"For fans of the show only"

Fairly Oddparents is one of the funniest cartoons in recent memory. Its unique brand of bizarre humour and a very distinctive art style has earned it a special place in my heart, so naturally I was intrigued at the prospect of a game based on the show and characters.

Skip this bit if you know the show well
Timmy is an average kid
Who no-one understands
Mom and Dad and Vicky
Always giving him commands (''Bed, twerp!'')

The doom and gloom up in his room
Is broken instantly
By his magic little fish who grant his every wish
Cos in reality they are his

Oddparents, Fairly Oddparents!
Wands and wings!
Floaty, crowny things!

Oddparents, Fairly Oddparents!

Really mod, pea pod, buff bod, hot rod!
Obtuse, rubber goose, green moose, guava juice, giant snake, birthday cake, large fries, chocolate shake!

Oddparents, Fairly Oddparents!
It flips your lid
when you are a kid with Fairly Oddparents!
Yeah, right.
Bop!

Thus runs the theme song, which sums things up nicely. Timmy is a ten-year old child with two fairy godparents named Cosmo and Wanda. Cosmo is a bit dim but has a good heart while Wanda uses her brains to keep Timmy (and Cosmo) out of trouble. Timmy can ask his fairy godparents for anything he wants by saying ''I wish...'' - so long as he follows ''Da Rules'', a copy of which every fairy gets.

Rejoin us here if you know the show well
The plot of Breakin' Da Rules centres around Timmy's inadvertent breaking of the most important Rule - never wish that you didn't have to follow Da Rules! Doing this meant Cosmo and Wanda dropped their copy of Da Rules and once that happens, the first person to touch it has their every wish granted. Despite Timmy's best efforts, Vicky the evil babysitter is the first to pick up the book, though she remains blissfully oblivious to the existence of fairies and the significance of what she has just done. Cosmo and Wanda are punished for their carelessness by having their powers taken away and replaced with training wands with very little power.

The game centres around Vicky inadvertently making wishes which make life very difficult for Timmy, and Timmy having to sort things out. He also has to help Cosmo and Wanda regain their lost powers by recovering pages of Da Rules. This is done by completing ''episodes'' (or, to the layman, levels) based on various episodes of the show, so there will be a number of familiar sights to fans.

It's worth noting here that the graphics capture the feel of the cartoon perfectly. The cel-shaded graphics look fantastic, despite a few jagged edges, the lip-syncing is spot on and the animation on the characters could be straight out of the show. Cosmo and Wanda's vapid grins, Timmy's buck-toothed smile and the muscular cheesiness of Timmy's favourite comic book hero, The Crimson Chin, are captured perfectly.

What's not quite so impressive is the sound. While the cast of the show perform the voice acting, the recording quality of the voices is terrible. They sound over-compressed and more than a little fuzzy. Excusable for Conker's Bad Fur Day on N64 - that was on a cartridge after all - inexcusable in this modern age of Dolby Pro Logic II and THX-optimized games. The other Nickelodeon games don't suffer from this problem... so why is it here?

The gameplay's biggest strength is in its variety. One minute you'll be platforming, the next minute you'll be sneaking past Creme Puff girl scouts, the next you'll be driving a hovercraft round cyberspace, the next you'll be chasing a platform-shoe wearing supervillain across rooftops. The episodic nature of the gameplay allows Timmy to find himself in a variety of different self-contained situations.

Generally, the gameplay runs: find 5 Wish Stars scattered around the level, use them for Cosmo and Wanda to grant you a wish, play a mini-game. Repeat to fade. There are normally 2 or 3 groups of 5 stars to locate in each episode, each ''wish'' tending to lead to a minigame or new section of level. This variety is a good thing, and it prevents the game from becoming another stagnant platformer.

There are, however, flaws, and some of them are fairly serious. The control, for a start, is somewhat sluggish, particularly when it comes to jumping. Timmy also doesn't jump very high, which means you have to be VERY accurate when leaping around. In some of the more platformy levels, this can mean frequent dying and screaming obscenities. The camera could be better, though I have seen far worse in games of this type. And there are a few too many cheap enemies who can get a hit in on you before you can use whatever weapon or attack you have been provided with. Combine this with sluggish controls and you have a game which makes itself somewhat more unintentionally difficult than it needs to be.

Then there's the question of whether it'd be any good without the Fairly Oddparents licence. I think not. While it's a mildly diverting and entertaining romp, the game's main appeal comes from the witty, fast-paced banter between Timmy, Cosmo and Wanda, and spotting recognisable characters from various episodes. People who've never seen the show probably won't get much from the game and will wonder what's going on - there's not really much explanation as to why Vicky is so mean to Timmy, or even why Cosmo and Wanda are there in the first place. The game assumes at least a passing familiarity with the show.

Then finally, the difficulty ''curve'' is more of an ECG chart. The early levels are almost insultingly easy, yet partway through they suddenly get really, really difficult, not helped by the sluggish controls and erratic camera. You can drop out of an episode at any time and try a different one, but if you do this you have to start the episode from the beginning again when you go back to it. You also have to do this if you complete an episode but want to go back because you missed one of the collectable items. Frustrating, to say the least.

Still, despite these flaws, Fairly Oddparents is a competent enough game that will naturally appeal enormously to fans of the show. Non-fans or people unfamiliar with the show at all should give it a miss, as the content isn't really strong enough to stand up for itself without familiarity with the licence material. It's also possible to blast through the whole thing in a day if you try really hard. There are secret things to find, yes, and the unlockable extras are pretty cool (there's a whole new episode of Fairly Oddparents locked away on the disc) but there's little replay incentive once you've cracked it.

Give it a go by all means. Rent it and see if you like it. Only you can decide if $50 is too much for one brand new episode of Fairly Oddparents and less than 10 hours of gameplay. Now, for an example of how a Nickelodeon licenced game should REALLY be done, check out Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/30/03