Madagascar 3: The Video Game for Nintendo DS is easily the worst Madagascar game I’ve played so far, it even beats Madagascar DS, which was basically the same as the GBA version. I have not played the home console version or Madagascar Kartz, but it’ll stay that way for a while.
Madagascar 3: The Video Game DS feels like a 3DS game that had to be crammed into a DS cart, as a result, it feels rough from a technical standpoint. The voice acting and sound in general are low quality. The graphics aren’t too bad, however, the game stutters frequently, and the frame rate isn’t that good to begin with. It genuinely felt bad to play, some of the worst performance I’ve experienced in a while, I think since Rise of the Guardians: The Video Game DS, which, by the way, is by the same developer, Torus Games. Actually, I quickly checked the 3DS version, and while it performs much better, it still has some performance issues and stutters, so I guess it’s just poor coding. I also encountered this bug where a chunk of the level’s geometry didn’t load, and walking into void would teleport you in a weird way. Luckily, all 2 or three times I’ve gotten out of bounds, I was able to get back into the play field, but it was still not a good experience. Something is definitely shaky with the game’s programming.
But alright, I’m not that bothered by framerates, if the game has good gameplay then I can excuse it somewhat… right? Well, no. Just… no. This game is not very fun. First, there’s this chase section at the beginning of the game. You control a car to escape from the main antagonist. It sucks. First, why all the cars go in one direction? Anyway, if you hit a car or an obstacle, you slow down significantly, and you’ll be hitting a lot of obstacles, since the cars sometimes just decide to stop to turn into an alley, which can result into you bumping into it, losing speed. Or when the car changes the lane, and so on. It’s pretty frustrating. At least the game is generous in terms of checkpoints, so even if you fail a bunch, you won’t lose too much progress, but to be honest, if you cut this section, nothing of value would be lost. I expected this section tor repeat at the end of the game, which it didn’t, this chase is only one in the entire game, which makes this little distraction seemingly pointless.
But, that’s just a small part of the game. For the most part, you play in 2.5D platforming stages. The camera is positioned sideways, but unlike most games this isn’t a strict left to right affair, you can go into the background and foreground to an extend. Does that make these actually 3D and not 2.5D? I dunno. There are also a few top-down sections, only found in the first country, Italy. Feels like a missed opportunity that they didn’t add more of these alternate perspective sections. In any case, you’ll be doing a lot of platforming. The objective of this game is to do chores. Do you like chores? I sure hope you do, because otherwise you’re in for a boring time. The biggest issue is how repetitive the game is. Each country has a few levels, and you’ll be running through the same levels multiple times to advance the game. The tasks themselves are only slightly different – hang posters, collect instruments or other thingamajigas. The platforming itself is serviceable at best – there’s pretty much nothing in terms of challenging platforming or obstacles. There are some enemies, but have fun jumping on top of these bastards – the collision detection is janky as hell, especially for those bike riding enemies, you’ll likely receive damage trying to hurt one (it doesn’t help that you have NO invulnerability frames when you take damage). You can also get close and personal, like with Marty’s kick, but really, it’s preferable to just avoid them, unless the task you’re doing is eliminating all of the enemies (that can be eliminated that is, there are a few that can’t be defeated). Overall, going through the same levels, doing similar tasks is not very fun, as you can imagine, with all the issues I’ve mentioned previously (poor performance and jank).
You play the game as one of the four main characters, you can change them at any time. At first, the differences are pretty minor – Gloria can swim in water, while others can’t, so it would be a smart strategy to play as her most of the time. Marty can kick enemies and objects for tickets. Both Gloria and Melman can walk on tight ropes, and so on. The characters can get new moves like Alex can obtain a double jump ability by spending tickets – they’re pretty much everywhere. Speaking of tickets, they can also be used to buy a few other items, like… an extra life! That’s right, the game has a lives system, which feels arbitrary. You can get lives when defeating enemies, though they are very uncommon. Of course, you can also buy some health. There are also keys to unlock gates found in certain levels. They’re basically only for those looking for 100%, as they gate items. It’s not like you unlock a new portion of the level or something like that. Feels pretty underwhelming.
Lastly, there’s the circus performance, which is a true 2.5D platforming experience (you can technically still go forward and back towards the screen, but… why?). There’s circus practice mission, where you, well, practice, or do actual performance after you do a bunch of chore missions. And it’s simple platforming challenges on a timer, and you have audience to please. The perception of the audience can be improved by jumping through rings, or worsened by hitting hazards of falling to the bottom of the stage. These are just boring and at times frustrating – there are hazards in a form of cannons and their projectiles can assault you from offscreen, causing you to lose audience’s positive reception, and you’ll get knocked back slightly. There are also monkeys on pogo sticks, and touching them at all is ill-advised, again, the audience will hate that and also, don’t forget about the janky collision, so you may find yourself draining that gauge fast. Avoid them like bubonic plague. During actual performances, in-between there’s also a penguin mission where you throw food items to hungry audience, it’s okay.
Overall, a bland and janky platformer. If you like doing mind-numbing tasks in three different countries, repetitive platforming with consistently shaky performance, and overall and unpolished feel, boy do I have a game for you. The game feels quite rushed, and I don’t use that term very often for licensed games. I dunno, I just don’t feel that way (And most of them likely are, being tie-ins and such), but with some half-baked ideas and the lack of polish, this certainly feels like it. Not a good game.
