The Christmas Review - Fancy Pants Adventure: World 2

Well, it's that time of year again. The time when even I stop spraying a stream of vitriol and obscenities at a bunch of pixels on an online gaming site. Yes, it's the annual Christmas Review, where I actually write about a game I like for a change! And oh, what a game do I have.

For a long time, my favourite game was Fancy Pants Adventures. I don't just mean my favourite online game - with it's charming visuals, wry sense of humour and addictive gameplay, it outclassed many of the titles lining shelves in Gamestops across the world. So when Brad Borne, the genius behind Mr Fancy Pants, produced Fancy Pants Adventure: World 2, I knew it would live up to its predecessor. What I didn't expect was for it to surpass the original in almost every way.



For those of you who loved the first Fancy Pants Adventure, the second immediately reminds you why so many hours were lost playing what is, in essence, a stick figure Sonic the Hedgehog. Having just capped off a game of Fancy Golfball (which demands a spin-off all of its own), Mr Fancy Pants is rewarded with an ice cream.



But, oh no! What's this? A giant angry rabbit has stolen your ice cream! You must chase after him and retrieve it!

The plot is, in a word, ridiculous. But that's what we love about Fancy Pants - it doesn't take itself too seriously, and the jokes don't insult our intelligence. Most importantly, none of the trimmings overshadow the real meat in the centre of all this - that is, a wonderful platform game.



The spiders will be your biggest concern throughout the game. The only other bad guys are the mice that fire squiggles at you and the snails (whose shells you can play Fancy Golfball with.) The spiders aren't difficult, but they are numerous, and they do leave a nasty mark should you run into one.



And running is what you'll be doing, rushing from one end of the level to the other. Sometimes your own momentum will be the only thing that gets you to the end, as you jump, slide, roll and sail through the air. The gameplay can be as fast and furious as you want it to be, but if you want to explore every part of every level, you'll need to be a little less cautious.



There are numerous secret zones where you can find trophies and other treats. Sometimes these places are as large and interesting as the main levels. And sometimes they're just freaking weird, like this beehive with a pet man.

I said Brad Borne was a genius, I never said he was "all there."



At almost three times the size of the original, Fancy Pants Adventure: World 2 plays host to a variety of environments, all with their own special quirks, each one as exquisitely drawn as the last. So few games get the mix of great visuals and great gameplay right; FPA 2 has both in abundance. The controls are so simple that even the most computer illiterate, hopeless non-gamer could get the hang of it and soon find themselves bouncing off walls, somersaulting over cliffs and hanging from ziplines.



There's only one boss fight, but then why would you want to fight anybody other than that rotten rabbit who stole your prize? It's a great tussle, too, involving no small amount of skill, luck and ingenuity.



And though you'll probably die multiple times, it never gets annoying to the point where you want to hurl your computer across the room. if you do lose all of your lives, you can simply skip to the final level from the main menu, saving you the hassle of having to play all the way through again.

But if you find that you actually want to play the whole game again, I won't be surprised. Highly addictive, nice to look at, and with a sense of intelligence and humour that most other games lack - Fancy Pants Adventure: World 2 is the game that all other online content has to beat.

I'll be back in the New Year with a normal, hate-filled review. In the meantime, go play Planet Platformer 2, and think of how much fun I'm going to have writing that review.

Happy Christmas!

Pimp My Grill

Pimp My Grill is the latest in a long line of what I suppose you could call "Bejeweled clones." The object of the game is always the same - line up three or more of the same coloured jewels and/or symbols in order to remove them from the playing board. To beat each level you must score a required number of points, or in the case of a game like Atlantis Quest retrieve several artifacts from the board. Where Pimp My Grill differs from the largely generic horde of jewel-themed puzzle games is its use of hip hop beats and phrases. The result is a bright, colourful game that looks as good as anything out there and which should appeal to the rap music loving masses. But I don't expect it will hold their attention very long.



The first thing to do is to "Choose yo' dog." I went with Snow Flake because who the fuck am I trying to kid?



Once you've picked your character, we move onto the actual game, where we're presented with the wonderful sight of our "dog's" mouth, filled with diamonds and jewels. Hell, if my mouth had a never ending pile of jewels in it I'd flash that shit too. And so we begin, switching jewels to make those lines of three and filling the Bling-O-Meter. Don't worry, no need to rush - there isn't any time limit. At first I wasn't sure of this, but after leaving the game alone for ten minutes I came back to find everything just as I had left it. It was still playing the same ponderous beat, and no doubt things would have stayed that way if I hadn't gotten on with the job of pimping my homie's grill. Or something.



Eventually you fill up the Bling-O-Meter and you pass the level. You then go back to the mouth and start again.

That's pretty much it. It's the same mouth, the same size playing board and pretty much the same jewels. The only difference is the level number is now 2 where it was once 1.

Now, I've seen this before, most recently in Anchor Ball, and I'm getting pretty tired of it - developers trying to pass off multiple versions of the same level as a whole game. It's not a whole game. It's just Level 1 fifteen times. I played through seven levels of Pimp My Grill and not one was any harder than the last. The only thing to differentiate one level from the other was the occasional addition of a new gem. I think Einstein said it best with the phrase, "That's bullshit."

I suppose I should mention the power-ups, since they're the only other thing worth writing about. Some gems are slightly bigger than others and if you can link them with similar jewels they'll help you out by either removing all the gems of that type or taking away the block of gems around it. On top of that there are added bonuses for links of four jewels:



I don't know what a "power baller" is, and part of me doesn't want to know. Then there's the bonus for a link of five:



I thought the O in "O.G." stood for "Original." You know, "Original Gangsta"? I don't think Dr Dre would appreciate being called old. You try it some time - he'll most likely bitchslap you into next week.



You can always play with the other characters' mouths (that didn't sound gay at all) but you know it's just the same game with a slightly larger or slightly smaller playing board. There aren't words to describe how great an opportunity was lost here to create an original puzzle game in a subgenre of pretenders.

So I'll write about Fancy Pants Adventure: World 2 instead. The internet has waited a long time for this. Building from the phenomonal success of the original, Brad Borne has done it again, creating a platform adventure game that is smart, funny, looks gorgeous and plays like a dream. I was worried at first because I had been playing an early version that didn't feature any music or trophies and which stalled every time I jumped. But the finished product is out now, and I can't recommend it enough. I know I usually slate games in this blog, but I can't really be upset when the new Fancy Pants game is finally online after an age and a half of waiting. Don't play Pimp My Grill, but definitely check out Fancy Pants Adventure: World 2. You won't be disappointed.