A2M
505 Games
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Naughty Bear feels like it’s had one of the longest marketing campaigns in the world. After seeing endless screenshots and teasers the game has finally been released. Based loosely on the popular children’s story about the teddy bear’s picnic, Naughty Bear adds a new twist. Naughty Bear tries to attend a party and is turned away by all of the other bears who don’t like him. Instead of going home and having a quiet cry, Naughty Bear decides to exact revenge by going on a killing rampage.
Now this all sounds like lots of fun doesn’t it? A quirky twist on a popular tale should translate well to a game don’t you think? Well yes it should but sadly it doesn’t. The end result is a game that is based on a fantastic premise but fails to deliver on almost every level. What’s even worse is that the repetition throughout the game becomes mind-numbing and you find yourself wanting to turn off your console and not bother looking back.
What’s really frustrating about Naughty Bear is that there’s a great game in there somewhere. Visually the game does the job and even the inclusion of a clumsy English voiceover adds to the title’s charm. The bears look great and the cut-scenes are entertaining too. The main problem lies in the way the game is structured. You have to work your way through a series of killer challenges; each has their own objectives you need to achieve. Naughty Bear scores more points the longer he tortures and torments his victims before finally sticking in the knife (or baseball bat or many other weapons you can pick up) and killing them. This would be fine but the environments are rather unexciting and aside from hiding in the bushes and approaching the bears from behind there’s not a lot of other ways to wreak much havoc.
Even the combat is underwhelming. Despite the deliciously violent scenes where you do decide to kill a bear, the rest of the combat feels pedestrian. You can’t do anything other than hit/stab a bear and even then you can’t hold in the style of Grand Theft Auto and give them hell. Instead you endlessly chase them in circles until you get enough hits in to wound them so you can take them down once and for all.
Sadly that isn’t everything that’s wrong with the game. After 20 minutes of playing we felt physically sick from the constant swinging of the camera. Not ones to get motion sickness easily we found ourselves having to take regular breaks just to get through the levels.
Naughty Bear could be one of the most disappointing titles we’ve played for a while. Not only does it not live up to our expectations but it ruins a fantastic premise which should have seen it easily become a classic game. Naughty Bear has indeed been very naughty and we think he should go and hide until the game’s developers figure out how to make a decent game for him.
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