Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas
Posted March 5, 2006
The movie Nightmare Before Christmas has been a huge cult hit in recent years. It did extremely poorly when it initially was on the big screen, but home video helped people discover what an amazing and unique movie it is. Its popularity right now is at an all-time high, especially evident when you visit mall shops like Suncoast Video, where "Jack Skellington" merchandise is everywhere.
Here we have a video game based on the movie license. As someone who was a big gamer when this movie came out, it feels strange that only now we are seeing a game for this movie. It's even stranger that the game features graphics exactly like those from the movie's era. Did they do this wonderful movie justice or is it just another cheap franchise cash-in?
Gameplay:
Nightmare Before Xmas is a 2D sidescrolling platformer with large levels to explore and no time limits. Each level eventually leads to a stage boss such as a giant snake or spider. Along the way you receive various weapon upgrades (you start with a frog's breath gun) to help battle the bad guys. You can also unlock mini games and original artwork from the movie.
You begin the game exploring Jack's house, then move onto the Professor's house unlocking more stages along the way until you reach Oogie Boogie's lair. Each level is distinct in look, but plays in a very similar style. You have to kill enemies (or is it "unkill" since they are already dead?) and grab potions to stay alive. If you've ever played a Castlevania or Metroid game, this game is very similar in both look and gameplay.
The storyline of the game is similar to the movie, but this time you must save Sally from Oogie Boogie. The plot is non-descript and basically a rehash of the movie, except with much less creativity.
One problem with the game is the poor level design. A lot of times you'll needlessly get lost, and with no map it's impossible to know where to go. This is very frustrating and makes for a poor gaming experience, and also creates an artificial difficulty. Instead of making clever levels and intricate enemies, they let you walk around and around trying to figure out the next place to go.
A big problem I had with the game is the enemies are extremely generic, especially the level bosses. A large spider and a large snake have nothing to do with Nightmare Before Christmas. There are literally hundreds of spooky creatures found in the movie, yet only Oogie Boogie and the Trick-Or-Treaters are in the game. Yes, the ghouls found in Halloween Town are all Jack's friends, but I'm sure they could have used some sort of plot device to allow them to incorporate more characters from the movie. Again, this is more laziness on behalf of the developers.
Graphics:
The graphics are very nice; they are reminiscent of the Super Nintendo gaming era. The animation of the pixilated characters is very smooth and well done. The backgrounds are vibrant and fit well with the feeling of the movie.
I guess my only problem with the graphics is they seem unoriginal. Basically they took the look of a Castlevania game and applied a NBC theme. This is a lazy approach to take, mainly because it goes against the actual animation of the movie. The brilliant stop time animation in the movie is similar to stop time animated games found on the SNES such as Clayfighter and Mortal Kombat. Why not use stop time animation for this game as well?
Audio:
The sound is probably the best part of this game. They nicely capture the songs and melodies of the movie with some excellent thematic music. The music of the movie corresponds with the stages of the game, so the first level you are treated to opening song of the movie.
Conclusion:
The game just fails to capture attention. It feels more like a mindless attempt to cash-in on the franchise, and not at all given the treatment you would want anything associated with NBC to receive. Unless you are a huge die-hard fan, then I don't recommend this game. As a huge SNES fan, its 2D appearance is fun to look at, but they just didn't put much thought or creativity into this game. To use a tired cliché, they just phoned it in.
Here we have a video game based on the movie license. As someone who was a big gamer when this movie came out, it feels strange that only now we are seeing a game for this movie. It's even stranger that the game features graphics exactly like those from the movie's era. Did they do this wonderful movie justice or is it just another cheap franchise cash-in?
Gameplay:
Nightmare Before Xmas is a 2D sidescrolling platformer with large levels to explore and no time limits. Each level eventually leads to a stage boss such as a giant snake or spider. Along the way you receive various weapon upgrades (you start with a frog's breath gun) to help battle the bad guys. You can also unlock mini games and original artwork from the movie.
You begin the game exploring Jack's house, then move onto the Professor's house unlocking more stages along the way until you reach Oogie Boogie's lair. Each level is distinct in look, but plays in a very similar style. You have to kill enemies (or is it "unkill" since they are already dead?) and grab potions to stay alive. If you've ever played a Castlevania or Metroid game, this game is very similar in both look and gameplay.
The storyline of the game is similar to the movie, but this time you must save Sally from Oogie Boogie. The plot is non-descript and basically a rehash of the movie, except with much less creativity.
One problem with the game is the poor level design. A lot of times you'll needlessly get lost, and with no map it's impossible to know where to go. This is very frustrating and makes for a poor gaming experience, and also creates an artificial difficulty. Instead of making clever levels and intricate enemies, they let you walk around and around trying to figure out the next place to go.
A big problem I had with the game is the enemies are extremely generic, especially the level bosses. A large spider and a large snake have nothing to do with Nightmare Before Christmas. There are literally hundreds of spooky creatures found in the movie, yet only Oogie Boogie and the Trick-Or-Treaters are in the game. Yes, the ghouls found in Halloween Town are all Jack's friends, but I'm sure they could have used some sort of plot device to allow them to incorporate more characters from the movie. Again, this is more laziness on behalf of the developers.
Graphics:
The graphics are very nice; they are reminiscent of the Super Nintendo gaming era. The animation of the pixilated characters is very smooth and well done. The backgrounds are vibrant and fit well with the feeling of the movie.
I guess my only problem with the graphics is they seem unoriginal. Basically they took the look of a Castlevania game and applied a NBC theme. This is a lazy approach to take, mainly because it goes against the actual animation of the movie. The brilliant stop time animation in the movie is similar to stop time animated games found on the SNES such as Clayfighter and Mortal Kombat. Why not use stop time animation for this game as well?
Audio:
The sound is probably the best part of this game. They nicely capture the songs and melodies of the movie with some excellent thematic music. The music of the movie corresponds with the stages of the game, so the first level you are treated to opening song of the movie.
Conclusion:
The game just fails to capture attention. It feels more like a mindless attempt to cash-in on the franchise, and not at all given the treatment you would want anything associated with NBC to receive. Unless you are a huge die-hard fan, then I don't recommend this game. As a huge SNES fan, its 2D appearance is fun to look at, but they just didn't put much thought or creativity into this game. To use a tired cliché, they just phoned it in.