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I don't envy the developers of Arctic Tale for Game Boy Advance, having to work on a late GBA release based on freaking National Geographic documentary. But hey, hopefully it paid well. I'm going to be blunt, this game sucks!
You control a little bear from a top down perspective, and your goal is to beat a few mini-games, then beat a mini-game that actually advances onto the next chapter. The game features limited life supply and health, though continues are unlimited. Someone had a bright idea to make running around deplete your health. I mean I get it, overworking yourself is very dangerous, but that's not how reality works, you don't just become close to death when out of breath, the game should've just had a separate bar for stamina that could regenerate when not running. Aside from a bear, you can change into a fox or a walrus when near a changing cave, and these animals have special properties. Walrus can explore water sections, and a fox is super quick and can hunt hares for a little bit of health. As I mentioned, there are mini-games, certain mini-games require a specific animal. These mini-games range from alright to awful. You have shuffleboard, where you launch yourself and try to hit a center of the target, or Whac-A-Mole sort of deal but with seals, or orca race, but then you have a sliding mini-game, where you just slide down, and if you hit too many objects or fall into a pit you lose a life, or surfing on a piece of ice where if you hit too many objects... you lose a life. Both of these share the same issue, in that they don't give adequate view of what's ahead, both are vertically oriented, but you aren't at the very top/bottom, limiting the view of the obstacles. In most mini-games, failure means you lose a life, which is really annoying when you lose them all and you have to find where you played that mini-game. The game features checkpoints, but they don't feel consistent, for instance, you'll get one when you run away from a polar bear, who run around and try to chase you in the overworld, though they're easy to escape from by mashing L and R (and that awards you with a small health boost for some reason). The worst mini-games are the ones where you have to cross an icy land that has weak tiles and you have to figure out a path, and these are mandatory for progression. The first time it's whatever, but the second time, you also have very cold weather condition which also lowers your health, and you have to run to the cover and mash L and R to restore health. It's lame figure out the path + you have to act fast (and the game won't let you go if you stall for too long because there's a timer ticking, not time limit you have to get at least get bronze), AND you have to actually find where the exit is. And need I remind you that you lose lives upon failure and have to find this mini-game again each time you continue from a checkpoint that could be far away? For this mini-game I decided to use save states to get over it. Boo hoo, I'm a cheater, but who cares? I wasn't having fun in any way, and I wanted to get it over with. The game is actually really short, it's only 3 chapters, and there's no mini-game for the ending.
Graphically, the game isn't very impressive. The animals seem to use pre-rendered graphics, but they don't animate smoothly. The overworld looks pretty bland, I mean I get it, it's Arctic and there's snow everywhere, but c'mon I'm sure you can make some interesting land marks. The music isn't great, the title screen song seems to be decent and actually lengthy, but during gameplay you'll have one of the three songs that plays when you play as an appropriate animal and they're short and repetitive.
Overall, a joyless experience with questionable design decisions that feel like they would be at home in an arcade game, but not suitable for a game based on a National Geographic documentary film. The only somewhat positive thing I can say is that there's neat trivia about animals, but for that you're better off watching actual documentaries, or reading National Geographic. Or just go and play an actually good game. Like Shrek The Third by Amaze Entertainment. This is yet another unimpressive licensed game in a sea of unimpressive licensed games.
(Side note: according to an IGN review, DS version is pretty much the same game, so uhh, avoid that as well)
You control a little bear from a top down perspective, and your goal is to beat a few mini-games, then beat a mini-game that actually advances onto the next chapter. The game features limited life supply and health, though continues are unlimited. Someone had a bright idea to make running around deplete your health. I mean I get it, overworking yourself is very dangerous, but that's not how reality works, you don't just become close to death when out of breath, the game should've just had a separate bar for stamina that could regenerate when not running. Aside from a bear, you can change into a fox or a walrus when near a changing cave, and these animals have special properties. Walrus can explore water sections, and a fox is super quick and can hunt hares for a little bit of health. As I mentioned, there are mini-games, certain mini-games require a specific animal. These mini-games range from alright to awful. You have shuffleboard, where you launch yourself and try to hit a center of the target, or Whac-A-Mole sort of deal but with seals, or orca race, but then you have a sliding mini-game, where you just slide down, and if you hit too many objects or fall into a pit you lose a life, or surfing on a piece of ice where if you hit too many objects... you lose a life. Both of these share the same issue, in that they don't give adequate view of what's ahead, both are vertically oriented, but you aren't at the very top/bottom, limiting the view of the obstacles. In most mini-games, failure means you lose a life, which is really annoying when you lose them all and you have to find where you played that mini-game. The game features checkpoints, but they don't feel consistent, for instance, you'll get one when you run away from a polar bear, who run around and try to chase you in the overworld, though they're easy to escape from by mashing L and R (and that awards you with a small health boost for some reason). The worst mini-games are the ones where you have to cross an icy land that has weak tiles and you have to figure out a path, and these are mandatory for progression. The first time it's whatever, but the second time, you also have very cold weather condition which also lowers your health, and you have to run to the cover and mash L and R to restore health. It's lame figure out the path + you have to act fast (and the game won't let you go if you stall for too long because there's a timer ticking, not time limit you have to get at least get bronze), AND you have to actually find where the exit is. And need I remind you that you lose lives upon failure and have to find this mini-game again each time you continue from a checkpoint that could be far away? For this mini-game I decided to use save states to get over it. Boo hoo, I'm a cheater, but who cares? I wasn't having fun in any way, and I wanted to get it over with. The game is actually really short, it's only 3 chapters, and there's no mini-game for the ending.
Graphically, the game isn't very impressive. The animals seem to use pre-rendered graphics, but they don't animate smoothly. The overworld looks pretty bland, I mean I get it, it's Arctic and there's snow everywhere, but c'mon I'm sure you can make some interesting land marks. The music isn't great, the title screen song seems to be decent and actually lengthy, but during gameplay you'll have one of the three songs that plays when you play as an appropriate animal and they're short and repetitive.
Overall, a joyless experience with questionable design decisions that feel like they would be at home in an arcade game, but not suitable for a game based on a National Geographic documentary film. The only somewhat positive thing I can say is that there's neat trivia about animals, but for that you're better off watching actual documentaries, or reading National Geographic. Or just go and play an actually good game. Like Shrek The Third by Amaze Entertainment. This is yet another unimpressive licensed game in a sea of unimpressive licensed games.
(Side note: according to an IGN review, DS version is pretty much the same game, so uhh, avoid that as well)