Barnyard – GC – Review

THQ, known for
their licensed video games on children’s films, brings forth another
movie-enthused title.  This time it is Nickelodeon’s Barnyard and THQ
hopes to mix up the genre a little.  Many gamers will expect Barnyard to be the
run-of-the-mill adaptation where you play the film’s storyline.  In Barnyard,
that is not the case; THQ provides players an open-ended world to play through
and decide on their own mission layout. 

The developer in
charge of creating Barynard is Blue Tongue.  Blue Tongue is responsible for
THQ’s The Polar Express that released in 2004 on the PC, PS2, and
GameCube.  Outside of The Polar Express, Blue Tongue has worked on the
Starship Troopers franchise on the PC, and Jurassic Park: Operation
Genesis on the Xbox and PS2.  With Barnyard being their biggest title to
date, let’s look how everything turned out.

Fans of the movie
will get a kick out of seeing their favorite characters on the farm full of
crazy animals.  If you haven’t seen the movie, the synopsis of the plot is
simple – animals walk and talk just like humans in the world of Barnyard.  They
even walk upright and have different characteristics to set them apart from one
another.  Otis is the happy-go-lucky cow that is the popular stud on the farm. 
Everyone looks towards him for his practical jokes and funny stunts, but his
father doesn’t approve.  The “coyote season” arrives and Otis’ father, Ben,
steps down as the security guard of the farm leaving Otis in charge.  Otis must
fill his father’s shoes in protecting the farm and running it as he sees fit,
all without ever being noticed by the humans.  Barnyard is nothing out of the
ordinary if you follow children’s movies closely – with a simple concept, all
children should understand the game with ease.

The favorite
characters from the film show up in the video game in a variety of ways.  Otis
is the main character from the film, while Ben and even Peck, a wacky chicken,
make their appearances.  You don’t necessarily play as Otis – you are thrown
into Barnyard as a new kid on the block.  Being the new kid on the block, you’ll
want to make your first impression a lasting one, so time to hit it off with the
cool kids.  You’ll participate in many of the activities that are played out as
mini-games.  You’ll be playing gopher golf, launching chickens with slingshots,
shooting coyotes and raccoons with your udders, and much more.  Half of the fun
is watching things play out as Barnyard takes animal parity to the extreme.  I
have never seen a male cow with udders (am I missing something here
Nickelodeon?).  The missions aren’t that hard, but each of them varies from one
another to set them apart.  If you aren’t looking to complete missions, you can
set out to accept tasks from the locales.  Usually these tasks consist of
finding hidden / lost items for the NPCs.

The storyline is
loose and isn’t heavy on storytelling.  It still revolves around the raccoons
and coyotes trying to invade the farm, so it isn’t exactly groundbreaking from
the movie counterpart.  There are some sidetracking events that will fill up
your time.  There are BMX tricks you can perform just for the sake of it on your
bicycle.  There are parlor games at the barn to play such as pool, darts and
whack-a-rac.

Graphically
speaking, THQ and Blue Tongue put out decent visuals.  The 3D sandbox world is
great; not too many licensed video games based on children’s movies visit this
route, so it is refreshing.  The cel-shaded graphics of the characters are
accurate depictions of their film equals.  The animations of the characters are
detailed enough to notice – they’ll smile, blink, and kick up dirt when they
walk.  The familiar locations from the film should be welcoming to the fanatics
that loved the movie.  Overall, the graphics are never held up; no skipping
framerate problems or a lack of visual effects, Barnyard holds up well against
others in its genre. 

The audio isn’t up
to par when compared to the graphics.  The sound effects are all in place; when
you shake a tree, when you ride your bike, and other actions are accompanied by
sound effects.  What’s actually missing is depth in the recorded dialogue
portion of the audio.  NPCs will only read the first line of the dialogue and
then leave the player hanging to read the rest.  The soul of the characters
isn’t exactly displayed and it leaves them lifeless.  If Blue Tongue would have
concentrated on delivering solid voice-overs, it would have come across better
in the audio department.

Barnyard is
impressive when compared to other children’s games as of late.  It has the
open-ended experience that gamers are looking for and even allows the players to
create their own character.  If Blue Tongue would have focused a little more on
the story and shelled out more dialogue, this would have been the surprise hit
of the fall for me.
 

Gameplay: 7.2
The open-ended gameplay is refreshing to the point I actually enjoyed myself
thoroughly.  A decent surprise at that, Barnyard does have its limitations.  The
storyline is as weak as the movie and the characters may feel a little
contrived.  There’s easily ten hours of gameplay in Barnyard.

Graphics: 7.4
Replicates the movie adequately.  While it doesn’t compare to any of the top
tier GameCube games (Resident Evil), it does stand up to other children’s games.

Sound: 6.1
Surprisingly, Blue Tongue didn’t dish out a plethora of recorded dialogue like I
expected.  With that omission, it felt as if there was a void that kept the
interaction minimal with the living world of Barynard.

Difficulty: Easy

Definitely aimed
towards beginners; I never had trouble once playing through the mini-games. 

Concept: 7.3

Licensed video
games aren’t a shocking new trend.  It’s nice to see that THQ and Blue Tongue
put out a licensed title that doesn’t follow the story, but allows the players
to create their own character within that world.

Overall: 7.1

This is ultimately
aimed at the younger audience.  If you find yourself over the age of 16 and you
buy this, I hope you know what you are about to get yourself into.  This won’t
have the blood and violence from those “teen” rated video games.  Barnyard is
basically what I think every parent should look for when buying their children
video games.  It is open-ended, has humor, and looks visually pleasing.  Before
you buy it though, make sure you watch the movie.