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> Results: LarryBoy and the Bad Apple
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by Michael Anderson
November 12, 2006
Get out the plungers! Time to be that hero once again!
Reviewed for GBA.
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Scroll down for our Kid Factor.
LarryBoy is back on the case and his hands are full clashing with the forces of temptation in this tie-in with the latest Veggie Tales video. Hands? He's a cucumber! OK, whatever. This is also the first Veggie Tales game for a handheld, and after playing this through I just hope we see more of the characters come to life on the really small screen in the future. Larry Boy and the Bad Apple is an entertaining and varied game aimed at younger kids, but is also a blast for gamers of any age to pick up and play!
The game is a series of puzzle-platform levels within a building. For example, the first area sees Junior Asparagus dangerously playing basketball atop Bumblyburg towerﾗat the suggestion of the Bad Apple of course. To get to the top of the two-dimensional vertical tower, you need to jump, roll, flip switches and get past a number of bad veggies in a fixed amount of time. When you reach the top, you battle the boss. These battles are great because they are twists on classic games: one is a Space Invaders/Missle Command hybrid, there's a Pong clone, and more. These missions are broken up by two simple and entertaining music-playback memory games. The game is shortﾗonly a few hours longﾗbut it is pure fun from start to finish.
The Veggie Tales series of videos for children promises ﾑSunday Morning Values, Saturday Morning Fun'. For some, this might evoke the reaction "uh-oh, sounds awful ﾑchurchy' to me". Well before recent moves to cleanse overly-biblical references from the series for network television release, a spin-off series of movies emerged around a dubious super-hero named LarryBoy. These are feature-length videos with fewer direct biblical references and involve the plunger-eared hero encountering a spreading problem and having to conquer it, with everyone involved learning a valuable lesson along the way. First, a little fib taught us about honesty, and then a spreading weed showed us how damaging spreading rumors could be, and now a ﾑbad apple' has fallen into town and is convincing everyone to give in to their temptations. LarryBoy needs to battle these foes, but he learns lessons too. You are not always strong enough to go it alone, and you need help from your friends to succeed.
The game reinforces positive messages in a purely neutral way. LarryBoy helps his friends do what they already know is right. That extends to the song games. In one of them, Laura the carrot can't decide whether to buy something for her Mom or for herself. So the song is ﾑGiving & Receiving'. It is excellent fun with a simple and positive message that is presented in a charming way and never stuffed down your throat.
This review edited by Dave Long
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> Results: LarryBoy and the Bad Apple
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