Party game? Action? I don't know what is really is, but one thing I do know is that is isn't all that great.
Today, we will be taking a look at a rather wacky game that stars three classic slapstick comedians: The Three Stooges.
Now, The Three Stooges [The Game] is a rather strange game. Is it an action game (like Gamespot labelled it)? Or, is it some kind of party game? I am not totally sure. But, whatever it is supposed to be, let's get our game on and continue with the review as we look deeper into the game, starting with the story.
Now, the story starts off like this: After the title intro, you are brought to an old, broken down orphanage full of homeless kids and a distressed owner, and see a man dressed in black shortly walk away from it. As soon as he leaves, the Stooges pass by, and notice the troubled woman, asking her what is wrong. It is then we learn that the man in black was actually a banker, and since they didn't pay their rent in a while, the banker threatened to kick her and the kids out if they didn't pay the rent in thirty days. They hardly have money for repairs, so how are they going to pay the rent?
That's when the Stooge's kind hearts kick in, and they decide to help her out by working whatever random jobs they can find in order to gather enough money to pay the rent FOR HER. How kind of them.
And THAT'S when the game truly begins, taking you to an almost completely blue menu asking you if you want to play one or two players. Nothing else.
After you start the game, you are brought to this brick wall where the Stooges are hanging, and then some odd random job selecting bar appears overhead. This bar is how you select where to go. All you have to do is press the A button at the right time (or wait until the counter runs out) to select a job or event. This is where it seems sorta like a party game, really. It's like a dice, where you have to hit it and hope you get what you want. Although it may look simple at first, it soon starts to get more ridiculous as the game moves on, getting harder to get what you want without screwing up and landing on a bad space. More on that later.
After you land on a space on the bar that has a job or event on it, you use up one day (AKA turn), and then it's off to the minigame. There are a total of two jobs and three events you can play to make cash: Waiter, Doctor, Boxing match, Eating contest, and Trivia contest (which is only good for real fans, because if you never watched the show, it would end up being a real pain in the butt to play). These minigames are a little tough if you don't know what to do, but it doesn't take long to learn how to play. After playing a minigame once or twice (or more, depending on the minigame), you will soon be able to get the hang of it and make quite a bit of dough. Of course, the only downside is, due to the small number of minigames, you are bound to get tired of playing the same minigames OVER and OVER, sometimes multiple times in a row!
Like, really... five minigames isn't a lot, yet it expects you to keep playing this game till all thirty turns have passed, or until you land on too many bad spaces. How am I going to enjoy all these minigames if they keep throwing the same ones in my face over and over again? They could have at LEAST added ten or so minigames, but nooo... Five minigames seems to be enough for this game according to the guys who made it. These games are not even that fancy, so it makes you wonder if the reason they only added five was because they were too lazy to think of anything else to add.
To give you an idea how simple these minigames are, let's take a look at a few of them.
In the boxing minigame, you goal is (surprisingly) to run to the radio station and back before time runs out. If you don't return in time, Curly (who is shown on the top left getting pushed around in a poorly animated matter) will get knocked out by his opponent. If you make it back before time runs out and start playing Cruly's fighting music at the arena, you win the fight and the cash prize. One thing I hate about this minigame is how, no matter how hard you try, you are bound to smash and trip over things. You can't take your time, or else you lose. But if you rush, you are going to bash into things, wasting time. It's a tough minigame, but with practice, you will soon get the hang of it.
Then there is the Doctor minigame, where all the stooges get together and follow some guy up the longest hallway ever known in a hospital, trying not to hit people while collecting what seems to be red crosses (at first, I thought they were GUTS) for extra cash until time runs out. Now, one of the things that bugs me in this minigame is... What the hell is wrong with some of the people's legs? I mean, look at the guys pushing those bed-things (or whatever you call them). It looks outright pathetic the way they animated their walk animation. And what the hell are the Stooges sitting on? They don't look like wheelchairs. It looks like something a person on Gmod would make, a chair with invisible wheels. The sound effects are annoying as well in this minigame. We will talk more about sound shortly.
Once you win or lose a minigame, you are brought back outside the building and to the random select bar again, where you make your next move. It is here where it starts to get harsher, adding more trap spaces that, if hit too many times, ends the game. Also, other types of spaces get added as well, such as random spaces (where you have to cross your fingers and hope for the best), banker spaces that take away a LOT of your hard earned cash, money spaces that give you free money, and even this other type of minigame space that isn't much of a minigame. In it, you start a fight between the Stooges, and you have to beat the living crap out of them in order to lower a yellow bar. The lower it is, the slower and easier it is to select the next space you want. Of course, it is not a common one, and it also isn't all that interesting (unless you like button mashing and watching Moe punch people in the gut over and over again).
After you make your turn, the games moves on, and after that, it repeats in the same manner until the end of the game. By the time you reach the end (one way or another), you are shown one of three possible endings:
The bad ending.
The ok ending.
And the good ending.
And these all depend on how much cash you have. Have enough money, and you may get the ok or good ending. But don't have enough, and you lose.
Well, enough about gameplay, let's check out the other stuff!
In the sound department, it really isn't much. There are a few simple sound effects here and there, and some voice samples from the stooges. Although the voices are ok, most other things are not really all that good. At times, the sound effects might even annoy you. I know it annoys me in some minigames.
In the music department, it also isn't all that much. Mostly, it is nothing but a bunch of short, looping tunes that you are bound to tire of quite soon. Why, you may as well just mute the TV and play your own fav songs from your MP3, since there isn't much here to listen to.
We already know there is hardly any replay value in this game, due to the small number of minigames. After playing the game two or three times (or maybe even just once), you will bore of it and move on to the next game in your collection.
Control is ok, at least.
And graphics wise, it isn't too bad, although they could have done a better job animating and/or making some sprites.
So, pretty much, let's finish up and add all we have here for the final result.
In all, the game is really not worth your time. The minigames, although fun (well, almost) at first, tend to become dull and boring after a while thanks to the lack of minigames. Even with a friend, this game doesn't really get any more interesting. One thing is for sure, this is NOT a game to play at a party, unless your idea of a party is playing the same minigames over and over to the brink of epic boredom, and only having one person invited. Why invite more to watch if they are only going to fall asleep after the first few turns, only to be rudely awakened by the annoying music and sounds?
Trust me, don't waste your time with this game unless you really want a Stooge collectable or another addition to your vast game collection. Other than that, this is nothing but a waste of good money that you could have spent on a game like Super Mario.
And that is all for this review. I only hope it was helpful to you. Have a nice day, gamers!