Ooo’s Clues – Adventure Time: Finn and Jake Investigations Review

By Meg Humphries
10 years Ago

Adventure Time&colon; Finn and Jake Investigations is a 3D point-and-click type game based within the Adventure Time Universe&period; The game begins with narration by Cuber (a minor character in the show), wherein the concept of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Playable Graybles” are introduced&period; Similar to the TV Show, in which a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Grayble” was a short story told by Cuber, a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Playable Grayble” is an interactive short story in which the player can assist&period; The Graybles begin the story with Finn and Jake as they discover the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Ticker Type&semi;” a mystery-finding typewriter that was once their parent’s&period; The Ticker Type prints a description of any new mysteries in the land of Ooo, so Finn and Jake set off as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Finn and Jake Investigations” to solve them&period;&NewLine;<figure style="width&colon; 685px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img src="http&colon;//thenerdstash&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/pic1-large&period;jpg" alt="" width="685" height="343" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">(Adventure Time&colon; Finn And Jake Investigations, Little Orbit)</figcaption></figure>&NewLine;Throughout the new 3D world of Ooo, familiar characters and places are used (and abused) for the sake of the game&period; Princess Bubblegum, Lumpy Space Princess, and even Ice King make appearances during the investigations, but each character tends to be either underthought or over utilized&period; The choice of Cuber as the narrator is a questionable one, as Cuber is not only a minor character, he&&num;8217&semi;s a dull character at best&period; In the very first mystery, the secondary protagonist is Abracadaniel, a (somewhat lame) minor character that adds very little to the plot as you hunt down kidnapping Wizards&period; The rest of the game follows suit, with minor villains becoming huge nuisances, and important characters making small, insignificant appearances&period;&NewLine;The gameplay, while straightforward in nature, is far more frustrating than would be assumed&period; In comparison to similar point-and-click adventures, such as the early Telltale title, Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People, the actual pointing and clicking on interact-able items is maddeningly inconsistent and laughably glitchy&period; While the controls are simple and easy to pick up, the items are not, sometimes taking several attempts to show the interaction menu&period; Numerous times, the fluidity of the game was halted when a certain interact-able item would not remain available, or would disappear entirely&period; This was especially frustrating when items were close together, forcing a cutscene rather than allowing the other item to be selected&period;&NewLine;<figure style="width&colon; 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img src="http&colon;//i&period;imgur&period;com/Y9JM7jfl&period;jpg" alt="" width="640" height="360" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">(Adventure Time&colon; Finn And Jake Investigations, Little Orbit)</figcaption></figure>&NewLine;The game is set up, understandably, like any other story-driven adventure game&period; Dialogue-heavy interactions mix with cutscenes and combat to create the feeling of watching an episode of the TV show&period; However, this was surprisingly one of the most annoying features of the game&period; Long, drawn-out cutscenes and dialogue options go on for an irritating amount of time, with no option to skip or move forward more quickly&period; Every dialogue option must be selected in every open conversation, leading to slow, repetitive exchanges&period; For those who read more quickly than the characters speak, this is especially frustrating, as the slow character interaction seems to eat up all the time in the game&period; It takes roughly 13 hours to beat the game, but you better believe the better part of that time is spent listening to an endless draught of exposition&period; &NewLine;Combat plays a minor part in the story-driven adventure, but adds a little spice to the heavy commentary&period; During these mini-quests, waves of enemies assault Finn and Jake a few at a time, attacking and sometimes hiding when a power-up is enabled&period; The combat power-ups come in the form of a Jake transformation, in which Jake can become &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;War Dog,” catapult bombs, spin Finn like a pointy top, or morph into &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Jake Suit&period;” The transformations are silly, fun to use, and add more enjoyment to an otherwise repetitive combat scene&period; The transformations themselves do become eventually repetitive, but still prove more entertaining than endlessly bashing gnomes with Finn’s sword&period;&NewLine;<figure style="width&colon; 675px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img src="http&colon;//www&period;modvive&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/AbilityTimeBGs&lowbar;1&period;png" alt="" width="675" height="380" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">(Adventure Time&colon; Finn And Jake Investigations, Little Orbit)</figcaption></figure>&NewLine;Despite all the negatives with glitchiness and commentary, the story itself is surprisingly enjoyable&period; It gives the game an addictive quality, making it easier to look past the difficulties of gameplay in order to move forward with the story&period; While in the wake of a particularly frustrating bug, rage quitting seems like the best option &&num;8211&semi; but it’s impossible to ignore the incessant desire to see what happens next&period; Characters and dialogue, while slow at times, still present the same humor the show is known for&period; The different rooms and areas of the maps are easily accessible, and load lightning fast, keeping non-dialogue gameplay fluid and fun&period; This makes moving between rooms to collect items less of a chore, since there’s no jog in gameplay&period; The music of the game matches the simplicity of the storyline, with peaceful beats and effects repeating behind the constant slew of conversation&period;&NewLine;<figure style="width&colon; 695px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img src="http&colon;//cdn3&period;dualshockers&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/17029712788&lowbar;d329932d96&lowbar;o&period;jpg" alt="" width="695" height="331" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">(Adventure Time&colon; Finn And Jake Investigations, Little Orbit)</figcaption></figure>&NewLine;The game has a few noticeable nuances, though they’re more amusing than annoying&period; At times, Finn’s mouth will move, but Jake will be speaking&period; Characters will sometimes move through walls, and the jabbering of their mouths during dialogue never quite matches up with what is being said&period; These divergences just add to the silliness of the Adventure Time theme, and most of the time, they prove to be few and far between&period;&NewLine;While buggy, frustrating, and repetitive, Adventure Time&colon; Finn and Jake Investigations still proves a decent story adventure&period; Beloved characters and simple controls mix into a fun series of short stories, though they may have been better off as mini-episodes instead of in-game adventures&period; Much could definitely be improved, but for a simple, by-the-by point-and-clicker, it’s still totally algebraic&period;&NewLine;<hr />&NewLine;A PS4 code for Adventure Time&colon; Finn and Jake Investigations was provided by Little Orbit for the purpose of this review&NewLine;

Categories: Game Reviews, PS4 Reviews
Tags: Adventure Time Games PlayStation Point and click Top Stories

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