Napoleon Dynamite (PSP)
By: Peench
Tina you fat lard, come get some of pretty much the best video game ever made! The list of great quotes from the movie Napoleon Dynamite goes on and on. That fact that a movie about life in a small town where random seems entirely normal shows just how much we are looking for something new in entertainment. While a few years off from the success of the movie, Crave entertainment has released Napoleon Dynamite, The Game for the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS. For this review I played the Sony PSP version of the game. While most of the mini-games are the same, there are a few differences.
For example, the manner in which you play is different. There is no stylus on the PSP. The PSP version offers you the ability to unlock concept art, audio and video clips and play multiplayer mini-games against friends. The PSP also offers you 30 mini-games compared to the 20 offered on the Nintendo DS version. Whichever version you choose, the only character I found that you won’t have a chance to interact with is Lahfonda. You will meet up and interact with Napoleon, Uncle Rico, Kip, Tine the Llama and others from the movie. The PSP version is less expensive at $19.99 while the DS version is $29.99. Both games are rated E-10.
General Gameplay
Napoleon Dynamite, The Game is a loosely plot based game with the majority of gameplay consisting of minigames. These minigames range anywhere from feeding Tina to playing tetherball to driving a bike while pulling Kip. The movie is referenced fairly well in most all of the minigames. The driving story is that Tina the llama gets loose and you have to find her. For some reason you are playing various minigames in order to find Tina. The story really does not have much of anything to do with the minigames. The story is tied up in the end, but seems as if it were just thrown in there to give a beginning and end to the game itself. There are random lines thrown in that really don’t add much to the game itself. For example:
The minigames themselves are fun and rather addicting. I kept playing because I wanted to see what challenge was next. Games like tetherball are played just like in real life, except require you to button press at the right time and choose to hit the ball high, low or middle. There are more than a few dancing games as well that are played similarly to DDR or GHIII.
Each game that is played is prefaced by instructions. The instructions are fairly simple as are the games themselves. Well, I guess “easy” is not the proper word. The games themselves are challenging, but playing them is typically fairly simple.
Most games are comprised of three rounds. The gameplay itself typically gets a bit more difficult in each of the three rounds. Beating all of the levels is required to advance. Based on your performance, you will either be granted a Bronze, Silver or Gold medal. Gaining all Gold medals will get you additional bonuses on the PSP version of Napoleon Dynamite.
I wasn’t good enough to get Gold in all events, but I did thoroughly enjoy them all. There is also a boss battle at the end of a few of the minigames that brought me back to the old school gameplay of years ago.
Tech Specs
The PSP version of Napoleon Dynamite offered good sound and graphics. The style is kind of like jib-jab with pieces of “paper” “tacked” onto the background. You choose your minigame event through a series of icons on various pages.
While I cannot speak for the DS version, the PSP version gave me barrels of load screens. Get used to seeing this while playing:
Watching the load screen so that the game could load up the random comment clips between Napoleon and others was annoying. Frankly I could have done without the comment screens if the game itself could have moved along a bit faster. Simply get me to the minigames already. It wasn’t that the load screens were all that long, it was simply that there were so many of them. With the power of the PSP it would have been nice to have had these screens cached or something to avoid the load times.
Other than the load screens the graphics themselves were fine. The game wasn’t Gears of War on the PSP, but the graphics fit the game and weren’t horrible. I didn’t write home about them, but was happy with the overall graphics and sounds of Napoleon Dynamite, The Game.
Game Rage
The meat and potatoes of Napoleon Dynamite, the minigames, were all very fun. Ramping up the difficulty level within each round of the minigame was fairly well done. I was able to get through most every game without too much difficulty. I didn’t get a Gold medal in each, but was able to make it through all of the games themselves. There were a few games that I had to play through 5-10 times to pass them, but I never raged hard enough to throw my PSP across the room. Dying in each level simply gives you the ability to “retry” or quit. Retrying was simple and lowered the game rage to about nil.
Butt Groove
The minigames were simple enough to sit down and play for hours. I was able to play them between doing other things and/or while kicking back on the couch. When I played my kids would sit on either side of me and watch. This lead to one large butt groove and two smaller butt groves in the couch. A definite bonus!
Bedtime Rating
Rated E-10, Napoleon Dynamite, the game, is easy enough for most anyone interested in playing. My son played for a while and while a bit more frustrated at some of the games, was able to play most of them. The audio was acceptable for my 6 year old (in my opinion) and there were no graphics that were lewd or otherwise inappropriate. There are fighting mini-games, but the graphics are cartoonish enough that it should be easy for children to differentiate between reality and Napoleon Dynamite, The Game. I was able to play the game during the day with the kids. There was no need to wait until they went to bed.
Multiplayer
There is no multiplayer in the DS version of Napoleon Dynamite, The Game. There is, however, multiplayer available on the PSP. There are 5 game modes available for playing against your friends: Football Toss, Trampoline Jump, Bow Hunting Skills, Steak Toss and Water Balloon Toss.
Unfortunately no one around me had another copy of Napoleon Dynamite, The Game, so I was unable to try out the multiplayer games. From the minigames offered though, it sounds fun. A few of these minigames are not offered in the single player game.
Conclusion
In the immortal words of Napoleon, Napoleon Dynamite, The Game, is “sweet!” At $20 the game is a bargain for the PSP and will offer hours of minigame fun. Show your girl that you’ve got the “skills” necessary to unlock all of the bonus materials and rock on all of the minigames today!
Category Ratings
General Gameplay
Tech Specs
Game Rage
Butt Groove
Bedtime Rating
Multiplayer
Overall Couch Count: 4 out of 5
Linear Mode
