I had a lot of fun with 2012’s Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why’d You Steal Our Garbage!? on the 3DS. It was a cute little game that was a lot like Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, except with Adventure Time characters instead. WayForward returned with another game based in the Land of Ooo, Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON’T KNOW!, last year. The game, the first for the PC, PS3, Wii U, and Xbox 360, is an overhead dungeon-crawler that lets you play as several different characters instead of just Finn and Jake. I was super excited to play as Lumpy Space Princess because, well, she’s LSP, and she’s the best. But even being able to play as my favorite character didn’t make the game any better.
Platforms: PC, PS3 (Version Played), Wii U, Xbox 360
Publisher: D3 Publisher
Developer: WayForward Technologies
Genre: Dungeon Crawling Grindfest
Release Date: November 19, 2013
ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+
Let me start by saying I love the Adventure Time cartoon. It’s so strange and wonderful – it’s this bizarre, future world ravaged by the effects of radiation, and within it are these whimsical characters who live and love and fight and come to life. So it’s a place that has this dangerous undertone of the perils of war, and is filled with scary monsters, but also has Finn and Jake, Princess Bubblegum and Lady Rainicorn, and all kinds of other beautiful characters who have complicated relationships. These characters have an innocence that belies the weirdness of their world, and their stories are all told within the backdrop of this weird mix of danger and naivete.
Yet, for some reason, the video games based in this world have been nothing but utterly bland. Neither of them take the time to delve into the rich stories that already exist here. Instead, we get games that are clones of other games, with our beloved characters stamped onto them. There’s nothing about the story in this game that is even remotely interesting – it’s so uninspired that someone must have tried to make it this terrible. Add to that boring gameplay and you get one of the most disappointing gaming experiences I’ve ever had.
In Explore the Dungeon Because I DON’T KNOW!, Finn and Jake are recruited by Princess Bubblegum once more, and sent on yet another excursion, this time into her dungeons. There’s so much for them to do, including kill monsters, collect candy, get powerups, fight bosses, kill monsters, collect… wait, now I’m starting to repeat, because those are all of the things you do. You just do them a million times, and then keep doing them, and do them a few more times. It feels like a never-ending dungeon grind, and what’s worse, it’s not very fun.
The dungeon is divided into 100 levels, with a boss stationed at the end of every fifth level. After defeating the boss, you have to head back to the Candy Kingdom to spend your candy on upgrades. After that, you can venture back into the dungeon where you left off or you can restart with the first level of each set of five levels (so the first, sixth, eleventh, etc). Lather, rinse, and repeat. The enemies get more difficult, and you gain more powerups that give things a little variety, but for the most part, it’s really just a monotonous grindfest that never really improves. What’s worse, upgrades in the Candy Kingdom are expensive, and candy is sparse in the dungeon. You have to save up a lot of candy to get anything, and when you want to go back to the dungeon, the Princess takes whatever you have left as a tax. I can’t believe the Princess chooses now to exercise fierce accounting.
The powerups are one of the most fun things in the whole game. There are two different types – secondary weapon powerups and button powerups. My favorite weapon is the Kitten Gun, which is a gun that shoots kittens and gives a little “meow” with every shot, and is pretty much the most adorable thing you can pick up. You can gather these secondary weapons and stick them in your stash for later. The buttons are applicable before you go into the dungeon, doing things like giving you extra health (“thumps”) and preventing damage while blocking.
The only other things to gather are candy (which acts as currency), food (which heals you), and ammo. The candy is used to upgrade a bunch of things while back in the Candy Kingdom, including Rowdiness, Focus, and Imagination. You can also switch characters while walking around aboveground, switching to characters like Marcelline and Cinnamon Bun. Each one has their own special powers, and it’s better to play with multiple people so you have a higher chance of gathering all the candy.
This leads me to what I disliked the most about the game. There just isn’t enough candy to go around, even if you’re playing the game single-player. I never had enough candy to get significant upgrades, and when playing with multiple players, the amount of candy doesn’t increase. So you’re sharing the same amount of candy with one to three other players, meaning when you go aboveground, none of you can afford anything. It’s incredibly frustrating and disappointing, and makes it feel like you’re not really making any progress at all.
There are also places that only certain characters can get to. LSP and Marcelline can float, and Jake can stretch himself over pits, so they are the only ones that can get to certain areas – and, as a result, certain treasures. This means you have to play one of those characters if you want to collect everything, or you have to play with other players who are willing to play as them. This seems like an unnecessary hardship to add to an already bland and difficult game.
To say I was disappointed with Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON’T KNOW! would be an understatement. I love this world and these characters, and seeing such rich content squandered is incredibly frustrating. Not only is the gameplay bland, but the game itself actually hurts the franchise. True fans of the series will be let down, and those who don’t know the series very well will have a horrible introduction to it. I wouldn’t recommend this game to anyone, unless you really want that sweet BMO steelbook case that comes with the 3DS version.
Review Disclosure: A review copy of Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON’T KNOW! was provided by D3 Publisher for the purposes of this review.
