Dr. Seuss: How The Grinch Stole Christmas! (2007)
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| Dr. Seuss: How The Grinch Stole Christmas! (2008) | ||||||||||||||
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 If you thought that The Grinch: Christmas Adventures was bad, then think again.
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Dr. Suess: How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is a 2D stealth game and was released in 2007 for the Nintendo DS, it's mostly based on the 2000 Live-Action film of the same name, that is a remake of the 1966 animated TV special based on the 1957 children's storybook of the same name.
Why It Failed to Steal Christmas
- While the Game Boy Color version was great, with a very fun and fast-paced gameplay, this game has a more simplified gameplay than that said game, and is incredibly slow in terms of pace, making the game incredibly boring.
- Not to mention that the gameplay is very repetitive too, with most levels that look like it's the same level over and over; see "Why It Failed to Steal Christmas" #3.
- There are only 2 songs for the entire game, one that is only for the title screen and the other for all of the other parts of the game, and they sound downright terrible and extremely repetitive to the point that you would turn off the music on your Nintendo DS. In fact, they are even comparable to the terrible and repetitive music from Home Alone, on the Nintendo Entertainment System.
- Not only that, but the music sounds so bland, that it's likely annoying to listen to after a while.
- To add salt to the wound, Sonic Rush Adventure(another Nintendo DS game) had more of a variety of songs, and that game came out nearly two months before Dr. Seuss: How The Grinch Stole Christmas!, let that sink in.
- Terrible level design that is extremely repetitive for all seven levels, as it feels like the same levels over and over, compared to the great level design of the Game Boy Color version of the 2000 The Grinch game, which was less repetitive, than this game.
- Laughable box-art.
- The game is way too short, especially for a 2007 Nintendo DS game, as there are 7 levels and you can beat the game in only 40 minutes, or even shorter if you decide to not to 100% complete it, and if you do an any percent run, you can beat the game in less than 30 minutes.
- The levels are very confusing to navigate for the later one, especially level 5 and level 7.
- Really poor artificial (un)intelligence for all the Whos as they sometimes see you, but unlike the excellent Game Boy Color version of the 2000 The Grinch game, they don't run after you, and instead walk right and left like idiots.
- Even worse, this makes the game too easy as you can easily beat the game and never get caught even once, especially if you go for an Any% run of the game.
- The noise that a Who makes(which is possibly Cindy Lou or the young boy that sleeps) can be very annoying to some people after a while. Considering how repetitive the music and the sound effects are, this makes the audio even worse than it already is.
- The release date for Dr. Seuss: How The Grinch Stole Christmas! is November 8th in North America, and November 23rd in Europe, which is a bit too early to release a Christmas game.
- The game is barely challenging, due to Why It Failed to Steal Christmas #4, as you also have 3 lives and you can easily beat a level without getting any game over, since the artificial (un)intelligence is so poor and the level design is terrible. This is also possibly the easiest Grinch game, after The Grinch: Christmas Adventures.
- When the sleepy Who hits you, you have to do a mini-game in order to not get caught and it is extremely awful and horribly frustrating as you need the stylus, but the problem is that the Grinch is so unresponsive that he likely will be hit by the sleepy Who all the time and you will be caught one time. At least it doesn't happen with the other Whos, but still, it's a terrible idea and mechanic that work terribly badly in this game.
- No boss fights whatsoever.
- The default costume for the Grinch isn't even in the actual game, since when you start the game he wears something that is similar to what he wears in one scene of the 2000 film. This may be because it was neither programmed into the actual game, nor the game was possibly rushed.
- Awful ending that is barely like an ending, it just has very few text.
- While the sprite work is decent, there are some objects that are barely seen as object that you have to steal and as a result you will likely not find these.
- On that note, the sprite work/character designs for the Whos also looks odd, some of which look a bit too anime-est.
- Dreadful placements for a lot of the Whos as there are some places where you can't steal the gift without getting hit, kind of like Osomatsu-kun on Sega Genesis where there were some places where you couldn't pass without getting damage.
- Clunky controls, especially the fact that the Grinch is slow in-motion and the stairs are one of your worst nightmares to control.
- Horrible hit-detection. This is especially noticeable when you are trying to go to a stair where you are in a place, where it looks like you can easily get up to the stair, but actually it doesn't. This makes everything worse if there is a person who is near the stairs and if you can't walk away from them, you are sure to get caught, or hit.
- The game also feels like a cheap flash gameon a computer instead of a full Nintendo DS game mostly due to the simplicity of the game, and the repetitive gameplay.
The Only Redeeming Quality
- The graphics are pretty good, with fluid animation and being very colorful with great sprite work, but this is unfortunately the only good thing going for this game.
Reception
The game received mixed to positive reviews by critics with a score of 55/100 on Metacritic at the time where there was a score for this game. IGN gave this game a score of 3.5/10 saying it had good graphics, but the puzzle elements were too shallow to fit on a DS game. This game is also considered to be one of, if not the worst Grinch games ever made.
Trivia
- This was the last The Grinch game for a while, until in 2023 where Outright Games have made a The Grinch game called The Grinch: Christmas Adventures.
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