Inanimate: Don't Mess With 'Toons
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Let us take Futurama: The Game, a title from Unique Development Studios (UDS) that was released exclusively in Europe, as our first example. The game received low scores from most, if not all, major reviewers, and averaged 5.0 and 6.2 from gamers and the press respectively according to Gamestats.com. Not exactly the greatest of scores, and it would certainly keep many away from playing Futurama, even fans of the show. Plagued with poor camera controls, simplistic AI, and graphics that dont do the show justice, this game fails to deliver fans of the show a memorable gaming experience. Personally, I feel that Futurama: The Game would have been far better executed as a 2.5 dimensional side-scroller with a mix of pre-rendered 3D backgrounds with a 2D foreground populated with character sprites. This proposed art design would have been more representative of the television show, and gamers would have been able to better identify the game with the show. The removal of the free-roaming game play also eliminates the terrible camera control issues and can allow for better use of artistic talents. By limiting designers to a limited canvas, artists can include far more details that could never be achieved in 3D. Take the following screen-captures of the game for example.
Is it just me, or are all of these levels completely devoid of life and movement? As I recall, the television show was littered with animations that filled the scenery. People whizzing through transport tubes, hover cars speeding around, floating billboards displaying animated advertisements, and spacecraft flying over New New York all made up the universe that Matt Groening and David X. Cohen created for the show. I need not point any further than Konamis classic 1991 The Simpsons Arcade. Not only did it do a remarkable job of reproducing the look and feel of the show, but also it was literally filled with other characters from the show that walked around in the background making references from past episodes.
Another great example of games based on TV shows gone bad is the brand new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) games. When I learned of the Ninja Turtles demo present on the Mario Kart: Double Dash!! Bonus disc for those that preordered, I was probably more ecstatic about it than Mario Kart! I have very fond memories of playing the original TMNT arcade game at Chuck E. Cheeses and Showbiz with my older brother, so I could not wait to get my hands on what could be the rebirth of the classic Fight em Up. My enthusiasm quickly faded after several minutes with the new game. Not only had the gameplay severely declined, but I also felt that it was graphically inferior to the Fox Box television show and the original 1980s and 1990s videogames. How can this be? A 3D cel-shaded title graphically inferior to a 10+ year-old 2D title! Blasphemy!
For me, it just doesnt make much sense to use polygons to recreate what is a 2D drawing on TV. Sprites are already essentially the same thing as a 2D animation cell, so it seems logical for developers to stick with the medium that most closely resembles the show, right? To be perfectly fair, a 3D game is capable of realizing a cartoon world if done properly like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker; however, like I mentioned before, developers simply do not want to take the necessary time and money to properly do so. Also, as the case with the Futurama title above, the new Turtles games are devoid of background and movement. The world just feels empty and unpopulated. If the game takes place in New York, then where are all the people and cars? Granted, the older Turtles games didnt have many pedestrians and vehicles, but there was always something moving, whether it is a giant bowling ball falling down a flight of stairs of a burning building or a pack of dinosaurs running away from the Foot Clan.
Im clearly not alone in my opinions, as demonstrated by the reader scores located on Gamestats.com. The original arcade game for the NES has an above average score of 8.5 from readers and Turtles in Time has an even higher score of 8.7. The new game, however; has lost quite a bit of ground with a 7.7 score from readers and a 6.5 score from the press. Let us compare these scores with the Game Boy Advance version of the same game. Not only does the GBA version have a higher score from readers (7.8) and the press (7.0), but also many of the missing qualities from the 3D version have returned. The environment feels more populated and the graphics better resemble the television show.
Yes, developers are just as capable of fouling up two-dimensional titles as they are with third-dimension games, but we can all clearly see that by removing cumbersome cameras and complicated 3D graphics and geometry, developers have a better chance at creating something bearable to play. Just making a game 2D doesnt give designers a free pass to slack off with original ideas and immersive game play. I like to think of 2D as the training wheels of videogame development. If a studio cant balance itself, then it should put on the training wheels until it can better support 3D. 2D is by no means a perfect solution to this problem, but more of a means to help developers better realize the potential there is for quality games.
Critics that say 2D and simple side-scrollers cant compete these days clearly havent been keeping up. Viewtiful Joe not only sold over one million units worldwide on the GameCube alone, but those numbers were large enough to convince Capcom to create a sequel and port the original onto the Playstation 2. The GBA still dominates over much of the videogame industry and is credited by Nintendo for driving sales and creating growth for the industry. Not bad for a system with limited 3D capabilities.
Without increasing budgets and adding more development time to a title, companies like THQ can make the next Sponge Bob and Rocket Power games into quality pieces of software that my little sister and friends can play and enjoy. At the same time, they'll be staying true to the 2D medium and thus providing us with a proper representation of the worlds our favorite cartoons inhabit. And guess what? THQ will benefit from this as well. The company will be gaining return customers, rather than my sister's returned software.