Gaming Target - Game Boy: Stuart Little: The Journey Home

Written by Ryan Smotherman on November 24, 2001

Review: Part platformer, part racer, all crap.

For the first time, in my six months writing for this wonderful website known as Gaming Target, I became a little stumped on how to put a review together. Stuart Little: The Journey Home was clearly developed for fans of the books and movie, namely Ц the younger audience. So, which approach should I take? My own personal opinions on how much I enjoyed this game (or didn't), or how a child would take to it? In the end, I chose to give my personal opinions, which to put it short, aren't that great.

In the game you play the role of the loveable talking mouse known as Stuart. He's basically a little boy trapped in a mouse's body. As Stuart, you'll travel through many locations found in the popular film, and in following the tradition of movie-to-videogame translations, the game plays like crap. Sorry for the bluntness of this, but it had to be said. Much of the gameplay is regular side-scrolling platform action, but on a very simplistic level. Each of the 8 stages in the game is as basic as you get. You have a run button and a jump button, and all you do is run through each level as you dodge enemy attacks and collect various items, such as laundry, gold, and wrenches. There are also a few special items to pick up along the way, such as energy and speed boosters. Extra lives come in the form of meatloaf. HmmЕ you'd think it'd be cheese.

However, not all of the levels in the game are in side-scrolling form. Many of the 8 levels are actually in racing style, though once again, are very basic. You complete laps in either a sailboat or miniature car as you mindlessly collect items. But the racing levels are easily the most entertaining. I'm not sure why, but they just have a nice feel to them. I even caught myself enjoying the game for a split second. All in all, that's how the game plays Ц some simple run-n-jump action mixed with an equally basic, albeit somewhat fun racing mode.

Stuart Little's one positive side would have to be its graphics. They're very colorful and the characters animate well, especially in the racing sequences. However, the game does feel a little bit choppy when running through the stages with Stuart. There's not really much to mention in the sound department, there are no voice effects or anything, just some basic noises that you won't even notice. Additionally, the options department is kept to a bare minimum. The only thing worth noting is the ability to increase the difficulty level, although there still isn't much of a challenge to be found at the harder levels. Included in the game is a password option so you can continue the story without having to start all over but to be honest, the 8 levels are so short that this option is fairly useless.