Napoleon Dynamite: The Game: The Review

Remember the "Wayne's World" video game for the Super Nintendo? The animation was all little cartoon bodies with the actual faces of Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, and the other actors in the film. Enter "Napoleon Dynamite: The Game," a pretty hilarious excuse for a series of mini-games, which utilizes the same style of graphics.

Essentially, in the Nintendo DS version of the Napoleon game (the one in which I'm reviewing, although I doubt there's much difference between that and the PSP version), you guide Napoleon and friends through a series of mini-games all loosely based on things that happen in the film, ranging from "Rex Kwon Do" to "Dance Lessons" or "Dodgeball" - all of which are no fun and absolutely tedious.

I suppose I should explain my views on the "Napoleon Dynamite" film. When it first came out, I loved it. I laughed until I cried at the scene when he did the dance. I thought most of the film was a breath of fresh air, original, and hilarious. However, then the film got mass syndication to all of the movie theaters and didn't leave Huntington for about five or six months (this being a year after the film's original limited release). Then the merchandising reached a new level of ridiculous, the jokes were made unfunny by EVERY high school student who saw the film and repeated said jokes (probably literally) a million times, and I couldn't swing a cat in a hallway without hitting a "Vote for Pedro" t-shirt.

Granted, the hype has died significantly with the passing months. However, they decided to release this "Napoleon Dynamite" based game last December. Without the movie to support it, the jokes fall flat, the animation is pretty bad, and the mini-games mediocre at best.

I don't really know how to deal with this game. I was rooting for it. I wanted so badly to like it, but some things just don't translate into video games. Maybe given a different format or a decent set of graphics, Napoleon could truly come alive in the hand-held video game format.

"Napoleon Dynamite: The Game" doesn't serve as a time waster while on the road, on the train, in the apartment, or in the doctor's office. The graphics are somewhat amusing, considering the style of 2D animation is rarely seen these days (where art thou, Parappa). Unfortunately, this may be Napoleon's last stand. If you want Napoleon, watch the movie.

Grade: D-