Franklin: A Birthday Surprise

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Franklin: A Birthday Surprise
There is nothing surprising about this game.
Genre(s): Platform Platform(s): Nintendo GameCube PlayStation 2 Release: NA: April 18, 2006 EU: June 16, 2006 (GameCube) Developer(s): Neko Entertainment Publisher(s): The Game Factory Country: France Series: Franklin Successor: Franklin's Great Adventures

Franklin: A Birthday Surprise is a 2006 platform video game based on the children's television series of the same name, which in turn is based on the children's book series of the same name. It was developed by Neko Entertainment and published by The Game Factory for the Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Game Boy Advance. The Nintendo GameCube version was only released in Europe.

Bad Qualities

1. Much like Curious George and Mr. Bean, which was released the same year for similar platforms, the graphics look terrible and resemble more of that of a Nintendo 64 game rather than a late sixth generation game, despite using cel-shading.
2. Franklin keeps on making the same sound every time the player jumps, which can get annoying really fast, especially considering that you will need to jump a lot in this game, kind of like Doraemon: Nobita to Mittsu no Seireiseki on the N64 (despite being a decent game).
3. The minigames are incredibly difficult and can even be unfair at times, such as in the balloon minigame where the AI can somehow blow the balloons much faster than how the player can, and in the water sprinkler minigame where it's very easy for you to accidentally touch the water, due to the fact that Franklin runs so slow in this game, yet the AI can dodge it with ease. It also appears as if the NPCs have bigger hitboxes than Franklin.
4. No enemies whatsoever in this game, despite being a platformer. The closet thing you have to an enemy are the bees, and that's it.
5. Poor voice acting in the cutscenes, as all of the characters sound incredibly robotic and sound as if they are just reading off of a script rather than actually putting effort, especially Franklin and his mom who both sound like text-to-speech voices.
   • Despite this, there is no voice acting in-game, not even some small voice clips, showing how lazy the developers are.
6. The game is very short. Can simply be beaten in less than 2 hours.
7. The gameplay is quite boring due to how easy it is.
8. The soundtrack is quite generic and forgettable, especially if you play other games with memorable music that will make you forget the soundtrack of this game even more.

Good Qualities

1. It is at least faithful to the Franklin franchise, especially the books and animated series that it's based on.
2. The controls are pretty decent.
3. Some people (especially young children) may still find the game to be enjoyable.

Reception

The PlayStation 2 version currently has a 3.45/5 via 11 ratings on GameFAQs, while the Nintendo GameCube version has a 3.18/5.

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