Madagascar: Operation Penguin
Posted June 19, 2006
Madagascar: Operation Penguin is exactly what you would expect from a movie-based game on the Game Boy Advance: it's a platformer, it's short, and it's aimed at kids who liked the movie.
Gameplay:
The game drops you into the role of a wisecracking penguin
without so much as an introduction, with the first level forcing you to confront a giant poodle on Christmas (I assume this is from the movie; I haven't seen it). From there, the game follows a tutorial-level-tutorial-level structure. Level objectives vary—some have you destroying fans, or assaulting birds for fruit, or getting from point A to point B without being noticed by the humans. There are even a handful of boss battles.
After each level, you gain new abilities and learn how to use them, including moves like sliding, swimming, crawling, launching on a rocket, and using slingshots. These moves not only help you get through future missions, but they also let you go back to previous ones and collect all the medals in each. Oh yes, there is collecting. It's not ridiculous, though—there's only one type of thing to collect, and they're not exactly hard to find.
Altogether, the game took me about three hours to get through without going back to collect everything. Younger players
might take an hour or two longer, depending on their skill level.
Graphics:
Above-average pre-rendered characters on 2D or pre-rendered backgrounds. It looks like a typical platformer on the system.
Audio:
Pretty standard stuff. Repetitive background music and some digitized speech. I actually turned it off not long into the game—maybe they assumed most kids would be playing in the car without headphones?
Conclusion:
If your kids love Madagascar, there are worse games you could pick up for them than Madagascar: Operation Penguin, but to be honest the game is so short that it may not be worth buying. As a pretty standard movie-based platformer, it'll keep most kids between the ages of three and eight occupied for at least three hours, but even with the lower price point that's probably not long enough to justify a purchase. Rent it.
Gameplay:
The game drops you into the role of a wisecracking penguin
without so much as an introduction, with the first level forcing you to confront a giant poodle on Christmas (I assume this is from the movie; I haven't seen it). From there, the game follows a tutorial-level-tutorial-level structure. Level objectives vary—some have you destroying fans, or assaulting birds for fruit, or getting from point A to point B without being noticed by the humans. There are even a handful of boss battles.After each level, you gain new abilities and learn how to use them, including moves like sliding, swimming, crawling, launching on a rocket, and using slingshots. These moves not only help you get through future missions, but they also let you go back to previous ones and collect all the medals in each. Oh yes, there is collecting. It's not ridiculous, though—there's only one type of thing to collect, and they're not exactly hard to find.
Altogether, the game took me about three hours to get through without going back to collect everything. Younger players
might take an hour or two longer, depending on their skill level.Graphics:
Above-average pre-rendered characters on 2D or pre-rendered backgrounds. It looks like a typical platformer on the system.
Audio:
Pretty standard stuff. Repetitive background music and some digitized speech. I actually turned it off not long into the game—maybe they assumed most kids would be playing in the car without headphones?
Conclusion:
If your kids love Madagascar, there are worse games you could pick up for them than Madagascar: Operation Penguin, but to be honest the game is so short that it may not be worth buying. As a pretty standard movie-based platformer, it'll keep most kids between the ages of three and eight occupied for at least three hours, but even with the lower price point that's probably not long enough to justify a purchase. Rent it.