Hidden Gems #35 Rocket Power: Beach Bandits, Rugrats Royal Ransom, and Tak and the Power of Juju

Nickelodeon games can either be good or bad depending on judgement of gameplay and graphics, and in this I have found three of these games all around the same the PlayStation 2 era that are actually very fair for their time. Here the best from that system, although some of these are also found on the Gamecube as well, but again I played them on The PlayStation and its massive amount of library to boot.

Rugrats Royal Ransom: Okay well start off with the game I first played of the three Being Royal Ransom which is a pretty solid title from that series seeing that the Rugrats history of license are either mediocre or okay this one is good for its time. Developed by Avalanche Software who is also responsible for another game will talk about has some fairly decent games they have done over the years not all of them are so, but in this case not that bad. The plot is that Stu invented his next great invention called the play palace 3000, and eventually mysteriously Angelica finds her way to the top of the place set, and the Rugrats must fight their way each area to reach the top, and dethrone Angelica. On your way is nine levels, and a whole lot of batteries you must get in order to ascend up to the top hover in this case. actually now that I think about the gameplay does look odd at times such as gong into the home you live and the camera angle are a bit strange just a bit of something I never noticed revisiting this game. When I was much younger I never beat the game, but I was halfway from the home stench, but this game got brutally difficult to find more batteries if you were not too careful. Severely dated graphics that almost look like a PlayStation 1 game at times, but retains itself for being a no slouch when it comes to raising difficulty bar, and a game that can keep you second guessing for a bit in a day overall it was good, but would I play this again in the future i'm not so sure since I forgot long ago I had this over others. 6/10

Rocket Power Beach Bandits: With the massive flop of Team Rocket Rescue, Rocket Power finally got its true defining game in Beach Bandits which is the technical credit for the idea of rouge robots all over town before Battle of Bikini Bottom perfected it greater obviously, but this was year before that and it was pretty stellar and cool to play back in the day. The soundtrack is pretty good, and graphics fit in really well with the animation of that time. Made by Evolution Games who I never heard of apparently this was the only one they made if so nice on hit wonder right? The plot of the game is simple somebody stole the sand, and water from Ocean Shores, and thus Golem industries is trying to buy the place. In a great twist the brain behind the operation is Golem Jr. the kid you encounter once you have gone back from your trip to the lake. Eventually after having evidence of the three other levels (Wishing Waters, and Mondo Mountain) Everything seems almost done expect you have to settle the core by defeating him four different styles you have mastered along the way. You win he goes to jail, but they seem cool by the end which is a odd way to end it after fighting your way just to bust the whole thing. After grabbing up a certain amount of gold coins you unlock other characters in the game to play multiplayer if you chose to do so. I didn't 100% this game, but it was good, and better than the other three combined. I say give it a world while it was limited, the premise was very intriguing to say and thus fairly solid license game a very underrated choice that while there were times the controls can be frustrating it was responsive, and fits in with its series extremely well. 7/10

Tak and the Power of Juju: Here's a interesting one that was not originally a show it was a video game first, and it relates to the other two games because Beach Bandits promoted this game all over the place while Royal Ransom just showed a small trailer of it, and it caught my eye as something interesting I don't believe it needed a TV series, but i'll get o that down the road perhaps. This was the first game in the series, and one that seems lost in darkness of Nickelodeon long ago 15 years ago ironically. Th game plot was way more unique than the actual show itself. Tak has juju powers, and he goes through jumping platforms to stop Tlaloc a villainous Shaman. What I don't Bremen is Lok's voice actor is Patrick Warburton who we all know was Kronk In Emperor's New Groove, and Joe from Family Guy a hidden gem to see him play a video game character, and eventually revise his role in the against terrible TV adaption. The general idea what you do is ''the player can jump and attack. The player has a health-meter represented by the feather on Tak's head. One unique feature is the ability to interact with and get past obstacles with the help of animals. Tak than receives the Spirit Rattle, they gain access to the use of juju Powers which acquire collecting tokens scattered around the environment. To restore Tak's health and mana the player must collect feathers, which are much more common in the environment than Juju Power tokens. The game heavily features collecting various other items. One of the game's developers said that the gameplay was based on Sly Cooper, the level design on the Jak trilogy, and the humor of Ratchet and Clank which are all PlayStation exclusive franchises.'' In other words it a sorta reference to other exclusive titles which might be a stench considering this was also owned on the Gamecube as well as the Advanced like the other two. After the long fight for prophecy is finally fulfilled turning the corrupt Shaman into a sheep thus the true chosen warrior of what i'm guessing is a tribe. Yes this game was also developed by Avalanche Software they went in a complete different direction this time around than oppose to their Rugrats title which was forgettable, but not that bad of a game as some would suggest. I do love the concept, and setting this game brings an original idea that reasonably the sole reason for many of the other games to come after this successor spawned other related things. 7.5/10

That's all for now until next time. "Nick Nick Nick Nick, NaNick Nick Nick, Nick-El-O-De-OOONNN!!!!!''

Credits:
Nickelodeon 90's theme Jingle - Eugene Pitt R.I.P

Comments

I have only played the first and third ones. But not the second one nor have I ever watched the show it's based on. Good times. - Discord1