{"id":10064,"date":"2013-07-15T00:01:34","date_gmt":"2013-07-15T00:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=10064"},"modified":"2013-07-13T03:57:49","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T03:57:49","slug":"garfields-wild-ride-ipad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/15\/garfields-wild-ride-ipad\/","title":{"rendered":"Garfield’s Wild Ride (iPad)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GARFIELD_BOX\"<\/a>The fat orange cat of newspaper comic strip fame now has his own game for various smartphones and tablets (iPad version reviewed here). Garfield takes a nap in an easy chair and dreams of something he\u2019d never do while awake: run as far as he can. Not to mention flying to collect coins and floating lasagna! That\u2019s right; Garfield\u2019s Wild Ride is clearly inspired by other continuously running games, especially Jetpack Joyride<\/strong><\/a>!<\/p>\n

Those who have played Jetpack Joyride<\/strong><\/a> will know what to expect from Garfield\u2019s Wild Ride. Garfield constantly runs from left to right, and when you touch the screen, he\u2019ll fly upwards (remember, this is all in Garfield\u2019s dream). Release and you\u2019ll descend to the ground. You must avoid obstacles and try to run as far as you can. Along the way you can collect coins, flying lasagna, and gather power-ups to give you a boost.<\/p>\n

These power-ups include jockeying a giant Odie, riding a skateboard, flying as Super Garfield, or using Pooky to magnetically collect nearby coins. Aside from the giant Odie power-up, the other powers will last until you bump into an obstacle. So they act as an extra hit, too. If you run into a barrier without a power-up, it\u2019s Game Over and you\u2019ll have to start again.<\/p>\n

Similar to Jetpack Joyride and other games of this ilk, you\u2019ll have missions that you can try to complete, like collecting a certain number of coins, running a specified distance, or using a type of power-up. Only problem is that you must complete all three objectives listed before moving onto the next, whereas other games like this let you take on new missions after one has been completed. This can bog the game down, especially if you have to beat a tough objective to move onto the next ones.<\/p>\n

Use the collected coins in the shop to buy outfits for Garfield. The really useful stuff you can buy, like upgrades for power-ups and new levels, cost WAY too many coins to buy. You\u2019d have to play for a really long time to get them. You can buy extra coins with money, which is probably what the game makers want you to do. You can also buy trophies with the lasagnas you get, but the trophies don\u2019t seem to have any use whatsoever. Once per day you can spin a wheel to get more coins and lasagna, and completed missions net you coins as well.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m fine with licensed games imitating other titles, just so as long as the license adds something to make the game more fun or please fans of the franchise. Unfortunately, I don\u2019t think Garfield\u2019s Wild Ride really does that. The humor just isn\u2019t there, and you\u2019re doing something that Garfield would never do anyway. It just doesn\u2019t \u2018feel\u2019 like Garfield. On the plus side, it is a game that anyone can pick up and play.<\/p>\n

\"GARFIELD_SCREEN\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nothing violent here. Only thing that happens when Garfield gets hit is that he just falls on his belly with a disgusted look on his face. And it\u2019s all a dream anyway so nobody gets hurt. Reading skill is helpful for some of the shop menus, but you can figure things out easily just by playing. A little bit of supervision is recommended so your kids don\u2019t buy extra coins in the shop accidentally. If you\u2019re OK with your kids reading the Garfield comic or watching the cartoon show, they\u2019ll be OK with this game, too.<\/p>\n

Speaking of cartoon shows, the look of Garfield\u2019s Wild Ride is based on a recent computer animated TV series about Garfield, simply titled The Garfield Show. Unfortunately, it isn\u2019t very good. I\u2019m actually a pretty big Garfield fan, and when Garfield was super popular in the 80\u2019s and every car in the parking lot had a Garfield suction cup plush on their windows, I was right there as a kid soaking it all in! If you want share the fun of Garfield with your kid, I\u2019d stay away from the new cartoon show and the awful live-action movies. Instead, I\u2019d track down DVDs of Garfield and Friends, a late 80\u2019s\/early 90\u2019s Saturday morning cartoon that was actually really good. It was animated by Film Roman, an Emmy award winning studio who did animation for other popular cartoons back then, like The Simpsons. I think you can find Garfield and Friends on Netflix, too! Anyway, I could probably write tons more paragraphs about Garfield, but I think I\u2019ll stop right there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The fat orange cat of newspaper comic strip fame now has his own game for various smartphones and tablets (iPad version reviewed here). Garfield takes a nap in an easy chair and dreams of something he\u2019d never do while awake: run as far as he can. Not to mention flying to collect coins and floating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10064"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10067,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10064\/revisions\/10067"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}