Wii

Happy Feet

Der Film war eine gelungene Darbietung seitens Warner Bros. Pictures. Doch die Videospielumsetzung, welche aus dem Hause Midway kommt, kann man weder interessant noch als gelungen bezeichnen, dafür ist das Gameplay leider viel zu monoton geworden und die technische Leistung unter jeglichen Standards. Wer sich mehr erwartet hat wird demnach von diesem Wii-Launchtitel enttäuscht werden, denn viel wird hier leider nicht geboten.

Happy Feet is sure to please kids, at least for a while, and in that sense the game is a success. Still, the game is fairly insubstantial and could have benefited from some platforming in between its minigames, a la Rayman: Raving Rabbids. Happy Feet is a simple game that can at times be fun to play, and will at least leave you smiling before it eventually leaves you cold. Especially if you’ve seen and enjoyed the movie, Happy Feet is worth the price of a rental, but doesn’t have the longevity required to justify its cost as a purchase.

Auf der Reise durch die Antarktis gilt es mit Mumble die Abenteuer des Films mitzuerleben und verschiedene Minispiele erfolgreich zu bestehen. Ihr schwimmt durch das Wasser, kontrolliert mit der Wii-Fernbedienung Stepptanzschritte oder nutzt den Neigungssensor für Rutschpartien die verschneiten Hänge hinab. Das war's! Mehr gibt es in Happy Feet nicht, denn mit der Erzählung variieren zwar die Minispiele, Abwechslung gibt es aber nicht. Kinder, die den Film schon fünf Mal gesehen haben, könnten Gefallen an Mumbles Abenteuer finden, alle anderen sind gelangweilt.

With its simplistic game mechanics and lack of diversity Happy Feet isn’t going to set the world on fire. However if you are a huge fan of the movie, or for that matter your kids are, then there is nothing inherently wrong with the game either. It would have been nice to see a larger roster of mini-games or at least variations of the ones currently here, but what is here gets the job done. If you can’t get enough of the singing and dancing penguins of Happy Feet then give it a whirl, otherwise save your money for Wario Ware.

I’m not really sure if the Happy Feet movie had enough substance to warrant a video game. It barely had enough to keep the film going for as long as it did. There were certainly a few key moments and A2M seems to have capitalized on those, but there just needs to be something more. I doubt a waddling Mumbo would make for a good platform character. He can’t jump and can barely walk, but the game needs more than just swimming, sledding and dancing, especially if you want to drag it out for 28 levels. If you have really young kids (under 8), you might be able to divert them with Happy Feet for a rental period but this is a hard sell at full price or even when it hits the bargain bin. There are so many more and better offerings for kids on the Wii. Slide past this one if you see it in the store.

A2M nous propose une adaptation peu convaincante de Happy Feet, jouant la carte de la facilité et du déjà-vu. Beaucoup trop simple et jamais inspiré, ce titre ne réussit pas vraiment à nous divertir, y compris à deux joueurs où les challenges sont toujours les mêmes. Ce pauvre Mumble méritait sans doute mieux. Même l'originalité de prise en main sur Wii ne suffit pas à relancer l'intérêt général.

I get to play virtually every game that comes out in this industry because of my job. I get to see the best of the best, and the worst of the worst. Even those in the latter group generally have more to offer than a free online flash game. Happy Feet, however, does not. I don’t care if your son or daughter loved this movie – don’t get them this game. There are three things you can do with it: play an extremely dumbed-down DDR clone, sled down a hill, and swim around collecting hearts. That’s it. Seriously. I’m sitting at my laptop struggling to think of something…anything more to say about this game. Honestly, there’s not. I’d be shocked if anyone anywhere can play this game for more than 10 minutes without being bored out of their minds.

Happy Feet tries its hardest to follow the beat, but the developers can’t hide the fact that the game has two left feet. Children may find themselves amused for a small amount of time, but they’ll get more enjoyment from simply watching the movie.

Happy Feet is a game clearly targeted at children. Young children may enjoy the game, particularly if they enjoyed the movie. However, the overall experience is shallow. Nothing is really broken about Happy Feet; it simply gets old quickly. The game would have been much better suited if it had been designed as an actual dancing game. More diversity in game modes or a semblance of challenge would have made this game feel like something more than just going through the motions.

As I mentioned before, there’s really nothing wrong with Happy Feet. It’s just so short, and so repetitive, that its value as a children’s title is very limited. This may be a decent pickup when it’s cheap, but not at $50. For now, there are better and cheaper ways to keep your children entertained for a few hours.

Happy Feet as a videogame very much mimics the movie in that it falls well short of expectations. While the title does feature the same story and characters as its silver screen counterpart, it lacks the charm. The basic gameplay mechanics are incredibly simple and they repeat so often that the action is doomed for monotony. The end result is an experience that teeters on the mediocre. Yes, your four-year-old might find something to like here, but there are far better kids' games on the market. Unless you or your child is a Happy Feet fanatic, and I can't imagine that someone like this even exists, keep moving because there's very little to see here.

Kids who loved the movie will be slightly disappointed by Happy Feet for the Wii. It’s great too see the movie’s characters like Mumble and Gloria but the Wii controls are used in a gimmicky way that adds very little substance to a game that could have been really fun. Unless your child is a huge fan of the movie you might want to consider skipping this one and buying other kids’ title already available.

A below average licensed game, but home to some good ideas. If it weren’t for the swimming levels and a bit more polish was added, we probably wouldn’t be opposed to giving it an average or just above average mark, though. If you like the film, like dance games or have children, you should give it a shot if you can rent it.

Happy Feet on the Wii is not a satisfactory game by any standards. Unless you’re a diehard fan of the movie or have an undesirable fetish for penguins, you should stay away from this game at all costs. It’s a shame to see that a launch title could go so wrong, but Happy Feet feels too dull to offer even a miniscule amount of entertainment.

Happy Feet, the animated motion picture starring Robin Williams, is now a video game of the same name. It's one of Midway's four launch titles for Nintendo's new home console, the Wii. Three of the four are licensed children properties though, and the other, Rampage, is essentially a port of a $20 GCN game that is being asked for $30. If you are a parent looking for a safe game that your young child can play, Happy Feet is a nice pick. Just do not expect to get any enjoyment out of it yourself.

There's no reason to play Happy Feet. If you liked the film, buy another ticket and watch it again. If you still can't get enough, buy a licensed mug or something. And if you're looking for a gift to get your kids this holiday season, it's better to slip a lump of coal into their stockings than to offend them with this kind of branded rubbish.

Like a cute happy penguin holding a bottle of Coke, Happy Feet desperately wants to be liked by its key audience. However, somewhere in its development cycle, Midway forgot to make it fun. Continuously running into three different kinds of stages and receiving very little reward for it gets old rather quickly. Furthermore, the game lacks the next-gen polish to back up its $50 price tag. It serves best as a rental. Otherwise, Happy Feet will leave people stomping mad that they spent so much money on such little content.

Over all this is a poor showing even for mini-games, and there is a poor system to link all of these together. Even for a quick rush license game, this a new standard in how incomplete a game could be. What troubles most is that each of the games feels like a flash game. These could all easily be played on a keyboard and mouse, than any controller let alone the Wii Remote.