Beauty and the Beast: A Board Game Adventure Review

Beauty and the Beast stands as my favorite Disney film of all time. It had a good cast of characters and a whole lot of potential for further stories (before the D2V sequel who's name I dare not speak (let alone remember) squashed that), but that's where alternative media comes in, i.e. video games.

When it comes to Beauty and the Beast and video games, your options are limited (at least as far as modern adaptations go.) Back then you had three games which, while different in terms of structure, had the same idea (following the spine of the film (Beast and Beauty getting together)), then some PC games where there's little to talk about, but there is one that stands out the most, at least in concept. Read the title above.

Beauty and the Beast: A Board Game Adventure is what the name implies, a board game that follows the movie. It was released in 1999 for the Game Boy Color. It was developed by Left Field Productions, a company that primarily produces sports titles but during the Game Boy Color era, produced some Disney games with banal concepts (i.e. this and a pinball game based on The Little Mermaid). But the developer isn't the most interesting aspect. The game was published by Nintendo of America, and I don't mean they just licensed it, Nintendo was credited as a publisher. Disney must've been an ultra hot property back then, companies like Capcom and Eidos worked with Disney, and at some point, even the big N threw their hat in the ring. Probably should've also included the N64 in their resume though...

Plot

The plot hardly diverges from the film it's based on. It just fast forwards to the portion where Gaston and Belle race to the castle to find the Beast (hold the fight scene)

Gameplay

Once again, if it wasn't made clear, this is a board game. You play as Belle, racing against Gaston to the end, playing through three boards. Take a wild guess what happens if Gaston makes it to the end. With every move, you get to play one of eleven mini games (two other spots exist, one to let you access the eleventh mini game and the other's a randomizer.) While playing the games, you could get gold stars. Collect three and you could play a bonus game which could get you an extra roll if you win.

• Le Fou's Gallery: Shoot a series of targets while avoiding those that are designated bad. As simple as it sounds as long as you read the instructions before playing, and said designations never change.
• Belle's Ride: Guide Belle and Philippe through the woods while avoiding obstacles. One of the biggest flaws is that they don't tell you you could jump longer, something that becomes important when you come across logs in your path that drain your health if you only make a normal jump.
• Matching Pairs: Match as many pairs as you can. I would say that them showing the answers right away is a flaw, but it's really more of a subjective matter. If they didn't show the answer, the game would be harder than it needs to be.
• Poochy Paw Prints: Clean the paw prints off of furniture in the same order they are left. Nothing more to say, it works, and that's all you need to know.
• Mrs. Potts' Peril: Put out fires and refill Mrs. Potts with water whenever possible, after five pours. If the gunpowder barrels burn, the game automatically ends. Works as well.
• Beast's Battle: Fight an onslaught of wolves and survive for however long you could. Again, simple, and takes longer to wear on your mind.
• Cogsworth's Trivia: Solve questions as quickly and correctly as you could.
• Lumiere's Leaks: Use Lumiere's flames to catch water drops, but be careful as after five drops, the flames go out. Don't let them hit the ground. Same as above.
• Crazy Chopper: Help Maurice bounce logs into the pile. Don't let any drop. You'd be playing this and the shooting gallery game a lot.
• Where's Chip?: Find Chip by choosing from five swapping cups. The cups move slow enough for you to pinpoint Chip, and there's an added challenge of finding the cup with a gold star at the end.
• Gaston's Spittoons: Aim for the spittoon with the star on it. This is a bonus game that's only accessible after collecting three stars or landing on a bonus space. If you win, you get to roll again, and if you lose, you get to move two extra spaces. It's all down to luck whether or not you get into the spittoon, hence why it's a bonus game.

Aside from the story mode, there's also a more basic version where you play as different characters. Play to unlock their film happy endings.

Graphics

This seems to be a given for licensed/shovelware games. Games like those, these included, tend to take the Game Boy Color's capabilities to the limit. The game has good sprite animation and a pleasing color palate.

Music

The music is also nice, though if you have to play the same mini games thanks to a series of unfortunate rolls, they could get annoying before long.

Flaws

To summarize.

• With only ten mini games, they're bound to become grating after a while. Doesn't help that you'll find yourself playing the same games multiple times.
• Rolls are predetermined. You can't do anything to change how much you'll get in every roll. Just press the button and hope for the best.
• Speaking of rolls, Gaston has the worst possible pattern. For every three boards, he moves the same amount of spaces. In the first, he moves five, the second, he moves six, the third, somehow, he moves seven, and given how unpredictable your rolls are, you'll come in last a lot. The only way you could efficiently beat Gaston is by exploiting save states so you could get higher rolls and have better chances at beating the mini games.
• And as with any shovelware title, the ending is underwhelming. Sure Belle and the Beast get together, but there's no fight scene or implication that Gaston died.

Overall

Thanks to repetition and the unforgiving difficulty (the difficulty selection is meaningless because of how many spaces Gaston moves.), there's no chance anyone would want to play this for more than an hour. Beauty and the Beast never received any video game adaptation of their own since 2000, but given how much of a rocky road the Beauty and the Beast video games are, maybe it's for the best.