alternately, Melman’s portion of the city has a restriction: you cannot touch the ground. So using your spin-hover ability you must travel the block using only the rooftops of cars and what look like painter scaffolds. This diversity was an excellent way to break up the gameplay while still remaining interesting.

Madagascar is made up of 11 levels, from the zoo in New York to the deep jungle and everywhere in between. Madagascar progresses across a map that shows each mission and its location on the world. Missions are connected via a treasure map-style dotted line indicating the main characters’ path, and backtracking to previous missions is a breeze. It’s here that you access the Zoovenir shop and mini games, too. 

Another co-star of the game is the penguins. These little guys don’t appear as often as the others, but are just as important. The first level featuring them is a very basic stealth level that requires some creative thinking to clear obstacles. Using cranes, bowling balls, and even tranquilizers you must guide them through mazes of halls and crates.

Now, aside from just trying to complete the level, there are also collectable coins scattered throughout each level; 100 to be exact. A lot of them are easy to spot, but many will be hidden. These coins can be taken to the Zoovenir Shop to buy extra game content - from things like apparel for your characters to bonus health and extra lives. The amount of extra content is pretty impressive and added a worthy incentive to seek out as many coins as possible.

These small additions to the game are wonderful bonuses on their own, but Toys for Bob didn’t stop there. They added three, fully fleshed out mini-games that can be purchased for play using your coins. These games include shuffle board, tiki mini-golf, and Lemur rave.

Shuffle board sets you up in front of a long lane, much like bowling. The lane ends at a drop-off, but right before the end are different marked areas. The closer they get to the end the more points these areas are worth. The goal of shuffle board is to send your character along this lane on an inner tube, having them stop within the marked area without falling off the end. Of course you’ll want the most points, but it’s risky to go for the very end because falling off gives you zero points for that throw. This game can even be played multiplayer with two players sharing a controller, and each player can try bumping their own tubes into higher point areas or bumping their friend’s tubes off of the lane. There is only one style of lane to begin with, but more can be purchased with coins from the story mode.

Tiki mini-golf is exactly what it’s called. Miniature golf is a 9-hole course of low-par putting challenges. Wacky obstacles are set up in your path, and each hole gets more and more challenging. To play this all you have to do is aim the ball and then set the power of your putt. Mini golf allows for up to six players sharing one controller.

The final mini game is called Lemur rave, and it resembles many of the rhythm and dance games out there. A large diamond is formed on-screen using the buttons on the Gamecube controller: B, A, X, and Y. Once the song starts you will see commands fade in from the center of this diamond and progress outward. When the command passes through one of the four buttons you must press the corresponding button at that moment. The commands are matched well with the music, so if you follow the beat of the song you can match commands with the buttons fairly easily. There are three difficulty settings for this game, as well as three different styles. Each difficulty provides you with more or less notes per song, and changing the style will cause the commands to appear further out from the center giving you very little time to react. This is for the gamers that are very comfortable with their skill. Lemur rave can be played in a two-player mode as well, but two controllers are required.

Toys for Bob and Activision has brought us a very well-made children’s game. Much of the humor is geared towards younger ages, but there were still parts that I, a hardcore action and violence gamer, chuckled at. The controls are more than bearable, the graphics do their job, and the voice acting is believable and entertaining. Plus, the addition of mini games and unlockable content adds a lot of replay value to a seemingly short game. Madagascar is definitely worth your money when buying for a younger gamer, but maybe even the older ones will like it once they give it a try.   

Gameplay: 7.8
There were a few times I had trouble with the controls, but the level designs are simple enough that these problems didn’t hinder my progression that much. Plus, the addition of unlockable bonuses and addicting mini-games really boosted the replay if this one.

Graphics: 7.0 
There’s nothing really wrong with the graphics, but a lot of times the models seemed like they could have been just a little crisper and textures a little more detailed.

Sound: 8.0
The voice acting and sound effects are great and fit the bill perfectly. A lot of electronic beats make up the bulk of the soundtrack, which isn’t bad, but doesn’t entirely fit the rest of the game either.

Difficulty: Easy
Each level gets progressively harder to keep up with the constantly learning player, but none of the levels’ objectives get that difficult. This is definitely a game aimed at a younger audience, and one that children can play and enjoy.

Concept: 7.3 
Movie-based games are everywhere these days, but for Activision to add in all the play variety and mini-games that they did was great. The game still stays true to the movie while offering a multiple ways to enjoy it.

Multiplayer: 8.4
It’s only the mini games that allow for multiple players, but these games are just as fun as a lot of stand-alone multiplayer games out there. The mini games are great solo, but the fun multiplies when friends are added.

Overall: 8.3
Madagascar is a very well-made kid game, one that even the parents can enjoy. The main story mode of the game stays very simple, but some of the mini-games offer difficulty levels that even I was having trouble with.