Wizards of Waverly Place – NDS – Review

There’s
something kind of magical about this one.

I say that,
because Disney DS games have had a bad track record of producing some of the
worst games for the DS. Seriously, the entire point, in my opinion, is to cash
in on the popular licenses that Disney continually pumps out but throw all of
$18.42 in actually making the game. They know the score, little kids will pester
their parents into buying this stuff and then play the game for 11 minutes
saying, how bad it is and whammo, millions of parents just flushed $19.99 down
the toilet.

Well, it
appears somebody at Disney must have gotten a conscience because Wizards of
Waverly Place is far and away one of the best Disney games made for the DS based
on one of their licenses. The game centers around the Russo family and fans of
the show will be delighted as they control Alex, Justin and Max as they must use
their magic, to get them both in and out of trouble. You see, the kids in the
house are all wizards of sorts and while they know magic, they aren’t supposed
to use it unless supervised by their Mom or Dad. Of course, no self respecting
kid is going to let a little thing like parental involvement stop them from
using magic. And so that’s how the game rolls.

Or should I
say casts, because as you play you must use different magical spells to move the
mini-quests and therefore the story forward. Using the tried-and-true "go get
item A and bring it back to location B" premise players must learn how to cast
the spells and use some actual thought to complete the game. Its not a terribly
difficult game mind you, and even if you forget what spell you need to cast you
can just go through all of your spells until one of them works. Again, your
typical player of this game is not going to be too old and will want lots of
feedback that reminds them of the show and of the actual magic. They will get
both as the game takes place in some of the show’s more popular locations, the
family restaurant, the school of magic and the Russo’s home.

"See,
looks like the color of a girl’s room."

Now the game
is better then most, like I said above. But they still needed to jazz up those
graphics, yeah, the characters do resemble their "living" counterparts, but only
just. The spit and polish is simply not there, heck not even the spit is there,
just a little polish really. The characters have that enlarged head thing going
for them and clearly the game seems more aimed towards girls given the palette
of colors that is prevalent. I passed this game around through my house filled
with four kids and it ended up and is still in my niece’s room.

Control
wise, the game has its moments and doing the magical spells really appeals to
younger players. Plus the game has several, truly fun and engaging mini-games
that even I could get behind. Making sub sandwiches is among one of my favorite
things to do in real life so imagine how excited I was when I got to do it in
this game. Yeah, I am waffling a little bit, and normally I may have been
tougher on this game, but I understand its core audience and I think they will
find the game to be engaging and enjoyable.

Not much to
write home about when the sound is addressed. An endless upbeat musical loop and
no voice work to be found anywhere. The sound effects are exactly what you would
guess a Disney game would have and have a soft, pleasant tone to them. There
seems to be no real rhyme or reason to some of the effects but kids probably
won’t care anyway.

It is a
short game to adults and probably just about right for kids. There is some
replayability as some of the characters have hidden items and clothes changes
(whatever) to be found. But other than that, Wizards is an above-board use of a
Disney license.

Review Scoring Details for Wizards of Waverly Place

Gameplay: 7.0
Not too bad,
some fun to be had while engaging in the mini-games and casting magic spells.
Things may get too repetitive for those over the age of 14.

Graphics: 6.5
The
characters look like their TV counterparts, barely. What’s with the bobble-head
look?

Sound: 6.0
The sound is
exactly what one would expect from a Disney game. Lots of frilly little sound
effects.

Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Even my
8-year old whipped through this title.

Concept: 6.8
Better than
some, the use of magic was – of couse – a smart idea. There is that repetition
thing though, or did I already say that?

Overall: 6.5
It does not
fail and has several bright spots, there is some issues with how it looks and
the gameplay can become monotonous, not a bad attempt though.