Game Review: The Powerpuff Girls GBC Trilogy

Titles- The Powerpuff Girls: Paint Townsville Green, Bad Mojo Jojo, Battle Him
Platform- Nintendo Game Boy Color
Release Dates- November 14, 2000 (PTG) , December 20, 2000 (BMJ), February 27, 2001 (BH)
Developer- Sennari Interactive
Publisher-  BAM! Entertainment

Introduction to the Series:
Time to finally tackle probably the most well known and arguably the most successful Powerpuff Girls games. Although I'm taking on all three simply because all three games are part of the same series. Basically, after the huge success that is Pokémon with the three games being the same with minor changes but also have the special interactivity between all the games; BAM! Entertainment attempt to use the same technology that Nintendo used and incorporate it into The Powerpuff Girls and all the games by default follow the pictured girl.

Okay fair enough. In all honesty I only grew up with Buttercup and Blossom's games. But years later I finally ran into Bubbles and finished all three games. As you'd probably be able to guess from label on the cartridge, the game follows on the presented girl while the others are not playable (sort of). So 'Paint Townsville Green' one follows Buttercup and the same applies to the others as well. I'm going to review all three games simultaneously because...well they're all the same.  

Story:
PTG: The Gang Green Gang are out and about causing ruckus and mayhem around the city of Townsville. Buttercup is the first to answer the call and she alone goes to face them off and save the city.

BMJ: Mojo Jojo is out and about causing ruckus and mayhem around the city of Townsville. Blossom is the first to answer the call and she alone goes to face them off and save the city.

BH: Him is out and about causing ruckus and mayhem around the city of Townsville. Bubbles is the first to answer the call and she alone goes to face them off and save the city.

Yeah...there's not much of a difference as you can see...

Gameplay:
The game is a side-scrolling but it does have some elements of a platformer. The primary point of the game is to eliminate all the enemies, collect various items, rescue citizens  and traverse throughout the stages challenges. The stages usually have midpoint objective (sometimes two) and this usually takes the form of a key or rescuing a key character from the show (serving also as a checkpoint) . At the end, there's a boss whose a main villain from the show.

Graphics:
Acceptable. The game is pretty colorful all things considering the days of the Game Boy Color. Don't really see it too much on the original system but on the Advance or Game Boy Player it's much more visible. The models look like the cartoon enough ironically though the worst looking models are the girls themselves.

Controls:
Stiff and Floaty. In all the games you're mostly be flying around and the controls don't always want to cooperate. It's hard to inch anywhere and there's only so much you can do to control your speed of flight and how you fly. There's also a huge delay with the punching. All three games have this issue that the developers never saw the need to remedy.

Music:
Boring and sometimes annoying. The menu music (The Powerpuff Girls Theme) sounds pretty good though for Game Boy.

Additional Comments:
The three games all use the same levels though they are in a different order with maybe a detail here or there changed. The only unique level is the last level for the final boss.

You also have a range attack from collecting Chemical X beakers but it only stuns the enemy. Buttercup has laser eyes, Bubbles has sonic scream, and Blossom has ice breath.

You can only fly for a limited amount of time. Thus making long trips risky. While there is no fall damage, there's plenty of death pits and due to the delay, even if you do start flying, you may still die.

The delay really is an issue. The timing has to be spot on for it to work correctly. And because of the floaty controls you'll mostly be fly or hovering (the girls don't walk or run, they hover) back and forth and praying that you hit your target.

All the enemies are generic. There's two different kinds of prisoners (one that punches and the other who has a gun), two flying demon like characters and monster that sometimes appears that take two more hits than the others (all the enemies otherwise only take two hits to kill).

There's also this hotline thing. Basically you can call the other girls (including the girl you're playing as) to help you out and do a special move. The only time you'll ever use them is in the boss fights though.

Interestingly, there is kind of a continuity with all three games. The games mention events from the other titles. I guess this is to explain why all the girls aren't working together like they usually would.

After completing the game you're given a password that unlocks an extra level where you can fight one of the Rowdyruff Boys...it's not really worth addressing. As you'd guess, the addressed girl in the game unlocks their RRB counterpart. The password however will not work on the completed game, so basically Blossom can't fight Brick in her own game. But Bubbles can in her game using the password from Blossom's game.

There's really one thing that makes Bubbles' game unique and that is the fact that it's the only one not to use a saving feature like Blossom's and Buttercup's did. Instead it uses a password system.

One funny thing, one of the citizens you can rescue is George Jetson.

So how was this game mimicking Pokémon you may be asking since I addressed it in the beginning? Why it's because you can collect trading cards!...I'm not even kidding, that's it. You find trading cards all around the levels and I guess you were supposed to trade them with your friend who was playing with another girl? I don't know, in order to use the password you need at least another game so...I don't know.

There's a bunch of password that make you be able to play as Mayor and things like that or the other Powerpuff Girls but there's nothing unique about it since they all play the same and cut scenes are not altered in any way to format the different character.

Conclusion:
...Not worth it. Not worth it. Fan or not, there's really no reason to play all three games. Just play one and I think all your curiosity will be quenched. But taking away all the pointless things like the passwords and the trading card thing, this is just a clunky, boring, and badly programmed flying side-scroller. The only appeal really is the fact that it's the Powerpuff Girls, taking that away would make this a pretty forgotten trilogy of games.

There are other Powerpuff Girls games out there but now is not the time to indulge in them now. But again, just play your favorite Powerpuff and leave it at that. No need to waste your time on playing all three just to say you did.

OVERALL SCORE: 3.5