The Grinch (video game)

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The Grinch (video game)

The Grinch will sure steal this game instead of christmas after he see this game.
Genre(s): Platform
Action
Stealth (GBC)
Platform(s): PlayStation
PC
Dreamcast
Game Boy Color
Release Date: PlayStation
NA: November 10, 2000
EU: December 8, 2000
Dreamcast
NA: November 22, 2000
EU: December 15, 2000
Game Boy Color
EU: November 24, 2000
NA: November 2000
Windows
NA: December 4, 2000
EU: December 15, 2000
Developer(s): Artificial Mind & Movement (PS1, Dreamcast)
Konami (PC)
Konami Computer Entertainment Nagoya (GBC)
Publisher(s): Konami


The Grinch is a video game based on the film How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The game was released around the time the film hit theaters in 2000.

Plot

The Grinch stares down at Whoville through his telescope from Mount Crumpit, planning to take the Whos' presents using his gadgets. He goes in his cave, and looks through his blueprints deciding which gadget to make first. However, the Grinch accidentally falls off his mountain of boxes and his blueprints fly away down to Whoville and various parts of Wholand. The Grinch visits Whoville, the Whoforest, Whoville Municipal Dump, and Wholake, destroying Christmas presents, playing pranks on the Whos and recovering pieces of his blueprints in the process so he can steal Christmas.

Grinches Qualities

  1. The graphics are quite bad and outdated, even for a 2000 game, especially on the PS1 version. The character model looks awful and looks like it's from a 1998 PS1 game, not a 2000 one.
    • The Grinch himself has one of, if not the worst, of all of his appearances, as here he looks very blocky. Not only that, but it's considered to be by far the worst design in The Grinch.
    • Cindy Lou model is even worse than that of the Grinch, as her face is very pixelated to the point of looking like it's almost come from Phix: The Adventure. Not only that, but she also looks a bit older than she is supposed to. Also, her mouth can sometimes be invisible or so pixelated that it's barely visible; even The Grinch himself has a more visible mouth.
    • The textures are very blocky too; even for a 2000 PS1 game, the Dreamcast version has a bit better texture but not that much.
    • While the Dreamcast version looks a bit better, it still looks pretty bad for a 2000 game, and the blocky character model is still here. Even other Dreamcast games such as Sonic Adventure, Mortal Kombat Gold, and Jet Set Radio look better than this game, and these were released between 1998 and 2000.
  2. The controls are very unresponsive, as here you can literally jump after you press it's button after 1 seconds or even 2, while it's not at the levels of games like Phix: The Adventure and Bubsy 3D, it's still bad and it can cause some cheap deaths.
  3. While it is a funny line, the line that the Grinch says, "Haaa, it's unbearable!", can be annoying to some people.
  4. The game isn't that faithful to the source material, with the exception of the beginning cutscene and Whoville, as some of the levels and missons have nothing to do with the book or, most notably, the movie that the game is based on. Even the DS game, Dr. Seuss: How the Grinch Stole Christmas is more faithful to the source material, even if that game was released in 2008, 8 years later.
  5. The game has a lot of framerate issues, most notably in the loading screen, as it lags a lot when the game loads stuff, and even some of the animations are laggy. This is also one of the main problems of the game, since it is probably the reason why the controls are unresponsive.
    • Even some obstacles can cause a lot of lag when loading, most notably the huge snowballs in some levels.
  6. Once you beat the game, there are no replay values to speak of, probably due to how confusing the game can be at times.
  7. None of the voice actors returned to their roles; due to this, all of the voice actors were replaced with some poor ones. Even for a Universal game and a PS1 game released in 2000.
    • Despite The Grinch himself having a good (or at the very least, decent) voice as usual, he still doesn't sound as great as Jim Carrey does and he doesn't sound as menacing as the 2000 movie. Despite that, his voice is still not bad, and it depends on your opinion if you like his voice or not.
      • Some of his lines aren't even as funny or memorable due to that, most notably when he says who he is to Cindy Lou.
    • Cindy Lou's voice is also not as good as in the 2000 movie (again), as she sounds somewhat arkward and older than she is supposed to be.
    • The narrator, while not bad or terrible by any means, can still be a bit boring, although it's still not so bad and his voice is actually not bad.
  8. Sometime, especially at the beginning of the game, when you do one move, there's a cutscene playing after, despite you getting another cutscene before doing that move. This is extremely annoying for those who aren't that patient, and it can be even worse for those who have anger issues or someone who is frustrated very easily.
  9. The game is also very glitchy; the textures are not only blocky but they are also very glitchy, and it's easy to see in the first cutscene of the game, since when one time The Grinch opens his mouth, you can literally see the texture of a box in his mouth, and when all the boxes fall, you can also see The Grinch being in the box, where in the previous scene, you didn't see him falling.
    • Not only that, but it can even make the game look like it wasn't finished before being sold. Especially due to the graphical glitches.
  10. The animations are just ripped from Bugs Bunny and Taz: Time Buster but were made much worse, with them being very lauchable and clunky to the point of maybe making the controls unresponsive.
    • This also shows how much laziness the developer can do to their games, and this was possibly made to make this game faster.
    • The animations on the character models are also awful, especially their mouths. This, combined with the bad character model, makes this even worse.
  11. The camera is terrible, much like a lot of PS1 games, as it is very troublesome and incontrollable. Even for a PS1 game, this combined with the poor controls can result in some cheap deaths.
  12. The game is also quite short, lasting only 5 hours, especially if you know what you're doing.
  13. Some of the missions are repetitive.

