Not at all like its Nintendo DS puzzle counterpart, Igor The Game for PC is actually a platform adventure title aimed at children.
In this action/adventure/platform game, the story revolves around Igor and his friends on a quest to win the Evil Science Fair. He is trying to prove that not only evil scientists are able to create monsters, since he has created Eva, who is basically a female Frankenstein with a heart.
You play as all four characters – Igor, Eva, Scamper or Brain – switching between them as necessary throughout the adventure since each of them has its own unique ability. Brain has a ranged attack, Scampers jumps higher than everyone else and can do electrical damage, Eva is very strong and can charge enemies, while Igor has an all-around attack.
You control the characters by using the arrow keys or W S A D. Jumping is done by pressing the space bar, while attacks and actions are performed by pressing CTRL. The + sign scrolls through party members, and C is your special attack. Not too complicated of a control scheme.
If something needs to be interacted with, the characters who can’t do anything will have red question marks above them, while the right character will show a green exclamation mark above its head. This is a good way to give the player a hint of how to proceed by examining their surroundings and discovering who can do what in a particular situation. For example, to reach a higher platform you will obviously have to use Scampers.
Progression to the next area is done by collecting a certain number of items in the given area. The levels are fairly large, and there are plenty of collectible items all around, such as gears which replenish your health when you get knocked out. Since it’s a child-friendly game, there is no dying. Instead, characters will get knocked out and return shortly after, at the cost of some gears.
This does become repetitive since it’s always the same system: enter level, collect enough items, go to next, fight a boss. The story is very linear and the progression is straightforward, with a free saving system (no checkpoints) and auto-save feature. Fortunately, being able to experience all the different characters and their unique abilities keeps the game somewhat fresh throughout.
The atmosphere in Igor is reminiscent of Death Jr., Psychonauts and Kingdom Hearts, a mix of cute horror, fantasy and weirdness. The game follows the movie storyline and uses the same artwork from the movie, although the textures seem to come across as a bit bland and the animations a little awkward at times. The characters are voiced by sound-alikes, but quite nicely, since that non-Steve Buscemi sounded pretty believable to me. The music reminds me of Nightmare Before Christmas, which definitely fits the theme here.
The major downside in Igor is the camera. There are times where the angles are so bad that you can’t see where the monsters are or where your characters are moving to. Corners and objects will limit and even block your view on many occasions.
Many of the challenges, locations and enemies in the game will be instantly recognizable for those who have watched the movie, so this is who the game is definitely aimed at.
The Wii version is the same as the PC game, with the main difference being a local co-op mode for up to four players. The entire Igor adventure should last you about 10 hours of gameplay, which isn’t too bad considering the target age group.
Igor The Game is definitely not perfect and could have used some technical improvements, plus the repetitiveness and camera issues might tire and annoy younger gamers. Still, if you know a child who loved the movie, this might be something they will get enough enjoyment out of.
Special thanks to Lauren Tascan and Legacy Interactive for providing a copy of this title.