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Cartoon Network's Atomic Betty makes her debut in a Game Boy Advance game, aptly titled, Atomic Betty. We find our young hoop swishin', space battlin', kung fu usin' galactic heroine recovering her homework between intergalactic trips to save the world from the evil Maximus IQ. Young gamers join Betty, Sparky, X-5, Maximus I.Q., Minimus, Noah, Paloma and Purrsy in this scrolling 2D platform adventure.
Betty's cat, Purrsy has absconded (to the school basement?) with the homework Betty needs to complete in order to play in the big basketball game. Not to worry, friends Noah and Paloma are here to help and each will use his/her special talent to navigate the basement and recover the missing papers. Push obstacles, slip through small spaces, and shoot baskets to complete the homework. Shoot baskets? Yessiree. All of you who missed the opportunity to play ball in school can enjoy the sport through Betty...kind of. Each time Betty locates a homework sheet, you're presented a blue ink, cartoon drawing where you adjust the trajectory of an underhanded free throw. Yes, an underhanded free throw. While entertaining the first few times, it gets monotonous quickly and you just want to get the darn things in so you can move on.  Once you find all the missing sheets from the basement (on this level) Betty flies off to battle evil doers in space. Flying her space cruiser through an asteroid field turns into a repetitive "mission" just to get there, for goodness sake. The ship can easily be placed in one of the four corners of the screen, which is what you end up doing due to the poor control over the ship's lasers and rockets needed to blast the asteroids in your path (and I grew up on Asteroids). Finally, the gang arrives at the space quarters. Betty Kung Fu's robotic baddies, Sparky flies to elevated and inaccessible switches to open pathways, and X-5 hacks through firewalls. They mirror the same work of their counterparts on earth. Betty utilizes a boxing glove weapon, but to no avail. Only her kicks defeat baddies. Sparky's super roll is good for accessing small spaces but only temporarily dazes the enemy. Sparky...well, he's just out of luck and depends on the other two. Gameplay consists of monotonous navigation of levels by jumping, flying, rolling, finding homework, shooting underhanded free throws, kicking robots, and hacking computers. The only redeeming factor is that the characters have been wonderfully rendered with the familiar characteristics of their television counterparts. Navigating the gang is a joy as character controls are very precise. The music is, indeed, the same as the show and will most likely be turned down by either your kid, or you, within twenty minutes. For some real fun, save the game, as it employs a pictorial password mechanism. An example is Betty, Sparky, X-5, and Chameleon. If you're not careful enough and repeatedly push the "A" button, you fly right past the save screen having to slog through the entire next level to have an opportunity to save again. Atomic Betty is a colorful, beautifully rendered cartoon game that falls flat due to repetition and a lack of imagination. Forget violence in video gaming, someone needs to attack the "phoned in" titles that are encroaching on our youth. Atomic Betty isn't horrible, but your twenty bucks would be better spent on the DVD.  
Regardless of the lack of imagination utilized in this game, there's nothing really offensive. At one point, Betty is directed to "kick the Robots until they are dead", which could easily have been changed to kick the Robots until they are "destroyed" or "out of commission" with a better overall effect. There is some routine fighting of bosses, but with no blood or gore. Basically, all you're looking at here is some mild cartoon violence.
One huge objection to the game is its repetitive nature. While this is forgivable in games aimed at the under 5 group due to developmental factors and their insatiable desire to repeat activities, games marketed to kids 6 and up deserve more attention. Atomic Betty is the bright child that "just won't apply herself in class". The pictorial password mechanism in this game speaks for itself as it needs to be written somewhere....anywhere. You are in the car and your kid in the backseat wants to save. You are at a ballgame and your younger kid playing GBA wants to save. Your child wants to play the game but can't find his password. Worst of all, your son/daughter isn't old enough to write "Chameleon" and isn't a cartoon artist yet and wants YOU to draw the pictures of the characters on a piece of scrap paper that he/she is just going to lose anyway. ARRGGGHHHH! Do any of these developers have kids? Raise your hand if you think this is a good idea. I thought so. On a positive note, the game embraces sports, teamwork, multi-tasking, problem solving through the maze-like structure of the game, and the martial arts. If you want to get picky, all martial arts present themselves as defense mechanisms and not as offensive fighting techniques as used in this game. Younger kids who love the character would most likely find this game amusing, but perhaps not enough to play it more than once. This review edited by Dave Long Comments? Chat about it in our forums! Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Browse Amazon.com's selection of "cartoon network, atomic betty" themed games Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Atomic Betty |
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