" Playing through it again would be about as much fun as picking the lice out of a fellow monkey’s back hair. "

      Title: Obi-Wan’s Adventures by THQ

      Format: Action game for Game Boy Color

      Reviewing Monkey: Simi N.

      The Hype: 9 levels to explore, use your light saber, a blaster, or have Force abilities to destroy enemies!

      What This Monkey Thought...

      Graphics: I was very impressed with the graphics in this game. It seems that the designers for the Game Boy Color put a lot of effort into pushing the envelope for this system. The most impressive graphics are the pictures that are taken straight from the movie. These are displayed at the beginning and end of each level and they look amazing. The in game graphics are not as cool, but they are still pretty good for an eight-bit system. The only problem is that many of the backgrounds are rather monotonous and get boring very fast. A little more variety would have gone a long way with this title. 4 out of 5

      Sound: Considering that no Game Boy game can ever surpass the damned annoying basic midi it's limited speaker can provide, Obi Wan does pretty well. It translates the movies sound track as best it can...Take that as you will. 4 out of 5

      Game Play: Every once in a while a game comes along that makes a player shake his head in dumbfounded wonder. This is one of those games. It looks and plays much like many other games that take on a 3/4 perspective, but the controls don’t match the flow of the levels making for some agonizingly frustrating game play. The problem is that the corridors and hallways in all of the levels move in a northwest/southeast, or northeast/southwest direction (they appear like and X on your screen). Usually when a game has a layout like this pressing the up directional button will make the character follow the corridor. But in this game in order to go that way you have to press up and right, pressing up will make your character head straight north…And it’s damned frustrating Other than that the game play is very simple. Too simple in my mind it seems that as long as you keep pounding on the attack button with light saber in hand you will almost never get hit. This kind of one button mashing gets tiring very quickly. 3 out of 5

      Level and Environment Designs: You can tell from the level designs that they were all influenced at least somewhat by the movie. There are a few levels (Couresant, and the Naboo Swamp) that don’t match the movie very well at all. And another problem is that the levels are all very linear. It is almost impossible to find yourself lost at any point, most of the time you will go straight through to the end with no trouble. In fact there were three levels where I entered a door figuring that I was at about the halfway point only to find myself at the end. 3 out of 5

      Multiplayer: No such thing in this game.

      Replayability: The game is so short that it wouldn’t be a big chore to go through it again, but there wouldn’t be much of a point to it. The only real reason you could find would be to beat it in the difficult setting. But other than that the game isn’t going to draw anybody back to it. By the time you finish the game you will be so tired of the game play that playing through it again would be about as much fun as picking the lice out of a fellow monkey’s back hair. 2 out of 5.

      Story/Dramatics: The story in this game makes little sense. The environments you find yourself in follow (very loosely) the flow of the movie, although many areas in the movie were left out, like Tatooine, and many levels that were entirely absent from the movie were added in. Not to mention that the screen shots from the movie are presented in such a jumbled order that you will be left scratching your butt in wonderment. All you can figure out is that you are a Jedi and are accomplishing a task only to be presented with a new one at every turn. 2.5 out of 5

      Instructions and Learning Curve: Considering the fact that this game only requires you to hit one button and the D-pad to be effective offensively the learning curve is quite short. There are of course other commands that you could learn if you wanted to, and the manual does a good job of relaying that information. But most people will find that they don’t need to use most of the commands. 4 out of 5

      Installation and Real System Requirements: This game impressed me with its graphics. I really didn’t think that a lot of what this game did was possible on the Game Boy Color, especially where the movie screenshots are concerned. Of course because it is on a cartridge the load times all but nonexistent. But it could have been made to support a two-player mode. If there were a linkable co-op mode this game would be fun to play with a friend. 3 out of 5

      The Verdict:

This game is cool conceptually and can be fun for a while. It boasts cool screenshots and good graphics, but that just doesn’t make a game fun. After about an hour and a half of playing you will be anxiously waiting for the game to end (which should only take another hour or two). And once you beat it, chances are you won’t be rushing back to the beginning any time soon.

      The Good: Awesome screenshots, decent-to-good graphics, easy to pick up, and you get to blow stuff up with your light saber!

      The Bad: Whacked out story, easy and bland level constructions, the directional controls don’t fit with the game design, and too damn much single button mashing.

      The Overall Ugly: With a few creative touch-ups concerning story and level design, possibly a two player mode, and most importantly directional controls that make sense this game could have been a must have. As it is you would do better off trying to find a friend who owns it, borrowing it for a day beating it and giving it back.

      What it's Worth: I couldn’t see myself spending more than $11.00 on this title.