At first this was going to be a review of the game. At first this was going to be an impressions entry. Now I've found a way to appease to both and not worry about overanalyzing. And now, I present to you the most desperate GBA licensed title ever.
Licensed Games in General
A lot of you should be familiar with licensed console games. In general, they're a mixed bag, you may find a genuinely decent title, you might find a bad one that's still enjoyable to most people, who knows? The GBA licensed games are a whole other kettle of fish. On one hand, it's easier to go with a show's art style and it's much easier to develop for since it's going for an old format. On the other hand, with the aforementioned simplicity comes developers ready to pluck a license and make a quick buck. Again, some may be better than others, but there is one way to distinguish the irredeemable shit ones from the salvageable ones.
The worst offerings come from Destination Software.
About the publisher and developer
Destination Software, better recognized as DSI Games was a game publisher based in New Jersey. They primarily focused on producing games for the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii (but strangely stayed away from the PlayStation 2, almost as if even they knew it was far from salvation by the late-2000s.) As far as their content goes, it's generally all over the place. Aside from attempts at original games, they stuck their toes into anything they felt they could make easy money off of, leading to mixed results.
On one hand, DSI were behind two multicarts, one that contained both Marble Madness and KLAX (and for the record, the former port was botched to hell, half the levels and poor controls.), the other, a more obscure coupling containing Rampage and Paperboy. They also produced surprising ports for the GBA.
They ported SimCity 2000 to the GBA and actually kept the original game's format, but obviously it was watered down. They ported the first two PacMan World games to the GBA as well, but of course they couldn't replicate the original games. Lastly, and more surprisingly, they ported a full 3D game onto the GBA, Big Mutha Truckers. That's right, a port of a driving game that's still 3D like it's original version. Don't believe me?
And for the other games.
You may be thinking, well DSI can't be that bad, sure their titles are rough around the edges but they're breaking into new territory by making ports for more ambitious games. What're you smoking?
Okay, yes, I never expected games like those to be ported to the GBA, especially the way they did. However, that doesn't change the fact that DSI relied on a much darker cow. Licensed games.
When compared to other license publishers, top dogs like Activision, Ubisoft and Atari and lower-tier firms like Crave Entertainment, BAM! Entertainment and TDK Mediactive, DSI's desperation is so clear you could smell it on their cartridges. They would get any license they could while it was still relevant, and pray to the heavens that it would at least sell. An example of this is the multiple M&Ms licensed games, which they acquired from Simon & Schuster. No comment. There's also Balls of Fury, remember that movie? Well DSI published a game about it.
Also, ever heard of Elf Bowling? That GBA game which was actually a repurposed freeware game from 1998? DSI did something similar in 2005, porting it not only to the GBA, but to the Wii and DS.
So now you get the general idea on how bad DSI is when it comes to licenses. Now let's talk about the license that's the cornerstone of my essay. Princess Natasha.
The show in general
Princess Natasha was a series of shorts that aired from 2003 to 2006. It turned up on AOL (remember that?) but eventually found its way onto Cartoon Network. The series centered on an undercover princess/secret agent who poses as a school student to contend with an evil king who wants to gain full control of Natasha's homeland, best I could tell.
The series was created by Larry Schwartz, who you may better recognize as the creator of Kappa Mikey, Speed Racer: The Next Generation, Thumb Wrestling Federation and Three Delivery. Before hitting it big on Nicktoons Network with those shows, he primarily produced stuff for AOL Kids, and Princess Natasha is the only one that people remember most, and that's saying a lot.
As of now, Princess Natasha only exists as a faint memory, and a non-sequitor if you're looking up Larry Schwartz and Animation Collective and see the rest of his work. The show in general wasn't that big, but that didn't stop the production of third-party media. We're talking a series of comics by DC, I'm not joking and a video game, the video game I'm going to discuss.
A licensed game based on a series of shorts that didn't attract that much attention to begin with, released in the show's final year of airing. That's how low they stooped.
About the game
The game came out, as mentioned before, in 2006, and was obviously published by DSI Games, because who else in their right mind would produce a game based on an ill-recognized license? It was developed by Frame Studios Interactive, one of DSI's main contacts which also include Frontline Studios, behind a bulk of DSI's Wii titles as well as Duke Nukem: Critical Mass, which people collectively agree is worse than Duke Nukem Forever, I'm not kidding. Warwickshire-based Full Fat, and all you need to know about them is that they're to DSI what EM Studios is to Blast! Entertainment, producing their best offerings. Frame Studios were behind DSI's multicarts, an M&M's game and that's really it in terms of noteworthy titles.
Now, what's the game like?
Visuals: The game replicates the art style of the show perfectly. Even including the show's intro, obviously cut down to make way for precious cartridge space.
Story: From what I've seen so far, it's about Natasha attempting to solve a zombie outbreak. I could live with such a barren idea, but this does fit the lack of imagination present at DSI, which ultimately spreads to their hires.
Faithfulness to the Source Material: They got the gist down, but from the dialogue I've seen in the beginning, it's very bland, like Nicktoons Freeze Frame Frenzy levels of bland. I have reason to believe that it remains that way throughout the rest of the game, but I could be horribly wrong.
Music: Nothing special, nothing worth mentioning.
Gameplay: A basic side-scroller with beat-em-up elements. Again, nothing special.
Overall
I won't say this is the worst game ever, I guess it's because I'm warming up to the source material, but this is one of the most desperate licensed games ever. Just the fact that DSI had to acquire the license to something few people even knew about should've been a serious red flag. If it were better known, I would say that Princess Natasha has the decent makings of a video game, but it was squandered needlessly.
In conclusion, probably not the worst game ever, but definitely one of the most needless licensed titles.
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