The Flintstones: Big Trouble in Bedrock

The Flintstones: Big Trouble in Bedrock
It’s in big trouble alright.
Genre(s): Platform Platform(s): Game Boy Advance Release Date: December 9, 2001 Developer(s): H2O Entertainment Publisher(s): Conspiracy Entertainment Country: United States Canada Series: The Flintstones

The Flintstones: Big Trouble in Bedrock is a 2D Platformer release for the Game Boy Advance in 2001 and is the last platformer game in the Flintstones series.

Plot

Fred must save his best pal Barney from the clutches of the evil and villainous Dr. Sinister. To get to Barney before it's too late, Fred must make use of special Stone-Age items like a club and his bowling ball. He'll also need the help of friends like Wilma, Dino, and several other characters from the original series.

Why It's in a Big Trouble

1. Horrible controls. The jump controls are very bad, and Fred doesn't jump that high; due to that, the game can be barely playable at worst (especially when you haven't unlocked the double jump).
   • It's so bad that the first two levels are very frustrating and luck-based, and if the platforms go in the same direction as you, then you are pretty much screwed and you pretty much have to restart all over.
   • The controls are incredibly unresponsive, clunky and stiff, especially because of the jump that is very slow, in fact it take half a second to jump, or even the movements themself are slow, this pretty much make the game an absolute nightmare to play and is the reason of why the platforming is so terrible (See WIIABT#2).
2. The platforming is extremely bad, especially in the first few levels when you don't have a double jump, and it is extremely frustrating. The platform that moves is a great example of how bad this is, especially when it's moving in the same direction as you. You will never get to the platform, and you will fall and have to restart again, it's like the 2D version of the platforming of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus on the console and PC versions, ironically, there's a GBA version of that game.
3. The soundtrack is really bland and generic, just like Kao the Kangaroo on GBA. Heck, it doesn't even have the famous Flintstones theme; in fact, it's so bland that it can be compared to The Land Before Time music on GBA, which was also a horrible game with a bland soundtrack, but still, even that game was better than this.
4. The cutscenes are awful, the images are grainy, and the cutscenes are not even interesting. Even Pac-Man World on GBA has better-looking cutscenes than this, even if that game came later, and they have the bland title screen music placed on it, which makes everything worse.
5. The game is short; you can beat it in less than an hour, which is unacceptable for a Flintstone Game Boy Advance game. Even when you go to the 100% run, it's short and it's not even worth it (see WIIABT#14).
6. The boss fights are bad and don't even feel like bosses; only the final boss feels like a boss. Not only are they bad but also too easy most of the time, like in the first world.
7. The plot is bland and generic, even for a Flintstones game, it is a prequel to the episode Dr. Sinister, but here it is just a massive downgrade and there is almost no story, to vange himself, Sinister kidnap Barney, and Fred had to rescue him, that it, nothing more.
8. The graphics are awful; even for a 2001 GBA game, games like Sonic Advance or Super Mario Advance look much better, and they were released in the same year, which was 2001.
   • This is because of the fact that the characters sprites are incredibly awful and isn't correctly detailled, Fred for exemple isn't properly designed and his face doesn't look as faithful to the cartoon, even the Sega Genesis game released in 1993 look better than this.
   • The color palette isn't that bad, but at times, it can be either too dark or too bright.
9. You can collect weapons, but they are mostly useless due to the fact that you get them for only a few seconds, this isn't helped by the fact that they are terrible.
   • Even if it's not only some seconds, they are really bad; they are really delayed. When you press the buttons (see WIIABT#10).
10. The weapons are terrible; they are so delayed that it's almost impossible to attack an enemy with them, especially the bowling ball. To make things worse, the bowling ball is the best weapon of the game, which says a lot considering how bad it is.
11. The voice acting is terrible, even for a 2001 GBA game, in fact it's mostly scream from Fred and they sound so bad compared to the cartoon, it's also sound nothing like the cartoon.
12. Not necessarily a bad thing, but some iconic Flintstones characters like Dino or Wilma are completely absent; even in the Flintstones games on NES, they were present, and it's been a decade since that game was released back in 2001.
13. The game is horribly glitchy, even if it doesn't look like it is, exemples could include textures glitchs, or the collision glitchs that happen a lot, to the point that you might abuse it to beat the game in a shorter time.
14. Awful level design, it's look like it's want to be worse than The Flintstones game by Ocean on SNES, in fact it's bad from start to finish; it's almost as bad as Strider Returns, which says a lot due to the fact that Strider Returns has an extremely bad level design. A great example is in the final world, where it's mostly some maze level with some flech that indicates the direction you have to take, but they are misleading and instead take you to a bad place; you have to find the exit yourself, kind of like Bubsy 3D.
15. While you get new moves in the progress of the game, these are incredibly generic and basic, such as unlocking a double jump (which is the best of the game) or the hand attack, which destroys crate but is very underpowered at enemies and has terrible hit detection.
16. The sound effects are so bad that it's look like it's from some sort of educationnal game made for the Game Boy Advance or even PC, in fact they also are generic and bot great to listen to, they are on par with Agent Hugo: Lemoon Twist even if that game came from 2007 instead of 2001.
17. The difficulty is horribly unbalanced, even for a Flintstones game; sometimes it's too easy or too hard, mostly due to the awful controls and the awful level design; sometimes the enemies are way too weak; or sometimes they are so annoying that you might fall into a pit (mostly in the last world). The boss fight is the worst offender of it. Dr. Sinister is the only boss of the entire game, and he is sometimes too easy or sometimes too hard to the point of being extremely annoying. These factors are so annoying that the game is just not fun.
18. The ending is terrible.
19. You can go for 100%, but it's useless due to the fact that there is no reward and there's also no unlockable (with the exception of the new moves you got in the game, such as double jump), even the first Donkey Kong Country gave you more rewards than this game when you complete the game at 100%, which was released in 1994.
20. Overral this is a game that want to cash in for The Flintstone franchise and a perfect exemple along with the game on SNES by Ocean how to not make a Flintstones platformer, because these both games failed miserably.
21. It's also the only game in The Flintstones franchise to be made on GBA (due to Dino to the Rescue being cancelled), and it's ended up to be the worst Flintstones game ever made, which make it a terrible low note.

The Only Redeeming Quality

1. The concept of getting a new move in the progress of the game is a unique idea for a Flintstone game; unfortunately, this game got an awful execution.

Reception

With no surprise, while the game wasn't noted by critics, this game got overwhelmingly negative reviews by the few critics that given it a review, IGN gives it a 4/10.

It is often considered to be one of, if not the worst Flintstones game ever made, and one of the worst game of the Game Boy Advance.

Trivia

• A second Flintstones Game Boy Advance game called The Flintstones: Dino to the Rescue was planned to release in 2002 but was cancelled. The cancellation is because they couldn't find a publisher.
• This was the last platformer in the Flintstone series, as the other games after this one would go to the racing genre.

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