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Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" went from being more of a cult classic in the Disney library to a phenomenon in the last couple of years. With the children who grew up with it becoming today's consumers, Hot Topics across the land were inundated with every type of merchandise you could think of. Even Kingdom Hearts, the Square Enix/Disney collaboration, featured a Halloween Town level with Jack Skellington fighting by your side against Oogie Boogie.
can only imagine my half-surprise, then, when I realized that they were releasing another game set in that iconic world of doom and gloom. It was only half-surprise because I wasn't shocked that, with everyone seeming to cash in on the Nightmare craze, someone decided that a stand-alone game in Halloween Town and beyond would be a great idea. Being the cynic that I am, the lyrics to "Sally's Song" came to mind: "Can't shake this feeling that I have / The worst is just around the bend." Oftentimes, great marketing endeavors come at a price, and I didn't want to see something so beloved made into a lackluster game.
Unfortunately, a lackluster game is indeed what devoted fans will find when they unwittingly open those black cases, for the developers sold Jack's soul for a quick buck. Once again, marketing wizards win and gamers lose.
The plot is as the title suggests: Oogie Boogie is released by his ever-faithful minions Lock, Shock and Barrel, and when Jack goes away, evil comes out to play. When Jack returns to a town riddled with unfriendly skeletons and other ghastlies, he whips out the Soul Robber (a weapon given to him by Dr. Finkelstein) to clear the way and figure out how to clean up the mess.
If it sounds predictable, that's because it is. As the painfully uninformative back cover suggests, your battles eventually lead you out of Halloween Land and into the Santa Jack costume. Honestly, the whole thing makes no sense if you're a fan of the movie: if Oogie was sewn back together by his three little friends, then why does it seem like Jack's going into Christmas Town for the first time? In the end, it doesn't really matter, because in each level you end up doing the same things anyway -- beat up skeletons, fight inane boss, lather, rinse, repeat.
The control scheme is regrettable, and much of it is due to the button-mashing feel to it all. It was obvious that the developers tried to go in the God of War/Devil May Cry direction, but instead ended up in Dynasty Warriors territory -- combos are encouraged, but the main difference is that while there were different ways to mix up the battles in the former games, you end up using the same pattern of attack each time, with no real motivation to try new techniques. The fixed camera angles don't help things, because you can be wailing on some skeletons in front of you while some unseen ghosts are whacking on you from behind your line of sight.
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