Kim Possible : What's The Switch? (PS2)
If you follow my YouTube channel, I've mentioned this game in one of my game room tour videos, and you already know what I think of it, albeit not in much detail. So for you this will be a much more detailed explanation, and for everyone else this is just a regular old review. This one is the only Kim Possible game to be released on a home console, with all the other titles being made for either the DS or GameBoy Advance, so let's go see what the sitch is.
To face off against all these enemies, you'll have the help of a few gadgets along the way. Kim and Shego each have three, and all are learned naturally throughout the game as Wade simply tells you about them when the time is right. Of the gadgets, Kim and Shego have two that are essentially carbon copies. Kim has a grappling hook and an EMS device, while Shego can do these same moves through using the green energy that she can harness. The different gadgets are Kim's gum which can stick enemies to the ground in place, or sticking doors and levers open to allow her to get through, while Shego has a magnetic beam that can pull metal objects directly to her.
What's The Switch is very linear throughout the game. The only "exploration" you get to do is there are alternate platforming routes you can take that will let you collect some of the games in-level collectible items, but these do nothing more than just unlocking alternate costumes or special short missions that don't really tie into the main game.
Your main objective for the entirety of the game is hunting down Professor Dementor to retrieve the idol, and each level is essentially driven by the same goal. However a lot of the levels will end with you squaring off with one of his henchmen while he narrowly escapes and you chase him on to the next location. A good portion of the games levels are an even split between platforming and combat, but there are a few that rely heavily on platforming to get through them.
The one other character you will get to use at times throughout the game is Ron's naked mole rat sidekick, Rufus. When the brain switch occurs in the opening level of the game, he quickly jumps ship to go with Kim and rides the rest of the game in one of her pockets. You don't get to use him a lot, but he is your only access to hard to reach places like vents and inside of termnals.
In the end this one is a pretty enjoyable game, but how much of a challenge does it bring to the player?
Your enemies are fairly easy. They only appear one or two at a time, and while the game tries to make them sound bad with the different variations, such as ones who charge you or heavy types, they can all go down with simple punch or kick combos. There are certain enemies that can only be made vulnerable by being hit with a particular move first, but they're generally a bit sluggish and you have plenty of time to set yourself up and take them down. Even the bosses are easy, the only difference that the punches or kicks on these have to be landed in strategic places instead of just going all over.
The platforming, however, is the challenging area of the game. Most of it's pretty easy, but there are a few levels that can present a moderate challenge to the player. As I mentioned above, there are some levels in this game that are strictly just platforming only, with no combat at all in them. These levels are a lot more fast-paced, and they don't leave you much room for error, so if you miss a jump or two, chances are that's where your attempts will end.
So not much difficulty from this one, and not many areas of difficulty either, but let's see what was good and bad about this one.
- Original Voice Cast. The one upsetting thing that happens with video games based on TV shows or movies is when the voices aren't the same. That's not a worry with this game, as they got the entire cast for all the voices from the show to come into the game. So if you're a fan of the cartoon (guilty here) it brings a lot of familiarity to the game that makes it that much more enjoyable while playing.
Did I Finish It?
This one I most definitely saw it through to the end. I will risk sounding extremely repetitive, but the platforming in this game is just incredible and so well done. I honestly almost missed going into work, I was having so much fun playing this one, that I would have beaten it in one sitting. It was more enjoyable to me because not only am I a huge fan of the cartoon (yes I used the present tense), but I got to meet Christy Carlson Romano at the first Comic Con that I ever went to (she's the voice of Kim Possible for those who aren't huge dorks like me).
The Story
Kim and Ron are out on a mission to, as usual, stop the evil Dr. Drakken and his sidekick Shego from stealing a powerful monkey idol from Monkey Fist's castle. As the four of them are fighting over the idol, a machine gets activated that ends up switching the brains of Ron and Drakken, leaving them in control of the other's body. Caught off guard by the switch, Kim and Shego aren't able to stop Professor Dementor who swoops in and runs off with the idol. Kim chases after him, knowing that the idol is needed to switch Ron and Drakken back to normal, but she is unaware that Shego is heading in the same direction. Can the two enemies become friends long enough to save their actual friends and partners?The Controls
What's The Switch is a side-scrolling platformer game with a little bit of a beat-em-up splashed in, so the controls for this one are fairly simple. You can use either the left joystick or left and right on the D-pad to move through the level. X is jump, and can be pressed again in midair for a double jump, △ and □ are your fighting buttons, controlling your kicks and punches respectively, and O uses whichever gadget you have selected. L1 and R1 will make you do a handspring in whichever direction you push, acting as a dodging maneuver, and lastly you can use either L2 and R2, or you can flick the right joystick left or right, to cycle through all of your gadgets.The Gameplay
The game is broken up into levels that take place all over the world as you try and chase down Professor Dementor and reclaim the stolen idol. At first you are chasing him down outside of the castle, but it's his escape that set's Shego and Kim teaming him up to track down the idol together. Each level will have you alternating between playing as Kim and Shego, and you travel to different locations around the world squaring off with some recognizable foes from the cartoon, like the henchmen, robot monkey ninjas, and even some of Monty Fiske's conjured monkey spirits.To face off against all these enemies, you'll have the help of a few gadgets along the way. Kim and Shego each have three, and all are learned naturally throughout the game as Wade simply tells you about them when the time is right. Of the gadgets, Kim and Shego have two that are essentially carbon copies. Kim has a grappling hook and an EMS device, while Shego can do these same moves through using the green energy that she can harness. The different gadgets are Kim's gum which can stick enemies to the ground in place, or sticking doors and levers open to allow her to get through, while Shego has a magnetic beam that can pull metal objects directly to her.