Good Qualities

  1. It's still better than the terrible DS game based on the books, Dr. Seuss: How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
    • It's also better than the pretty mediocre then-new Grinch game that was released in 2023, The Grinch: Christmas Adventure, which was even worse than this game with poor controls and being very boring.
  2. The title screen is ahead of its time and looks promising for the time, despite being somewhat misleading. Some games, such as Marvel's Spider-Man, would later have this kind of title screen.
  3. The Game Boy Color version is better and is even an excellent game, and it is a bit more faithful to the source material.
  4. The line that Grinch says when he dies (or loses), Haaa, it's unbearable, is very funny.
  5. The Dreamcast version has slightly better visuals and graphics than the PlayStation version, although it's pale in comparison to other games on the platforms.
  6. The Grinch is still likable in this game; as the game progresses, The Grinch has to save Christmas. He also gives the presents to the Whos, as seen in the ending.
  7. Decent soundtrack.
  8. You can also play as Max in some places where The Grinch can't pass.

Reception

The game receives mixed to negative reviews, with a score of 51/100 for the Dreamcast version on Metacritic and also a 50% in Gameranking for that version too, 55/100 for both the PC and PS1 version, a score of 50% for the PC version in Gameranking and a 56% for the PS1 version in Gameranking. However, the Game Boy Color version received mixed to positive reviews, with a 67% in Gameranking.

IGN has given a score of 5/10 and a 5.5/10 score for the PS1 and PC versions, respectively. However,  they give the Game Boy Color version a score of 9/10. They criticized the controls, the graphics, and the camera, but praised the Grinch persona for both the PS1 and PC versions.

GameSpot has given the Dreamcast and PlayStation versions 6.3 and 4.8, respectively, criticizing the visuals on the PS1 version and the poor controls, but praising the visuals for the Dreamcast, considering them much better than the PlayStation version.

GameSpy has given the Dreamcast version a 4/10.

Trivia

  • The game uses the same engine for "Bugs Bunny and Taz: Time Buster" which Artificial Mind & Movement (Now "Behaviour Entertainment") also developed.
  • At the very end of the credits, we see the sentence "Ya Grinched".
  • The Dreamcast version would almost be released in Japan but it's was cancelled, possibly because The Grinch isn't that know there unlike the United States or French.

Videos

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