12 Months, Sixty Dollars and a GBA: April

A Sound of Thunder
from our friends at bam!

This was going to be Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, but Aimee said, "don't get another movie tie-in," so I started looking for something else.  Tucked away at the back of the case was this game, A Sound of Thunder which no one in the shop, customers or staff, had ever heard of.  It was priced at $1.95, a sure sign it was a real winner.  As a courtesy, the owner of the store made an attempt to look the game up online.  The only thing he could bring up was a picture of the box art: an image of a man shooting a dinosaur in the mouth.  Things were looking up.  How bad could a game be where you either shoot a dinosaur in the mouth, or you try to eat a puny human as he meekly tries to defend himself?  Either way it's a win, right?  For $1.95 I was willing to find out...

Oh how I wish this were a Prince of Persia review...

 

Would that I could, Mr. Gyllanhaal...

But instead here we are with A Sound of Thunder, which as it turns out is a movie tie-in after all.  I'm probably the only person who has not seen this 2005 neo-classic, but if there are others like me out there, let me give you the scoop.  The movie, and subsequent game, centers around a time traveling hunter who inadvertently causes a butterfly effect when he accidentally sets off a chain reaction in the prehistoric era that  threatens to rip the fabric of space/time apart.  All in all, what could be a fun premise. If the movie was executed half as poorly as the game, it is no wonder Franchise Pictures is not a household name.

Think Tomb Raider without a buxom brunette and interesting level design and you pretty much have A Sound of Thunder.  The level design is uninspired.  The puzzle elements are weak and poorly implemented.  Difficulty is a mixed bag: some levels you can literally sprint through, in others you run out of ammo so often it's tiresome trying to alternately run away from the little dinos and zap them with your taser stick.  The game never inspires much fun and to that point I only made it about half-way through before saying enough was enough.

A typical day at the office

Graphically, the game is alright for a GBA game.  The characters and enemies are a little garbled, but the environments are well rendered.  The real shame is that the backgrounds are pretty bland, mostly office buildings and abandoned streets for the first part of the game.  Not terribly eye-catching for a game about shooting dinosaurs in the face.  And all of that would be have been fine, if the game had tried to build to something, but a bland plot about fixing the mistake in the past by doing something or other, and trying to stay alive while doing it needs a lot of help from interesting characters or plot twists.  This game has neither.

I would like to think it is impossible to waste $2 on a Gameboy Advance game, but A Sound of Thunder proves me completely wrong.  Anyone who paid full price for this game when it came out should be refunded their money and given a free copy of one of those popular Pokemon games the kids all rave about.  I just picked up a Mary Kate and Ashley game for the original Gameboy that is more engaging than A Sound of Thunder, and I only wish that were hyperbole.  Aovid this game at all costs, don't even accept it from someone for free, your AA batteries deserve better.

A Sound of Thunder gets the first EF Wooden Nickel Award...

  

Next month, a Too Many Games Exclusive Secret Game goes on the chopping block....