Changing Chuck E’s Pants –
Continuing their streak of creating lower quality titles, UFO Interactive is attempting to cash in by milking the children friendly Chuck E. Cheese license. This weak mini game compilation is one of the worst ways to blow five bucks on the Nintendo eShop. You know a game isn’t going to be very good when one of the highlight features is changing an anthropomorphic mouse’s pants.
There is a mere five mini games to play, two of which is basically clones of each other and all blandly link to one another via a basic options menu. Basketball and Skeeball are basically the same game; just flick the stylus up. But once the correct swiping motion is determined, it is not hard to repeat this same action until the high score is obtained. This eliminates any sense of challenge and becomes nothing more than a mindless test of repetition.
Whack a Mole and Target Practice, both sporting the Chuck E. Cheese mascot Mr. Munch, are also closely related in term of gameplay. Simply tap the screen to whack the moles or tap the screen to shoot at moving targets. This target practice game is the most difficult game of the lot as the player must properly lead shots in order to make contact with targets, but Whack A Mole is as easy as can be. High scores can easily be broken and there is little challenge and satisfaction in any of these games.
Finally, Jasper’s Racing is the most inconsistence and lamest game in this compilation. Scrolling vertically, the player simply holds down one button to speed up a motorcycle while moving left and right to avoid obstacles. Unfortunately, this game uses the D-pad so players will be constantly fiddling with the stylus when moving to the other games. Like the other titles, there is little to no challenge as I was able to complete the entire race without crashing once and barely moving from side to side. It is not that the game is unbalanced; it is that there is no balancing whatsoever.
Outside of playing these uncooked minigames, a Dress Up mode was also included where players can swap the pants of the Chuck E. Cheese’s mascot. This mode is even less fun than it sounds and serves no purpose at all. There is an attempt to initiate replay value by allowing the player to trade in tickets obtained by playing the mini games by redeeming them at the ticket counter for toys, but this is also serves no purpose as the toy icons just sit on a shelf. There is no interactivity, and, well, isn’t that the point of a playing a video game in the first place? Also serving no purpose, the Challenges section is just another excuse to play the same games over again.
Chuck E. Cheese’s Arcade Room is terrible at best, composed of broken mini games and features that serve no purpose to the game or to the player. The worst part is this game costs a meaty five American dollars. For a buck more, players can download 3D Classics Kid Icarus or many virtual console titles for even less money. The only way for this game to be better is if actual Chuck E. Cheese real life mini games were included: eat the pizza without getting sick, avoid the hidden puke spread throughout the ball pit, and try to not go deaf from the obnoxious sounds and screaming children. Just do yourself a favor and spend your five bucks on a round of mini golf instead.
Worse Than: most eShop games
Also Try: Mario Party
Wait For It: Showbiz Pizza Arcade Room
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