Phineas and Ferb: The Quest for Cool Stuff

I’m not even going to pretend I know anything about Phineas and Ferb. It’s another American import and probably the most American game I will play until I get to Darkest of Days. I had no real idea who any of the characters were and I’m still none the wiser and it will stay that way.

However, I was pleasantly surprised by the game for the first 10 or so minutes I played it. Soon after that though, things started to unravel.

Phineas and Ferb follows the story of… Phineas and Ferb, two strange looking children who are either super intelligent or just have super-active imaginations. They go on a quest for cool stuff using a bizarre digging thing in their back garden. They build a museum of cool in which to celebrate.

There is also one of the coolest characters I’ve seen in video games – Perry the Platypus. Whoever thought to give a platypus a fedora and pose him as a crime fighting detective deserves some serious praise. He also has his own theme tune.

The gameplay itself revolves around a simple platforming mechanic as you navigate the super cool digging machine through a variety of different levels, jumping from platform to platform and collecting stuff for the museum. As you progress, you unlock bits of the machine that allow you to explore different parts of levels, like a better drill to get through harder rocks or a headlight to see in dark places – though in reality, the headlight makes no difference so it’s just a device to force you to revisit areas you could not previously go to.

The robot digger thing has two functions, one controlled by Phineas, the other by Ferb. With Ferb, you can jump better and do a spinny attack. With Phineas you can kill enemies with a drill.

So what started to suck about the gameplay after ten minutes? To sum up in one word; jumping. The jumping mechanic is total shite. It suffers from similar issues to JuJu in that forward momentum does not equal a better jump to clear a larger gap. There were so many times I missed jumps because the game decided I hadn’t done something in a very exact way to get enough distance on my jump.

There are occasional jumping sections where you play as the individual characters outside of the digger. These are timed and the jumping issue caused me to fail a few times. It’s not game-breaking but it is annoying. Dying in levels, when you fall into bottomless pits, doesn’t carry too severe a punishment either so it doesn’t make the game harder – it just feels like poor design.

Speaking of unintentional, there are two bits where you have to collect items as both Phineas and Ferb. At the end of a Ferb bit, Phineas says ‘Great job Ferb!’ and you can see Phineas in the background watching so this makes sense. However, when you complete these bits as Phineas, he still says, ‘Great Job Ferb!’ at the end. Ferb is nowhere to be seen so this is just a cut-and-paste to the point where it doesn’t make sense.

Achievements – 1,000 Points – 29 Achievements

Despite the gameplay issues, it’s possible to get through the game in under 5 hours and you will nab 8 achievements for doing so. Most of the other achievements are earned by collecting everything in all levels which is essentially all that’s required for the 100% completion.

There are few annoying elements to this. Burford’s races force you to replay levels for no other reason than to beat his time, and upgrading the museum of cool and buying all the customisation items costs more in-game currency than you will accumulate throughout your playthrough so there is a small need to replay levels at the end. It’s so small though, that I don’t think it can be called a grind.

Collecting all of the items is really easy as the game is so linear with the exception of one level where you go into outer space. In this one level, the collectibles are in really obscure locations and out of the way and it’s the only time I had to use a guide to find anything.

As Perry the Platypus, you need to find all the gnomes instead of treasures but these are easy to find as well.

Downloadable Content – N/A

Phineas and Ferb was an okay experience that tried it’s best to shit all over itself which is a real shame. However, it has introduced me to Perry the Platypus so it will always have a special place in my heart. All in all, another quick and easy 1,000 Gamerscore. If you live in America, that is.

Backyard Sports: Backyard Football 10

The next American Xbox completion to come through is Backyard Sports: Backyard Football 10 and the first thing I learned when playing this game was that I had not maintained anything I learned about American Football from when I played Madden 08 a few years ago.

Thankfully though, Backyard Sports: Backyard Football 10 is a much quicker completion than Madden as it doesn’t require you to complete 10 years’ worth of the franchise.

The game itself is simple enough to anyone that knows American Football and it quickly came back to me – make the plays, cross your fingers and hope they come off. Someone who understands American Football will tell me I’m wrong though as I’m sure there is some way of getting the plays to consistently go your way.

In terms of the gameplay, it’s a much more dumbed down version of American Football… but the rooster does feature Tom Brady, which I found surprising as all the characters are just referred to by their first names when you are playing.

In terms of looks, it’s intentionally cartoony that appears to be the staple of the series. Sounds wise, the commentary sucks ass. I get that it’s not taking itself seriously but to the level of poo-poo humour is a step too far. Some of the things Chuck comes out with had me cringing. I only played the game for 45 minutes, but this still managed to grate on me.

Achievements – 1,000 Points – 10 Achievements

After playing for a bit and getting to grips with the game’s limitations and the way it plays and realising how shit I was at it, I looked up the easiest way to get the achievements and the answer was… local multiplayer using two controllers.

There are achievements for tackling, running and throwing and… that’s it. The only tricky thing – for me anyway – was getting it all done in a single game. All the achievements are tied to individual players, so you have to use the same player to throw touchdowns and distance for 300 yards. You have to run for two hundred yards and make 8 tackles with the same player – 3 of which need to be made on the quarter back.

Obviously by using two controllers you can control the plays of your opponent which makes setting up attacking plays easy. You just need to move all player two’s players out of your way and go nuts. The defensive ones are more important as you can select the same play over and over again and repeat sacking the quarter back.

Downloadable Content – N/A

I can see how Backyard Sports: Backyard Football 10 could be considered a charming sports game, but the commentary alone makes it obnoxious. It’s my own fault for playing a game I don’t understand for easy score. It is an easy and quick completion but outside of that, it’s hard to think of nice things to say about it.

College Hoops 2K6

A new year has brought a new tact to playing games. With a backlog of games over 300 large, it was high time to start getting some of these off of the list. To do this, I’ve started gaining focus by using a random generator to pick one of my 30 easiest games and just go and complete it – started or not. The other started games will be there when I get around to them. At the same time, I’m keeping up with daily rubbish in Elder Scrolls Online and Destiny 2 in some vein hope that I will complete them some day. I moved a hell of a lot closer to an Elder Scrolls Online completion by obtaining the Emperor achievement with a bunch of guys so that was pretty cool.

You may think, I’m dragging this out and you know what, you’re right. The reason being there isn’t a lot to say about College Hoops 2K6 other than it’s a very American Basketball game.

A while ago, I engaged on a game exchange with one of my American gaming friends where he supplied me with a load of American-only Xbox 360 games in exchange for some European-only ones. The one thing I was missing was an American Xbox to actually play them. Luckily, I had a real-life friend living in Virginia who was able to procure me this item and bring it back across the Atlantic for me.

Annnnd College Hoops 2K6 was the first game to be completed on said Xbox! And I played it for a grand total of 45 minutes. In terms of a game, it’s pretty much the same as the last basketball game I played, except with more American fan-faire. Looks wise, it’s not aged well either and the game interfaces were massively confusing.

Achievements – 1,000 Points – 5 Achievements

It’s a really light and quick list which one minor exception. I played one game after adjusting the in-game sliders to make my team awesome and the CPU team terrible and got four achievements for rebounds, points with one player, three pointers and steals.

The only achievement left after that was for getting 6 blocks with one player and the only way to do this quickly was to get two controllers and play a game to make the blocks happen with the same player. Even then it was really difficult to see what was happening and I was relying on the in-game counter rather than seeing the blocks take place.

Downloadable Content – N/A

Playing College Hoops 2K6 was a pretty pointless endeavour in terms of gaming but it’s a quick and easy 1,000 points on the board. If you really want to play a basketball game, it’s best to go with something much more modern.