Dexter's Laboratory: Deesaster Strikes!

Inside of Dexter's cavernous laboratory, his big sister Dee Dee has caused untold havoc. By sneaking into his Clone-O-Matic (TM), Dee Dee has turned herself into roughly two hundred little Dee Dees. Those Dee Dees are running around Dexter's lab, causing mischief and breaking things. Dexter must work his way through his lab, fixing machines, opening doors, dragging boxes, and using his Grabber Arm to ensnare the miniature Dee Dee clones. He must, in short, platform like a mad bastard, if he is to reverse the cloning process before dinner. If he can't pull it off then Mom will find out.

Obviously, we can't let that happen, so it's off to the races for us and Dexter. Most of the gameplay of Deesaster Strikes involves fixing machines, flipping switches, finding keys, and opening up new areas of the lab. Occasionally, Mini-Dee Dees will be running around a new area, where Dexter, sporting his trusty Grabber Arm, can capture them. Once they're captured -- and sadly, you can only grab one at a time -- you must pull them back to a vacuum tube, which will in turn deposit them in the Clone-O-Matic. When you've caught all of the two hundred mini-Dee Dees, you win.

The question then becomes whether you'll actually play the game for that long.

I can't question that Deesaster Strikes is a good-looking game. Dexter looks like Dexter, Dee Dee looks like Dee Dee, and everything is crisp, clear, and brightly colored. Compared to other licensed games, where you only know you're controlling, say, Spider-Man because the game keeps telling you that you are, DS has the goods.

Unfortunately, monotony is the main result of the developer's labor. The vaccuum tubes to put little Dee Dees in are few and far between, resulting in a lot of boring backtracking through areas you've already cleared. In the rest of the game, you're hopping chasms, pushing barrels, dodging gunfire, and destroying robots. It is all a little ho-hum.