Introduction
Fairly OddParents Shadow Showdown is an action adventure platformer that was released in 2004 for Consoles and PC. ImaginEngine developed the PC version, Blitz Games developed the GameCube and PS2 versions. They were all published by THQ.
Review
When little Timmy Turner is excited to watch the season finale to Crash Nebula, disaster strikes and his TV stops working! So his first reaction is to ask Cosmo and Wanda, his faithful fairies to fix his TV. But turns out their magic isn’t working! So off to Fairy World to see what is going on! All the magic is gone and the only way to save it is cooking a Magic Muffin and making the wish for everything to go back to normal.
So Timmy does what any child does to get things. Buy them on the internet. But his terrible babysitter Vicky steals all of his ingredients so he has to get more. So off in the adventures to get all the ingredients through 6 silly world’s! Each of the 6 world’s all have their own self-contained stories in them. Like in the Crimson Chin level, you have to help the Crimson Chin defeat Olga, one of his arch nemesis’. Or in the ape inspired level, you have to find a way to rescue Timmies mother. These were all silly and it felt exactly like an episode, right down to the writing.
Unfortunately the game doesn’t keep up its impressive writing and story when it comes to the climax of the game. The last boss’s motive just felt like it was thrown together to be able to have some sort of villain to beat up at the end. But luckily enough, the rest of the stories made up for it all. What felt even more impressive though, is that every single original voice actor in the game is in it! With everything being voiced, hearing the characters as they were, made every line hit perfect.
As for everything else, it was a bit half-hearted. Each level is basically broken down into 3 sections, then a boss fight. As you progress through each section of the levels, you have to gather 3 coloured stars, which then grants Timmy a wish. This gives you an item that you need to progress through the next section. Rinse and repeat for each part, and then the boss fight happens. Usually you only needed to use one or two of the items you gathered. After you beat a level, you were then thrown back to the HUB world. If you missed anything in one of the levels, and wanted to go back, you unfortunately had to restart ALL of it. Which sucked, because if I didn’t want to back track, or missed a few coins, it just ended up being a big hassle.
The coins in each level are used to gain items from the store. These ranged from useful things, like being able to sprint for longer, to items that felt useless. Like a radar that showed you where the stars are. Which seemed useless because each section is linear so you run into them no matter what. Throughout the levels you can also find some items that are just fun little collectibles. Like stickers that are relevant to the levels. Or a clip from the show in each level. So there were 6 all together, and when I had them all, I sat there and watched them. Which made me really want to watch the show again. But there were a few items that were useful. Like four leaf clover parts that give you more health when you gather four.
As for the rest of the game. It’s hit and miss. The game is a fun platformer, but sometimes it just doesn’t work. Like when Timmy is meant to grab a ledge, sometimes he would grab it just briefly and fall. Which made me wonder if I was meant to jump up to the point that I was having issues with. You also get items that shoot things, like cards, or balls of ice. These were easily the worst part of the game because the game had no aiming feature! Sure it had its own auto lock on feature, so the projectiles would aim and curve into the enemy or object by themselves. But even that hardly worked. I found myself correcting where I was standing a bunch, just to try and hit what I needed to.
Then dying felt more like a nuisance than anything. When you lose all your health, you would respawn exactly where you were. Not back at the checkpoint. So why even have a health function? The only thing it would really do is restart a bosses attack phase. That’s it!
Rating
Pros:
- Fantastic Writing
- Unlockable Video Clips
- Original Voice Acting
Cons:
- Pointless Health System
- Awful Auto Aim System
- Some Finicky Controls
Summary
I miss when they would make games based on cartoons. The writing was fantastic, the voice actors did an amazing job with what they were given, and it was exciting to play around in that world. I do wish the game was a bit better. But for the time, it was one of the better games. It just didn’t age well, gameplay wise. But I’m glad I finally got to finish this game!
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Game & Developer Information
Developer Website: ImaginEngine / Blitz Games
Developer Socials: N/A / Twitter
Publisher Website: THQ
Publisher Socials: Twitter
Images – https://www.blitzgames.com/games/thefairlyoddparentsss
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