Unless you are among the most fervent of fans, then Ed, Edd n Eddy the Mis-Edventures is probably not worth your time.
(-) that nostalgia doesn't save the average platforming from being boring; ugly graphics; most of the goals don't seem too interesting; there's no multiplayer or any other modes ; sloppy, imprecise controls makes the simplest of tasks frustrating
As a younger child I've always loved the Ed, Edd, N Eddy series. That show, along with the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, were actually the only shows on Cartoon Network I actually got a good laugh out of. The so-innocent yet so-naughty style of humor really struck home, and the show was just entertaining to watch. And several years later, I found out they made a video game, so I wanted to at least give it a try.
For the most part, the video game does indeed capture the charm of the television show. You'll see all the characters and most of the environments in the game. You first roam around in the cul-de-sac, and you can also access to your levels through there. The levels I speak of, are basically snippets of the television show but you carry them out, like skipping through the sewers to get to Ralph's party. Another has you racing on misshapen platforms against Kevin with Ed running the other two on his backs. And one of the more laughable ones was sneaking Ed on a stealth mission not to be seen by other kids because his face turns green. These scenarios do a fine job at translating the juvenile humor of the source material, but still the platforming does feel very generic. All three Eds are present, though you only get to control one at a time, similar to Sonic Heroes.
Each of the Ed brothers have a special ability. Edd uses his "trampol-Edd" and jumps ontop Eddy and Ed and starts jumping, to collect items that are out of reach. This was a real bummer because this was extremely similar to Eddy's power, "Tower of Eddy", where he stands on top Edd and Ed to reach high or far. The one with the most personality of them all was Ed's, "Batter-Ed", which the little nut runs at high speed with Eddy and Ed hanging against this feet. Honestly, the most fun I ever squeezed out of this game was playing with this power, constantly running into the same wall over and over again was a laugh for fifteen minutes, then I got over it.
The artistic style of the television show wouldn't have been very hard to implement on systems as powerful as the PS2, XBOX, or Gamecube, but for some reason the graphics look very low resolution and look similar to a PS1 title. Although the environments are appropriately cheesy, full of bright colors, and they look somewhat like their supposed to, getting close up looks at the characters themselves really shows the rough edges. The cel-shaded approach makes the Ed trio look close to unrecognizable, Eddy looks by far the ugliest of the three, they all look darker than usual and lack that certain simplistic look. And don't even get me started about Kevin, the jock with the bicycle that hates them, who looks like he has a chin that was put on speed growth. How hard is it, seriously? The only detail I found that separated this game from a 5th generation product, was Eddy's stink bombs, which when they exploded they unleashed a decent amount of particle effects and texture and, like running Edd into a wall, I found more fun aimlessly firing Eddy's bombs than the actual game.
The sound fares a bit better though. You still have the trademark whistling music that you'll quickly recognize from the television series, another attempt at delivering a nostalgic experience. The voice acting from all of the characters is still in tact here, hearing Kevin scream "Dorks!" when you lose all your HP is harsh on the Ed's part but regardless a welcome joke from the programmers. Get used to hearing Double-D say "My oh my! Intriguing!" every time he operates a single switch. It's not the quality of the voice clips that are in fault, it's just that there aren't enough of them. They could have easily ported over more of them directly from the show and would have called it a day.
It wouldn't be fair to give this game a low score simply because the graphics aren't good, but I'm not finished yet. Most of the goals revolve around average platforming and it seems nostalgia is the only thing that made the trip somewhat fulfilling. And the gameplay really struggled to keep my interest for long, after getting stuck because I didn't know what to do I had some fun in the sewer when I left Double D all alone in a pit, and moved Eddy and Ed somewhere else as Edd jumped helplessly to reach them. It's kinda sad that playing around like this was more fun than doing what the game really wanted me to do.
Making matters a knock worse, these simplistic things you'll have to do will have you clawing at your ears in frustration, because sloppy, imprecise controls makes everything needlessly complicated. Like the part when Double D is supposed to hit Jimmy's dolls with his slingshot. You never feel like you have control of your cursor, and the hit detection is almost completely random, so you'll be hammering at the controller for as long as five minutes until you finally hit something. The movement is responsive, but still it can be difficult to face a desired direction because the controls are so off-key that even moving around is a challenge. Considering that this game was geared to children, its appalling that these controls are so unforgiving that even older players will struggle to get the hang of them, let alone little children with considerably less experience who will be hardly able to enjoy their favorite characters when everything is made so needlessly difficult.
And other than the single player mode, there is an extreme lack of content other than what you can unlock through collecting jaw breakers. But once you've beaten the game one time, there is no more incentive to do it again unless either you're a mad fan of the series or have a bad case of OCD.
It kinda hurts to be this harsh over a video game based on a license that has given me so much child hood joy, but unless you are among the most fervent of fans, then Ed, Edd n Eddy the Mis-Edventures is probably not worth your time. Sure it captures the feel of the show, but what else does it have to offer? And while there are brief moments when the game approaches acceptance, at the point where you come to terms with the awkward, ugly graphics and dearth of game modes, it's impossible to put a blind eye on the twitchy, weird controls, which throws the last nail in the coffin for this game. It seems Cartoon Network Interactive delivered more than enough fan service to please, but in the process they forgot that one special thing that every video game needs to be successful. Fun factor. I suppose you could take this another way, maybe this video game was one of Eddy's scams?