Even as a young adult, there are certain cartoon shows that I enjoy. I don’t mean those cartoons that you put to your kids and teach them about being nice and kind. I’m talking about those cartoons which are cheerful , but have some serious undertones and very clever dialogues. Cartoons such as Adventure Time and Gravity Falls are some of my personal modern favorites. One of the things I love about those shows is that they are perfectly enjoyable for young and mature audiences, like the kind of show you would watch with your son and both have a good time, although enjoying different aspects of the same episode. The Adventure Pals was crafted with the same concepts in mind, and the result is a 2D platformer which is great for pretty much everyone.
Developer: Massive Monster
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release date: April 3rd, 2018
Price: $14.99
The Adventure Pals is a 2D platformer game with light puzzle and RPG elements. You play as young Wilton, and it’s your birthday! Sadly the happiness is short lived, as your dad has been kidnapped by the evil Mr. B and is going to be turned into a hot dog because of reasons. Lucky for you, Mr. Rock and Sparkles the giraffe are here to accompany on your journey! If this already feels like the plot of a Saturday morning cartoon, just wait to see the rest of what the game has to offer!
Your Saturday morning adventure game
A lot of the charm of the game comes from its cartoony style. Everything lovable about cartoon shows makes an appearance in The Adventure Pals. You have colorful environments. You have unique characters with distinct personalities like the Toast people or the family of Mr. Rock. It also has that quirky sense of humor that doesn’t feel forced, but rather feels like a clever inclusion to the story-telling of the game. If the game eventually became a TV show, it would definitely be one I would watch.
The game plays itself in a mixture of 3 scenarios: Town areas where you walk around and talk to the townsfolk looking for clues to your next objective, the 2D levels where most of the action happens, and the overworld which is the main HUB.
The progression of the game is pretty standard, you usually go to the town and talk to specific villagers. Those villagers tell you about their issues and you decide to go on an adventure on their behalf to help them out (and score rubies for your main quest). After entering this levels, you have to reach the end and accomplish a variety of objectives that can range from collecting ingredients for a dish, reaching a certain spot or even beating a mini-boss. As you can imagine, it all lends itself to the main narrative of the game.
Explore ALL the corners
Each of the levels consist of 5 sub-sections that you must clear before getting to the Ruby. I really loved the way the worlds were done. You can see the attention to the detail in just how much stuff it’s there to compliment the looks. From landmarks to multiple layers of scenery in the background and even random critters like bunnies or crabs that go around jumping aimlessly, everything is a treat to the eye.
As beautiful as the stages might be, I think they are definitely lacking diversity in the grand scheme of things. Every stage is beautiful, but the problem is that all the stages in the same world are exactly the same. In the first world, Treevale, every stage will feel and look exactly the same. Usually it wouldn’t be a big deal, but considering you will play 5 different levels in Treevale, it is really easy to get bored of watching the same delightful forest. Some levels will offer different elements from the rest of the world, like Panini Park, but overall prepare to see the same tileset for a while in each level.
Each sub-section of a level poses its own challenges and puzzles. The sections are not very long, taking roughly 3-4 minutes to complete. At this point I must say that the game is not hard by any means, with both puzzles and platforming being fairly simple. Not to the point that they are trivial, but definitely beatable by most players. Yet, I think the difficulty is perfect for this game. It offers enough challenge to be fun, but not much that the game would feel stressful.
Every kid deserves a sticker album
Scattered in each level are 5 cupcakes and 1 sticker. Each cupcake is hidden in one of the 5 sections of a stage, while the sticker can be in any of the 5 sections. The cupcakes and the sticker serve as the main collectibles of the game, and a way of encouraging exploration in each level. I did particularly enjoy the fact that, while hidden, the collectibles are not very hard to come by. I could 100% most levels on my first play through, with the ones I didn’t being due to the level locking me out and preventing my backtrack attempts. Of course, your mileage may vary depending on how good you are at finding them, but generally they can be found by simply exploring all of the branching paths of the levels.
The collectibles are just used for extra unlocks and they do not directly power-up Wilton. Cupcakes can be exchanged for hats or outfits for Mr. Rock. The stickers are just to fill up your sticker album. This allows you to not stress over missing collectibles, as they do not offer any advantage to your play style. I will say though that everyone should attempt to complete the sticker album! Not because it unlocks anything (or at least I think so, I still have 2 stickers left to find), but because sticker albums are awesome, and every kid always dreams of completing their own sticker album. I still wish I could have filled my Dragon Ball Z sticker album as a kid.
Combat is one of the aspects I was most excited about, because of how the combos and weapons reminded me of Castle Crashers. The combat is not as deep though. You attack with your sword and that’s it. Press the button multiple times on an enemy and you will perform a combo, after a set number of hits the combo will continue airborne. If an enemy attacks you, you can press back to quickly do a back-dash and avoid their attacks. I wish the combat was more engaging, but it really boils down to button mashing and reacting to enemy attacks.
The combat system works best when fighting a single enemy, but feels extremely unfair when fighting hordes of enemies. Given how little input is required to combat, some of the later sections of the game that pit you against a lot of enemies will just be about button mashing, except that you can’t actually hit the target you want and your dodge window applies to all enemies, meaning you could dodge an attack earlier than you wanted to. The back-dash is also a strict back-dash, so you could actually be back-dashing into the danger zone of another enemy. In the end the combat feels like just attacking and hoping your dodges don’t get you into more trouble than what you were expecting to avoid. Another notable thing that is missing is an invincibility period after taking damage. If you are unlucky enough, you can get combo’d to death by the enemies because of a lack of invincibility. Invincibility frames are one of those things that are a staple of gaming and whose absence is felt.
The power of friendship
There is a very nice reward to combat though, and this is where the RPG aspect of the game comes to life. Killing enemies will reward you with XP, and after collecting enough XP you will level up. I can’t tell if the stats increase by leveling, but I do feel stronger after each new level and also feel like the HP bar becomes bigger, I could be wrong though. What I am sure is that your sword changes design and most importantly, you get to choose a level up ability! The abilities you get from leveling up are nothing short of awesome, with powerful perks including a sparkles grapple to latch to nearby enemies, Mr. Rock’s attack chaining to all enemies on screen, and even a green trumpet that makes you fart (I haven’t found an actual use for this other than its hilarity). Increasing your level is one of the most exciting feelings, and the accompanying animation definitely feels powerful.
One of the most important things I look for in a game is an excellent soundtrack, and I’m glad to say that The Adventure Pals offers some amazing tunes! From the get go you are treated with Treevale’s BGM which is very upbeat and sets the tone for the rest of your adventure. But among all of the different tunes, my favorite will always be the Boss theme. Unfortunately the music department suffers the same issue as the level design, with the same world sharing the same music. I didn’t mind it nearly as much, but I would have loved to hear more songs given how amazing the ones we have are.
The Adventure Pals is definitely a great game that takes the best of cartoon shows and craft its own quirky adventure. The game is showered with tons of love for the source material and it feels extremely polished. I knew I was gonna like this game, but I didn’t know I was gonna like it this much. This is exactly how I wanted the Adventure Time games to play. Even if the game has some flaws, it is still extremely worth it, and a must have for any cartoon enthusiast! I am a gamer for many different reasons, and this game is one of those games that just has you smiling the whole time. A legit happy game.
