Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Review (3DS)

Introduction

I used to not like Adventure Time I had thought the design was really weird, and I just thought it was stupid. Until one day one of my brother's friends showed it to him, and he liked. When he was watching an episode I also had a glance at it, and I decided to give it a chance it was definitely worth it. It was so good we watched all the episodes there were on demand, and I had started working my way getting caught up with the series, and now I watch it when new episodes air. I am however definitely disappointed that the series will be coming to an end after its ninth season. This also isn't the first time that one my brothers got me into watching great shows.

When I had heard word about a video game for the series was in the works I was very excited to see how they would incorporate the series into a video game. Which shouldn't be that hard since the series itself have many great elements that they could use to make a video game. When they had shown its first trailer for Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?! I was pretty excited I really liked the art style it looked a lot like a Zelda game, and I wanted to play it. Which I was able to do after getting it as a gift from my parents for Christmas.

Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?! is a 2D side-scrolling action-adventure video game developed by WayForward Technologies and published by Bandai Namco Games and D3 Publisher for the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo DS. It is based on Pendleton Ward's animated television series Adventure Time. The game was released in North America for retail release on November 20, 2012, and digitally via Nintendo eShop for $19.99 on December 13, 2012. The 3DS version was later released in Europe on February 13, 2014 as a Nintendo eShop exclusive.

Story

The story of Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?! Is about how Finn and Jake wake up one morning to find their trash stolen by the Ice King. Of course Jake couldn’t care less about half-eaten bananas, crumpled up burrito wrappers, and old chicken diapers, but when they find out the Ice King is using their stolen goods to construct a Garbage Princess, the heroes leave the Treehouse to find out whats going on. Journey through the Land of Ooo in an offbeat adventure and discover perilous dungeons and unimaginable treasures while playing as Finn and Jake in an action-adventure experience.

Gameplay

Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?! is a 2D action adventure. The gameplay is very much like Zelda II: The Adventure of Link as it uses the top down style when exploring throughout the Land of Ooo, but when in combat, crawling through dungeons, and visiting towns it switches to a side view, much similar to Zelda II. Players will be able to use both Finn and Jake since they are controlled at the same time. However Jake isn't feeling motivated to walk or use his powers, so he sits in Finn's backpack and digs out items. As players continue throughout the game you will be able to unlock new abilities for Finn and Jake such as the ability to attack with punches or with Finn's sword and can pick up items and enemies, and  shapeshift into a wide variety of things, e.g. bridges and boats and can also grow and shrink. by talking to certain characters or completing certain tasks.

They can also both perform "Fist Smash," "The Downward Sword-Thrust" and "The Twirling Death Blossom" moves by finding battle abilities. As you progress throughout the game's story you will encounter many familiar faces if you are familiar with the series, along with many familiar locations as well such as the Grass Lands, the Candy Kingdom, Red Rock Pass and the Ice Kingdom. Which is a shame that we only explored those five places as we seen in the series there are many more places to go, which I would have loved to see.

Players will also be able to explore through different dungeons, and take on bosses. As well as take on many sidequests as you talk to certain characters throughout the game, however this can be a bit tedious due to the fact that there is no way to travel between areas without taking up too much time, because there are many times throughout the game you have to do some backtracking to areas you've already had been to before. However since there is no fast travel system you have to walk all the way to where you need to go, and there are times in the game where in order to get to a new area you have to first unlock one of Jake's abilities which is a bit annoying, but I don't mind it that much.  

Graphics

The graphics take on an 8bit artstyle, the game's 8bit graphics feel fresh it revitalized as we see both in the top down view and side view. They really do a good job of bringing a nice polished touch to the 8bit style of gaming. It works reall well with the 3DS

Sounds

I really enjoyed the game's soundtrack it really captured the feeling of what Adventure Time is going on an awesome adventure. The game features new music composed by Jake Kaufman. The soundtrack contains A majority of the tracks on the games soundtrack are which some are exclusive to the 3DS version of the game while the DS version reuses tracks on multiple occasions. The soundtrack consists of a total of 34 tracks. Eight tracks which have lyrics include: "Hey Ice King! Why'd you steal our garbage?!!", "Chores and Other Scary Stuff", "You Just Leveled Up MEGAMIXX", "FEAST! FIGHT! BE MANLY!", "Boss Marceline Who's In Charge Here" , "It's So Cold", "A Hero is Made", and "Finale: Refusing to Refuse". However three tracks were completely cut from the game Chillin with My Bro, Drama is Afoot, and The Choose Goose Jam. Unfortunately I was disappointed that the game doesn't have voice acting to accompany the amazing writing by Pendleton Ward himself.

Collector's Edition

Along with the standard release of the game. There was also a Collector's Edition for Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?! For the Nintendo DS and 3DS. The Collector's Edition contains a steel case cover of the Enchiridion, the Book of Beasts Beastiary, a poster of The Land of Ooo, and a stylus designed after Finn's sword.

Summary

Overall the game is pretty much a love letter to fans of the Adventure Time series, however if you aren't already acquainted with the series, or know about some way you may have some problems identifying with the game in general, because one of the major key points of this game is its writing, story, and characters. Due to the fact that the game itself feels like episodes from the show. Other than that I thoroughly enjoyed the game it definitely surpassed my expectations. I do however still wish to this day that we actually got a true sequel to the game, because this was amazing. It's definitely one of my all time favorite games for the Nintendo 3DS, and my favorite out of the four games that have been released for the series.

With these pros and cons in mind I have decided to give this game a 9.4 out of 10. Although the game is amazing there are however some problems that keep the game from getting a perfect score. The major thing being that there was no voice acting I really would have loved to have heard all the amazing actors within the game. The second being as you go throughout game there are many times that you have to travel back and forth between areas, however this takes way too long, and there's no fast travel system to where you can just head from area to other without taking up too much, because along in the game you take up many side quests some of which where you have to backtrack to areas you've already been before, which is something I truly find annoying in any type of game. The last thing being is that in order to enjoy the game at its fullest you need to at least have some sort of an idea of what the series is, which is not a good thing to those who are new to the series, but have no idea what it is.