Completion Time: 4h:48m:00s
Rating: 5/10

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Cul-de-sac Chaos

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A Cartoon Network series from the very late 90's that ran until the late aughts, Danny Antonucci's "Ed, Edd n Eddy" was one of CN's most popular series and, for a time, its longest running. As such, it makes sense that it would have merchandise out the wazoo, which naturally extends to video games. The 2005 release "Ed, Edd n Eddy - The Mis-Edventures" is one of these, and touts itself as a puzzle platformer reminiscent of playing episodes of the series! Sounds like fun, but that's rarely the case when it comes to games like these. However I've been pretty well surprised by some of the licensed games I've played thus far as part of this little experiment, so this could well be on the more decent side of things. I'll just have to see.

Finally, we've given children access to the sewers!

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Scams Aplenty

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So I did watch a fair amount of the show when it was actively airing, and so the first thing I noticed is that the graphic styling is quite good for the era. It manages to capture the "squiggle-vision" style of the cartoon quite well, and with the original cast of voice actors returning, it does come a bit closer to actually representing something you might see while watching the show. Which makes it all the better that the game is split into chapters with title cards as if they're 11 minute episodes of the original series run. Even the music is reminiscent of the show in many ways, giving it a chaotic feel as you run around and bash things. There isn't much VARIETY in the soundtrack, however, which is unfortunate. It's pretty grating when you're running around trying to solve a puzzle or progress and the same "bwomp" noises keep going off repetitively.

Also unfortunate that the title card has to "fill in" its color as it loads.

The presentation is nice, but when it comes down to... well, everything else, that's where it starts to fall apart. You play through a collection of "scams" as the main trio Ed, Edd, and Eddy, in their never-ending quest to collect quarters so that they can buy their favorite candy: jawbreakers. There are some neat ideas that don't really coalesce into anything very solid, with each of the Eds having unique abilities as well as their own take-charge super move that utilizes each of the other characters in unique ways. For example, Edd has a slingshot in his back pocket and can fix the more technical pieces of puzzles with his engineering skills, and his super move has Ed and Eddy forming a human trampoline to bounce him to higher places. These all work, but to what end when you can't figure out what you're meant to be doing? The puzzles themselves are confusing and at times irritating, not because they're particularly hard, but that game isn't always clear about where you're meant to go or what you even can do at any given time. It doesn't help that the super move "trampolines", "towers", and "battering rams" will sometimes just end prematurely and lead you to puzzles trouble or an untimely end, which will force you to start over.

Here's your problem, this machine is full of gears!

"Just barely missed it" is something you'll be saying pretty often

Really, though, progression through the game itself isn't all that difficult once you're realizing what you're meant to be doing, which is the key. At that point its a breeze to clear the remainder of whatever level you're in and get things over with. Since the game is just a collection of vignettes with no overarching story, there really isn't a conclusion to the game or a narrative to fall back on, so once you finish the final chapter, you're booted back to the hub world with an unceremonious hurrah and some credits. I wasn't expecting some grandiose revelation or anything, but even some fireworks might've been nice?

You can have your own "hip, hip hurray" in the hub world if you'd like, but that's it

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Completing the Game

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Ah, completion. The real mainstay where things either come together or fall apart for me. And to be fair, there are quite a lot of pieces to this particular game's 100& roadmap. First things first: the jawbreakers. As you make your way through the different level, you'll find hidden jawbreakers with different flavors to add into your collection. Thankfully you can track how many you have for any given chapter, which is standard for these types of affairs but is still welcome tracking. The other things to worry about here, though, are quarters. Random smattering of quarters scattered everywhere are useful, because the remainder of the jawbreaker collection can only be accessed via a huge candy dispenser in the hub world. And you better believe it costs money to use.

I'm honestly not sure I know what this means... oh, its a reference to the show. I thought I was losing it.

There are also sets of clothing to be found around hidden in sandboxes, but not really to be worn. The real benefit of collecting the two clothing sets is that this is how you unlock the two bonus stages. One acts as a sort of kaiju monster movie level, the other as a sci-fi shooter stage. These are actually a lot of fun in construction, and its a shame that the mechanics and set pieces only appear in bonus material. It doesn't make the rest of the title more enjoyable, but more so makes me wonder "where was all this when I was playing the game before?!"

I remember a point in time when lightsabers were still cool

Finally, the easter eggs. In each level, you can come across a random chicken that will be running around as if it were missing its head. Should you catch it, there's a different easter egg that can be unlocked and turned on. These range from big head mode to space suit costumes, to special features that show the game's trailer, a filmed recording session, and a music video featuring the character Plank. I wish more games would go back to unlockable features, easter eggs, and even just cheat codes. Why aren't we doing this anymore?!

We're sorry, but the name "Ed Bighead" was copyrighted over a decade ago

The game is a nostalgia trip for sure, and its charm comes in spades from the rendering of the titular trio and their interactions with the spot on environment, soundtrack, and presentation. Something that I think fans of the show would enjoy up to a point. But as a game, there just isn't much of anything here. It can be obtuse, repetitive, and even frustrating at times due to the combination of those first two points. If there's any final bonus that can be taken away from my time with this one, its that splitting the game into separate smaller chapters instead of one larger overarching story only helped, as it would've fallen apart much more quickly as a longer narrative.

This is another entry in a series where I go through and complete every GameCube game, as it is the largest part of my video game collection. GameCube Games: 33/652