Madagascar 3: The Video Game DS feels like a 3DS game that had to be crammed into a DS cart, as a result, it feels rough from a technical standpoint. The voice acting and sound in general are low quality. The graphics aren’t too bad, however, the game stutters frequently, and the frame rate isn’t that good to begin with. It genuinely felt bad to play, some of the worst performance I’ve experienced in a while, I think since Rise of the Guardians: The Video Game DS, which, by the way, is by the same developer, Torus Games. Actually, I quickly checked the 3DS version, and while it performs much better, it still has some performance issues and stutters, so I guess it’s just poor coding. I also encountered this bug where a chunk of the level’s geometry didn’t load, and walking into void would teleport you in a weird way. Luckily, all 2 or three times I’ve gotten out of bounds, I was able to get back into the play field, but it was still not a good experience. Something is definitely shaky with the game’s programming.
But alright, I’m not that bothered by framerates, if the game has good gameplay then I can excuse it somewhat… right? Well, no. Just… no. This game is not very fun. First, there’s this chase section at the beginning of the game. You control a car to escape from the main antagonist. It sucks. First, why all the cars go in one direction? Anyway, if you hit a car or an obstacle, you slow down significantly, and you’ll be hitting a lot of obstacles, since the cars sometimes just decide to stop to turn into an alley, which can result into you bumping into it, losing speed. Or when the car changes the lane, and so on. It’s pretty frustrating. At least the game is generous in terms of checkpoints, so even if you fail a bunch, you won’t lose too much progress, but to be honest, if you cut this section, nothing of value would be lost. I expected this section tor repeat at the end of the game, which it didn’t, this chase is only one in the entire game, which makes this little distraction seemingly pointless.
But, that’s just a small part of the game. For the most part, you play in 2.5D platforming stages. The camera is positioned sideways, but unlike most games this isn’t a strict left to right affair, you can go into the background and foreground to an extend. Does that make these actually 3D and not 2.5D? I dunno. There are also a few top-down sections, only found in the first country, Italy. Feels like a missed opportunity that they didn’t add more of these alternate perspective sections. In any case, you’ll be doing a lot of platforming. The objective of this game is to do chores. Do you like chores? I sure hope you do, because otherwise you’re in for a boring time. The biggest issue is how repetitive the game is. Each country has a few levels, and you’ll be running through the same levels multiple times to advance the game. The tasks themselves are only slightly different – hang posters, collect instruments or other thingamajigas. The platforming itself is serviceable at best – there’s pretty much nothing in terms of challenging platforming or obstacles. There are some enemies, but have fun jumping on top of these bastards – the collision detection is janky as hell, especially for those bike riding enemies, you’ll likely receive damage trying to hurt one (it doesn’t help that you have NO invulnerability frames when you take damage). You can also get close and personal, like with Marty’s kick, but really, it’s preferable to just avoid them, unless the task you’re doing is eliminating all of the enemies (that can be eliminated that is, there are a few that can’t be defeated). Overall, going through the same levels, doing similar tasks is not very fun, as you can imagine, with all the issues I’ve mentioned previously (poor performance and jank).
You play the game as one of the four main characters, you can change them at any time. At first, the differences are pretty minor – Gloria can swim in water, while others can’t, so it would be a smart strategy to play as her most of the time. Marty can kick enemies and objects for tickets. Both Gloria and Melman can walk on tight ropes, and so on. The characters can get new moves like Alex can obtain a double jump ability by spending tickets – they’re pretty much everywhere. Speaking of tickets, they can also be used to buy a few other items, like… an extra life! That’s right, the game has a lives system, which feels arbitrary. You can get lives when defeating enemies, though they are very uncommon. Of course, you can also buy some health. There are also keys to unlock gates found in certain levels. They’re basically only for those looking for 100%, as they gate items. It’s not like you unlock a new portion of the level or something like that. Feels pretty underwhelming.
Lastly, there’s the circus performance, which is a true 2.5D platforming experience (you can technically still go forward and back towards the screen, but… why?). There’s circus practice mission, where you, well, practice, or do actual performance after you do a bunch of chore missions. And it’s simple platforming challenges on a timer, and you have audience to please. The perception of the audience can be improved by jumping through rings, or worsened by hitting hazards of falling to the bottom of the stage. These are just boring and at times frustrating – there are hazards in a form of cannons and their projectiles can assault you from offscreen, causing you to lose audience’s positive reception, and you’ll get knocked back slightly. There are also monkeys on pogo sticks, and touching them at all is ill-advised, again, the audience will hate that and also, don’t forget about the janky collision, so you may find yourself draining that gauge fast. Avoid them like bubonic plague. During actual performances, in-between there’s also a penguin mission where you throw food items to hungry audience, it’s okay.
Overall, a bland and janky platformer. If you like doing mind-numbing tasks in three different countries, repetitive platforming with consistently shaky performance, and overall and unpolished feel, boy do I have a game for you. The game feels quite rushed, and I don’t use that term very often for licensed games. I dunno, I just don’t feel that way (And most of them likely are, being tie-ins and such), but with some half-baked ideas and the lack of polish, this certainly feels like it. Not a good game.