Review scoopings 4/5 · Jul 29, 2024
Cute Little Surprise, Fun Platformer Bogged Down By Overly Frequent Minigames
Preliminary: At first I was gonna just write this off cuz it's time to move on to higher-quality 90s platfotrmers and whatnot (this is my last game of the 80s ah!), and the first level music was meh, but the controls were tight and I intuitively discovered you can extend/mutli-jump, there's mid-air jumps, and a way to fight back. Plus …
Preliminary: At first I was gonna just write this off cuz it's time to move on to higher-quality 90s platfotrmers and whatnot (this is my last game of the 80s ah!), and the first level music was meh, but the controls were tight and I intuitively discovered you can extend/mutli-jump, there's mid-air jumps, and a way to fight back. Plus the bonus game interludes had nice music. But I need an English translation cuz I have no idea what's going on in these between-level parts, I was hoping just for a simple world map (which is cute) but there are minigames involving lots of text and apparently a store with the money you collect (I should've collected more lol, I thought those were just for points).
Oh odd so the whole point of the game is the store? To buy things for your wife? Why is it called Mappy Kids then haha.
So I have the English translation. I like the game for the most part but not sure if it will keep my interest. The Look of the different levels is cute, I'm at the house version now. And it's cool how what you buy affects the between-level screens like I bought flowers and it showed us enjoying the flowers. But the minigame is not fun the whole waving the flag faster thing... not a fan. And if the goal is simply to buy all the stuff, not necessarily to get through all the levels... meh.
This 2nd level has a cute Look with the laundry and the tune is great. Ugh I guess I will properly play this.
Day 1
Lol I love when I'm flying along with the roller skates power-up. It's pretty obvious that the between-level minigames are predecided, would've been more fun for a chance to actually try to hit the slots at the right moment for something you want. Oh gosh now I gotta do sumo against Mew Mew lol. Lol that was much cuter than the flag game , we basically booty bumped each other off a raised area.
It was cute how you saw your house being build up from scratch as you bought things. I'm still not clear on if the game ends once I buy everything, like online has implied, or if that's just an extra thing you also must do before finishing the game? Seems I definitely will tho, I usually gets 10s of thousands after each level.
I like this being miniature, seeing regular items, Look, always like that in movies and games. And the music continues to be solid. And I like that there isn't a time limit with levels, and the variety of minigames (except the flag one so far). Yeah, it's a solid game. After all, all I really need for me to play through an entire platformer is a doable difficulty, mid-jump controls, and a way to fight back haha. Good Sound and an interesting Look are just nice touches :-p
My house is coming along
And I'm always a fan of world maps acting as level selects, tho there wasn't any choices from what I could tell
Lol cute touch. And this level had cute colors and I always like chairs/real life stuff big (like I mentioned earlier with the shoe). Plus kinda Alice in Wonderland vibes with the chairs.
Ok I guess I just have to stop taking a screenshot of every level I think is cute cuz the next one had giant crayons (well, giant from our perspective :-p like in Honey I Shrunk the Kids vibe) , so yea uh, if you like that too just watch a playthrough video :-p Cuz I'll never finish this game if I keep taking screenshots
As cute as the build a house idea was, I feel like those minigames being between every level (plus the chance to lose parts of the house and money and whatnot from the minigames) slowed down the game. My favorite parts, of course, were when I was just grinding threw a level, but the levels were so short and the minigame segments took up at least as much time if not more. (Oh and turns out you do truly select the slot, but then the other 2 are always guaranteed to match what you first landed on). Hey, at least it's finally an NES platformer that seems away of the sprite flicker/lag issue...
Ok I tried resisting but right when I was about to type about repeated level settings, this cow appeared lol . The tune is good but it's starting to get repetitive, as is the level design mechanic of making you go back to be on higher or lower ground to get past a part (tho, hey, at least it lets you go back and no time limit).
Ok so in the last bit there is a choice of which path to take it seems for the last levels, but maybe that's just so you can loop around if you need to after losing something in a minigame? Or if you don't have the house built yet? Neat idea, tho having the ability to go back and forth throughout all levels could've solved that I suppose.
The ducking graphic in this is super cute, you legit lie on the ground :-p But I'm already at the end, yes it seems you need to build the house and reach the last level both. There was a pretty cute ending jingle, I got worried it'd only be the same tune again like it started with, but then for the final part of the ending indeed it return to the same song lol
All that for such a rough looking house??
And then everybody dances of course. To the same song... again.
Look: 8.5/10 I love love love the Honey I Shrunk the Kids aesthetic in games and movies, every time it gets me. However, there was some of that issue where it was a bit unclear which platforms could be jumped on etc. Still, overall cute Look and good colors.
Sound: 8.5/10 Great tunes, but dang, change it up a bit! Tbh this deserves a 9 if it didn't get so repetitive. Cuz the minigame and store music is excellent too, hm. I almost gave it an 8 but maybe an 8.5 would be most appropriate since they are good tunes.
Play: 8/10 If it weren't for how frequent the minigames are (cuz honestly I do actually enjoy those minigames, they're just too frequent, the sumo butt bumping is cute and I've always enjoyed "spot the difference between images" games but like you have the same images... and we do this over and over), and a few tacky choices with the level designs like with the fire hydrants and faucets obstacles, this would easily be an 8.5+ and a 5 star overall. I really enjoyed it and can't deny I got hooked, but I eventually started just fast forwarding through the minigames in mid-game and started paying attention again in the last few levels to rebuild the parts I lost while fast forwarding heh.
Feel: 8.5/10 Super cute Look and Sound, tho overall repetitive in all factors (Look, Sound, and Play tbh), culminate into a very nice Feel and surprise for me as I was planning to rush past petty NES platformers at this point, but they still can have that charm
Attachment: 8/10 Sure I was super hooked tonight, and this would likely make the list of NES platformers to replay, but I can't guarantee I will return to it. Esp with the minigames bogging it down
Overall: 8.3/10
Completion: Main Story
Playtime: ~1 hr