When I first viewed the trailer for the movie Igor I instantly thought it was a spiritual sequel to A Nightmare Before Christmas. The character designs and art style of Igor reminded me of the Tim Burton classic so I was intrigued to play the PC game. Even though my interest in seeing the movie is still high the game has definitely left me with a lasting memory. Unfortunately that memory is more of a nightmare than a holly jolly Christmas-morning lucid dream.
Igor is your typical platform game that you probably expect with a movie-based game. You control Igor and three of his creations as you explore the land of Malaria (yes, Malaria) on the quest to win the annual Evil Science Fair. Each character in the game has its own unique powers and abilities to help you on your quest. Igor is a standard character with decent power but with a special wand/rod he can use to attack and connect with various locks throughout the world. Eva is Igor’s latest creation that hasn’t worked out the way Igor imagined. Instead of being an evil-menacing creature, Eva is now a lighthearted lady who doesn’t have an evil bone in her body. Scamper is a rabbit-like creature with huge ears, which can shock enemies, that can jump extremely high to help you find hard to reach items. Brian is simply just a robot with a brain that can shoot rocket-like projectiles that can register the most damage of all the characters.
All of the characters are interesting and have a very unusual yet appealing look to them. Even with the interesting characters the game itself just falls flat, really flat. You’ll find yourself just running around stages picking up items and fighting monsters. Sure, that sounds like typical stuff in just about every game on the market but Igor doesn’t offer anything interesting to make you want to keep playing. Most of the items you collect in the game are used to unlock additional parts of a stage. Yet you’re still collecting other items but you never really know why.
The layout of all the stages feels very repetitive no matter how many different creatures the game throws out at you. The game flows like this for what seems like every level: Fight monsters, collect items to unlock next part of stage, collect more items and then fight the boss. Repeat, repeat and repeat for every stage and you get the idea. To make matters even worse, the game has a terrible camera angle that can’t be adjusted and gets in the way of the action many times. It’s hard to enjoy a game when you’re trying desperately to move the camera angle because you can’t see where the enemies are coming from or where your characters are going.
Probably the only true positive part of the gameplay is the ability to switch between the four different characters during the game. All of the characters are on the screen at the same time and you can switch between them at anytime with a simple press of a button. As I mentioned earlier each character has its own unique abilities that will help you locate items in the game. Each character definitely feels and plays differently and you will find yourself switching characters repeatedly. Eva for smashing down barriers, Igor for unlocking locks, Brian for firing off missiles and Scamper for jumping. Unfortunately the description sounds more exciting than the actual gameplay.
In the end Igor ends up being that typical movie-based video game that we used to hate playing. Sure the key ingredients are included such as playing as the four main characters and having a solid look that mimics the movie. However, the game probably should have stayed in the oven a little bit longer since the gameplay is a repetitive mess that never comes together. If you enjoy the movie then you’ll probably find something to enjoy with the game. However, if you want to play the game first before seeing the movie, like me, then you might want to try and forget the game a few days before the movie.
| Review Scoring Details for Igor the Game |
Gameplay: 5.2
A platforming game that just repeats itself over and over again with a bad camera is never a completely pleasant experience. Switching between the four characters does help alleviate a little bit of the repetition.
Graphics: 6.5
The look and style of the game will probably remind many gamers of The Nightmare Before Christmas. The wacky and over-the-top look with a twinge of creepiness is present in the entire game.
Sound: 7.0
The voice acting in the game was well done with some decent quotes from the various characters in the game. The music in the game, once again, reminded me of the Tim Burton movie with the soundtrack by Danny Elfman. Crazy music that you’ll find yourself humming from time to time.
Concept: 5.0
Besides controlling the four different characters the game misses the bar in getting to the next level of gameplay. The gameplay in Igor is nothing you won’t find in other games and some with much better execution.
Difficulty: Easy
No one should have a problem making it through this game in one long setting or a couple of days.
Overall: 5.9
The presentation of the game does a decent job of sucking you in while the gameplay tries hard to push you away. Sure, sometimes you have to take the good with the bad and when you do Igor ends up being an Ok game. Not great and definitely not perfect. For the younger audience Igor will probably be a game to keeps them entertained for hours on end, especially if they went to see the movie.
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