G'night everybody!
...
Alright, fine, I'll do a real review. Upon starting the game up, I was impressed by how responsive the menu screen was. I use this phrase a lot, but it looks like it could have been professionally made. Do keep in mind, though, I'm not talking about Atlus professional...more like THQ and Nickelodeon Games professional...
What I mean by that is that Tad Studbody's quality as a game, in my opinion, is not very high. Its quality as a toy, however, is incredibly high. I encourage you all to look up what others have said on the "games vs toys" issue, it's actually a very interesting subject, but for now, I'll give you the abridged version in the context of Tad Studbody.
Like toys tend to do, Tad Studbody dispenses fun like Spiderman's neck dispenses candy. What it doesn't deliver, however, is engagement. Usually, when I stop playing a game after 15 minutes, it's because the game frustrated me in some way and I want to get back to playing [insert late-90s classic title or later iteration thereof here]. I stopped playing Tad Studbody, however, because it got repetitive and boring really fast.
A true "game" would never leave me mindlessly approaching enemy robots and bashing them over the head a couple times to progress to the next area where I bash robots over the head a couple times. It would constantly challenge me to think about what I've learned so far and apply the lessons to the situation at hand.
"Oh," but you may say, "that's just the nature of the beast. Beat 'em ups are fun but repetitive. They offer a chance for you to zone out and kill stuff for a while; sweet catharsis." Well, that may be true, but what about a game like Starfox 64? That game epitomizes catharsis better than any other game I know, but it's not just a conga line of Androssian ships waiting to be kersploded. The enemy placement and level design force me to implement strategies. That classic phrase "do a barrel roll" wasn't just in the game because it sounded funny. It was there to remind you that you had a means to deal with a specific challenge and now was the time to implement that means.
Tad Studbody doesn't do that. It just throws a bunch of robots at you and watches contently as you break them. The controls aren't designed around strategy, they're designed around repetition. But hey, if that's all you want, then go nuts.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay theoretical
Links
you get a punch, you get a punch, everyone here gets punchessssss: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=8729