What's The Switch is very linear throughout the game. The only "exploration" you get to do is there are alternate platforming routes you can take that will let you collect some of the games in-level collectible items, but these do nothing more than just unlocking alternate costumes or special short missions that don't really tie into the main game.
Your main objective for the entirety of the game is hunting down Professor Dementor to retrieve the idol, and each level is essentially driven by the same goal. However a lot of the levels will end with you squaring off with one of his henchmen while he narrowly escapes and you chase him on to the next location. A good portion of the games levels are an even split between platforming and combat, but there are a few that rely heavily on platforming to get through them.
The one other character you will get to use at times throughout the game is Ron's naked mole rat sidekick, Rufus. When the brain switch occurs in the opening level of the game, he quickly jumps ship to go with Kim and rides the rest of the game in one of her pockets. You don't get to use him a lot, but he is your only access to hard to reach places like vents and inside of termnals.
In the end this one is a pretty enjoyable game, but how much of a challenge does it bring to the player?
The Challenge (or lack thereof?)
The two main areas you'll be faced with in this game are your enemies, and the platforming.Your enemies are fairly easy. They only appear one or two at a time, and while the game tries to make them sound bad with the different variations, such as ones who charge you or heavy types, they can all go down with simple punch or kick combos. There are certain enemies that can only be made vulnerable by being hit with a particular move first, but they're generally a bit sluggish and you have plenty of time to set yourself up and take them down. Even the bosses are easy, the only difference that the punches or kicks on these have to be landed in strategic places instead of just going all over.
The platforming, however, is the challenging area of the game. Most of it's pretty easy, but there are a few levels that can present a moderate challenge to the player. As I mentioned above, there are some levels in this game that are strictly just platforming only, with no combat at all in them. These levels are a lot more fast-paced, and they don't leave you much room for error, so if you miss a jump or two, chances are that's where your attempts will end.
So not much difficulty from this one, and not many areas of difficulty either, but let's see what was good and bad about this one.
PROS
- Amazing Platforming. It's apparent right off the bat that the platforming is the main driving point of this game, and it is so well done. Before I picked this one up, I had heard that the platforming in this one was a highlight, and it's the truth. Kim's grappling hook (and Shego's grapple beam) are incorporated greatly in this area and it's just a lot of fun because it challenges you a little bit but all the platforming flows together seamlessly.- Original Voice Cast. The one upsetting thing that happens with video games based on TV shows or movies is when the voices aren't the same. That's not a worry with this game, as they got the entire cast for all the voices from the show to come into the game. So if you're a fan of the cartoon (guilty here) it brings a lot of familiarity to the game that makes it that much more enjoyable while playing.
CONS
- Animation Style. While the cartoon is presented in a more "hand-drawn" style (I realize that nothing is actually hand drawn anymore, but I think you know what I mean), the game is not. What's The Switch takes on a more 3D generated animation style that just makes this one look and feel off. I mentioned something similar a while back when I did a review on Rugrats : Search for Reptar and it does the same thing in this game as it did in that one : it just makes it look silly. The DS games based on Kim Possible are all done in the same style as the show is, so I don't know if they changed it just because it was a console and they wanted to expand further with the higher power of a console over a handheld device, but it can be distracting at a lot of points.Final Verdict
So, as I said earlier, I've mentioned this game on my YouTube channel before while doing a tour of my game room, so if you saw that video then you know what I'm going to say, and it's that this game is beyond worth it. Honestly speaking, this is one of my favorite PS2 games in my collection, and it's all because of the platforming. Every other area of the game is extremely easy, as is to be expected with the target audience of this game being extremely young. But the platforming is where this one really shines, and (to me at least) it gives this game an almost Super Mario type quality. So while this one is really easy, and probably beatable in one sitting, it is a lot of fun, whether you like the cartoon or not. You can nab a loose disc of this one for around $5, or a CIB copy for closer to $10, but you will definitely get your moneys worth from this one.Did I Finish It?
This one I most definitely saw it through to the end. I will risk sounding extremely repetitive, but the platforming in this game is just incredible and so well done. I honestly almost missed going into work, I was having so much fun playing this one, that I would have beaten it in one sitting. It was more enjoyable to me because not only am I a huge fan of the cartoon (yes I used the present tense), but I got to meet Christy Carlson Romano at the first Comic Con that I ever went to (she's the voice of Kim Possible for those who aren't huge dorks like me).
