Lizzie McGuire: On the Go! – GBA – Review

Lizzie McGuire, the cheerful young teenager on the popular Disney TV show, has made her debut on the GBA in Lizzie McGuire on the go!, a collection of mini-games that also features a platform jumper, several question and answer games, and a simple PDA that lists classes, friends and has a horoscope function.

There are several basic, yet amusing mini-games: Box Bash, a tetris game; Matching, which is matching, of course; Dots ‘n’ Boxes, where players take turns drawing single lines in-between dots to ultimately make boxes; Code Blue, which is four-in-a-row; and Word Guess, a hangman game. All of these except for Word Guess can also be played against a friend. In order to unlock these games, plus the trivia type games, players have to complete a certain number of levels in the platform game.

The platform game is simply designed; it requires the player to move Lizzie around to collect fashion items in a mall, while a timer is running. Once a certain number of levels have been completed, a game or other feature will unlock. However, for some inexplicable reason, the player’s progress isn’t saved in this activity, which means that the entire game has to be played over, and over, and over again, every time Lizzie fails to beat the timer or when restarting the game.

The Fun with Friends activities consist of a trivia game with questions about the show, a fashion question/answer survey which rates players’ fashion know-how, and a magic genie type game. The PDA is simply a list of classes for each day of the week, a horoscope, and a list of friends.

Lizzie is drawn exactly like the cartoon alter-ego on the TV show, and the graphics on all parts of the game are nicely done. Pink is the overlying theme, but that’s just fine, we like pink. The music is nothing extraordinary, but is pleasant enough to listen to.

The best part of this game are the fun mini-games. While all are standard fare, the presentation is good and the reason they’ve been around so long is because they are essentially good games for a light diversion. Having a multiplayer option is great, too. The Fun with Friends activities are amusing the first few times, but the replay value here isn’t as high as the rest of the game. The PDA is so simple, that I really don’t know why they’re calling it a PDA. On the classes, there’s no area for listing homework or assignments. Hopefully the kids will be able to remember what classes they’re in by now, so the point of it escapes me.

The platform game is fun the first few times, then it quickly becomes annoying when you begin to realize that there is no save function, at least not that we could tell. I can assure you, many kids are never going to unlock all these games, because they’re not going to want to replay the first several levels over and over again.

For some reason, developers seem to have this fixed idea that all girls need a horoscope activity, so they keep including them in “girls games”. I wish they wouldn’t.

This is a decent collection of varied activities with a popular character, most of which are fun to play. There is a good variety here, with a little something for everyone. The platform game, while easy and simple, is engaging enough. However, having to begin at the first level every time is nuts.

Gameplay: 6.5
The games and activities are fairly amusing, but the platform game’s lack of any save feature really takes away the fun and just becomes frustrating.

Graphics: 8
A nice job with the animation and backgrounds, there is plenty of detail with bright, cheerful colors.

Sound: 6.5
Very average music, but it’s not annoying, either.

Difficulty: Easy/Medium
The games run a gamut from easy to not so easy, but there aren’t any really difficult games.

Concept: 6.5
We’ve seen them all before, but they’re still fun to play.

Multiplayer: 7
Having the ability to play a friend is always a plus!

Overall: 6.7
A decent enough collection of activities, but the platform game should have had a save function to keep track of progress. Once each mini-game is unlocked, then at least that level of play should not have to be repeated to gain the next unlocked game.