Lilo and Stitch

Written by Chris Reiter  on July 16, 2002

Review: Should you see the movie, you should not immediately buy the game.

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To truly piece together a worthwhile (and kid friendly) animated feature film, you need all the key ingredients. An interesting cast of characters, a story that mesmerizes your thinking cap, and of course high quality animation and sound materials. Disney's latest creation involves each one of these in the mix, and certainly holds the award as the best-drawn film I've seen from the company in a few years. As with every feature length movie they throw our way, a game must follow the release. And Sony has nabbed the rights for this summer's hit for their recently produced platform conversion, Lilo and Stitch.

Like the film, the story behind Lilo and Stitch centers itself on the movie's plot. In a galaxy far, far away...well, not that far...a mad alien scientist has been accused of creating an invincible and rambunctious creature that is set to be terminated. This abomination, later named Stitch, arrives on Earth after his daring escape from the squadron of aliens on the hunt for him. Soon after, he bumps into a little girl named Lilo, who like him, is pointed out as an outcast by others. Together, they become best friends, and set off on an adventure to prove that being perfect isn't everything.

Reminiscent of Sony's earlier Crash Bandicoot franchise on the PlayStation, Lilo and Stitch is poised to play in a very similar, linear and straightforward gameplay path. The difference in this game though, is that you have control over both Lilo and Stitch. You'll need to guide Lilo and Stitch one after the other through various locales, each made up of a few different levels that set a course for you to follow. From area to area on each world map, the objectives are simplistic, like collecting a set of new photos for Lilo's stock of pictures or new music records to listen to. Along the way players can pick up other useful items like health for restoration and even hidden film clips that will unlock portions of the movie to view later on. Most of these items can be a challenge to find, since they are placed within or on top of jars, statues, stone blocks, etc....or even hovering in a sideline area, where you must hop and time yourself across floating platforms to meet your goal.

The other challenge to each level is in the multiple enemies you will have to face head on. From large snapping piranha plants, quill thrusting porcupines, squiggly rats, frantic geckos, stampeding boars, and anything else that didn't have to do with the movie will be your new moronic foe. Not that the enemy AI isn't a threat, but they can be disposed of too easily. As long as one isn't facing you, they won't pick up on the fact that you're right there behind them. Thus, you can implement one of your close-range-only attacks. Whether it be Lilo's wave of voodoo magic, or Stitch's spin or gas breath attack, the enemies will come falling down after one hit.

There are however much more powerful attacks. By collecting the right number of items, you can perform a special ability. Stitch, for instance, is provided with a super roll attack. Once you fill his "bad-o-meter" up with enough coffee you collect throughout each level, you'll be able to boost his hyperactive stage towards any enemy at dash speeds. Lilo on the other hand can search for voodoo spoons in her travels, which will enhance her magic casting, enabling her to summon an island tourist to drop in on any unfriendly visitors. But even with Lilo's added ability to pickup exploding jars, place them near a bad guy, and backup to watch the fireworks, the attack system feels very limited and most of the time you'll find yourself dying because the "super attacks" only come by so often.

What's worse is Lilo and Stitch's control scheme. Aside from attacking enemies, you can also butt stomp breakable objects to reveal hidden items, and of course jump. Moving around on land is easy enough, but when the time arrives for jumping across gaps -- sometimes ones involving you to leap onto a moving object, it's never easy to get the hang of the liability of sliding off the edge half of the time. Leaping from platform to platform is more of a risk than fighting enemy creatures most of the time. If you're to take a hop forward, your character automatically slides a smidgen in whatever position they're facing. This spells trouble when it comes down to facing any forward bound challenge -- whether the camera is facing your backside, your front side, or even your side...side.

Paling vastly in comparison to many of the other titles in the PlayStation library even though it's a recent release, Lilo and Stitch flat out takes the fun out of keeping your eyes on the action. While Lilo and Stitch stand out better than the enemies seen on screen, everything is diminished to a simplistic form from degraded coloring to jagged edges. Even the game backgrounds aren't that much prettier. Jungle, suburban, and even mountain passes make up these dull scenic routes. However, everything isn't so terrible in its entirety that you'll decide to convert to another religion. Little details like when you walk across the dirt or sand, your footprints will follow your steps. And even Lilo and Stitch's animations fare quite well in their own little world. When Stitch creates a whirlwind spin, a white and tiny tornado steps onto the screen, with breaking objects to follow. If Lilo casts her voodoo spell, a green cloud lights up afterward. The explosions from touching a red canister also does the job to round out a sketchy but decent enough looking game.

Mediocrity ensues in the sound department. Trailing either of the two characters, there's either a rock or island themed music to follow. Though the blending of either of the styles of music fit right in with the theme of Lilo and Stitch, it's not the greatest of listening tracks to begin with. On the in-game angle, just about everything that moves makes a sound. Crawling, stomping, scampering, breaking and exploding items can all be heard in a low level quality. But, one of the actions that's entirely noticeable is how when either Lilo or Stitch move around, you can't hear them running or walking across the different level surfaces. Sure noise occurs when they interact with other onscreen objects, but it eludes me that their own would be missing in action.