Horrid Henry: The Good, The Bad, and the Bugly

Horrid Henry: The Good, The Bad, and the Bugly
What a horrid game this is.
Protagonist(s): Horrid Henry Genre(s): Platform Rating(s): PEGI: 3+ Platform(s): Nintendo 3DS Release: November 25, 2011 Developer(s): Asylum Entertainment Publisher(s): Europress Country: United Kingdom Series: Horrid Henry Predecessor: Horrid Henry's Horrid Adventure Successor: Horrid Henry's Krazy Karts

Horrid Henry: The Good, The Bad, and the Bugly is a 2.5D platform game released for the Nintendo 3DS on November 25, 2011, based on the CITV animated series of the same name, which in turn is based on the novel/book series of the same name. The game was only released in Europe, and was the last game to be developed by Asylum Entertainment before going defunct.

Why It's Horrid

1. Misleading title: Most of the game (apart from the cutscenes) has nothing to do with the Horrid Henry franchise whatsoever, particularly the CITV animated series that it's supposed to be based on, as it feels like a completely different game reskinned with Henry slapped on it just so it can get more sales in the UK. The first game (Horrid Henry: Missions of Mischief) was way more faithful than this despite still being bad.
2. An extremely poor grasp of the source material, as the backgrounds, music, collectables, and levels overall do not look or sound like they are from Horrid Henry at all, rather than some fairy tale game. The CITV animated series was all about typical kid life and generally things that most young kids could relate to, while this game is about Henry in some magical fantasy candy-like land with mushrooms, having nothing to do with the franchise whatsoever.
3. The game is just a reskin of Hugo: Magic In The Trollwoods, sharing the same controls and animations, and even similar-looking level designs as the latter.
4. The game is basically Horrid Henry's Horrid Adventure with 3D graphics, however there are only 4 levels in 3 worlds with a total of 12 which is less than it's predecessor. Even though the levels are longer, they are not immersive and come off as being tedious and boring.
5. There are no bonuses for collecting all items or killing enemies, making them a pointless and time wasting gimmick.
6. Paper-thin plot, as it's just about Peter's toy bunny going missing and Henry having to find it in order to avoid being blamed. In fact there's hardly any reason how and why Peter's bunny ended up in a dungeon in the final world, creating a plot hole.
7. Poor and somewhat stiff controls, as Henry walks quite slowly, and the hitboxes are quite off as it's very easy to stand on the side of a platform just floating, thus killing the pace of the game. The jump is also very floaty and it's not possible to change your direction mid-air.
8. A handful of enemies are either obnoxiously hard to kill, or take longer than other enemies. As such, you're better off avoiding them.
9. Mediocre graphics and visuals, even for what the game is. Keep in mind that there are other 3DS games out there that have much better graphics and visuals than this with them being released months before, such as Super Mario 3D Land, showing that the console is capable of much better graphics.
10. Henry's character model just doesn't translate all that well to 3D, with him having a quite uncanny looking face that never changes throughout the entire game, showing how lazy the developers are when it comes to making games like this. In fact, you can hardly see his face through a 3DS system unless you are playing on an emulator.
11. Misleading cover: Other iconic characters from the series (such as Perfect Peter and Moody Margaret) don't appear in the game at all apart from the cutscenes. The only ones that do appear are Henry's pets and stuffed animals and that's about it, despite the two literally appearing on the game's box art. In fact, a boss in the game is a gorilla with Margaret's hair on it, even though Margaret was a boss in Horrid Henry's Horrid Adventure.
12. Much like Gummy Bears: Magical Medallion (given that the two games share a lot of similarities despite being made by different developers) the game feels, looks, and plays like a watered down version of Klonoa.
13. Throughout each level, there are puzzles that the player must "solve" in order to advance forward, with some of them being next-to-nearly broken, such as trying to build a block tower for Fang using the stylus. A lot of the time, the block tower glitches and spazzes throughout the ground, showing even more on how broken and lazily put together this game is. These puzzles also serve no purpose to the game whatsoever and are only added to artificially extend the game's length.
14. The TV spot that advertised this game is misleading, as it implies that the game will contain "lots of horridness and fun", when it doesn't contain any (or most) of that at all.
15. Poorly made cutscenes, with the character stills and voice clips just being taken straight from the animated series, with the characters (particularly Henry) making the wrong facial expressions. The latter is especially made clear when Mum tells Henry to go do his homework, in which he responds with "Homework?! I forgot about that.", with him shown to still be smiling.
16. Short length, even for Nintendo 3DS game standards, as it can be beaten in about 4 hours or less.
17. The goo shooter upgrades are flawed. You cannot use them in previous levels and can only use them in levels onward, making them limited in usefulness. The final goo shooter upgrade is used simply for the boss and that's it.
18. The final boss and where it takes place looks very out of place for a Horrid Henry game, as it's a fiery dungeon underground, which would be one of the last places where Peter's bunny would get taken to, with the final boss being an octopus of all things. The contradicts with what Henry states, with the Evil Emperor taking Peter's bunny after beating the second world.
19. The game ended Asylum Entertainment on a poor note, as it was the last game they developed before going defunct.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The music in the early levels, despite sounding very out of place for a Horrid Henry game, is quite relaxing to listen to.
2. The cutscenes and game description are at least faithful to the animated series the game is based on, despite being poorly made.

Reception

The game currently has rating of 3.36/5 on GameFAQs via 7 ratings.

Capsule Computers gave the game "4 capsules out of 10".

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