Pandora's Box: The Ultimate GameCube Tier List

#130: The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: Attack of the Twonkies

Rating: E

Players: 1

Price Range: ~$16 USD

Based on the show, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.

Getting tired of licensed shovelware, huh?

This show is rather underrated in some aspects, but this game is very much horrible.

And the thing is, it actually starts off okay.

The game's big gimmick is that, in true Jimmy Neutron fashion, you can find objects around the game's levels to create inventions, whether they are completely useless, are required to traverse the game's levels, or to capture the namesake Twonkies.

The game begins...fine enough.

You start in Jimmy's lab, learn how the game functions, and even learn how to craft inventions.

At least the show's aesthetic is intact.

And so, in order to improve one of his inventions, I think, you need to get...something from this artic planet, Twonkies III, or...whatever.

And here, we actually have some fine enough puzzles. You need to get fuel at this space station in the middle of an asteroid storm (Jimmy can breathe in space, I guess), and because there is no gravity, you need to make shoes that are magnetic to the space station itself.

Cool...I suppose.

Then you get to the planet itself and not only need to use Goddard, Jimmy's robotic dog, and you even need to make a actual blaster from Star Wars from a flashlight (the heavy one with a handle) and a...diamond?

Weird...

And you know what? This is actually okay.

Then you get back and are in the school level, where you find out that a Twonkie monster, harmless at first, stowed away on Jimmy's rocket (don't ask, batteries not included), and again, this is actually decent. You need to make a shrink ray...from a TV remote and discover, "Oh, I could shoot the mirror to hit myself with it.", now that was cool.

And so, you need to get back home and build some devices to shrink and capture the Twonkies, who have multiplied and have grown in size and danger due to music...or...something like that.

You build this vacuum cleaner like backpack, Luigi's Mansion style (though nowhere near as fun), and this blaster that plays terrible music from a recorded disc from Sheen's bad voice (ha ha funny), and take care of the monsters in the neighborhood.

Okay, fine.

Every level like this takes...what? A half hour to an hour or so?

And so, imagine doing this.

Shrinking the little gremlins into smaller forms so you can capture them.

Okay.

Now just envision in your head doing this for every level onward.

And now, you can see the majority of the problems I have with this game.

Every level after the initial few play out exactly the same.

They try to change it with boss fights and these worthless minigames, but they not only suffer from doing the same thing over and over with an invention or two, but they are just awful.

In one of the later boss fights after the amusement park level in the "Bat Outta Heck" ride area (funny joke, I guess), there is no music, like, none.

Why?

And in one of the previous levels, close to the middle (the park level, I think), you need to get the attention of the Twonkies from...something, I don't recall, but you need to play this drum set in this pavilion to distract them.

How do you play it?

By mashing the A button for an inhuman amount of time!

And if you let up, you do it again, for the bar for the progress depletes without a moment of button pressing.

There might be a way around it, but I couldn't find out.

Why?

Because in the game, you're stuck to this thing!

You have to fill up this bar until it is done, and I don't think you can pause and do anything else.

So either you finish mashing the A button for a ludicrous amount of time, or you are just sitting there, or you could turn off your system I suppose...

Enough to leave your thumb tired.

Just...why!?

And the arcade level?

Braindead.

You need to earn tokens for this person to let you through this door (don't remember their name) by playing these arcade games...

These dumbed down versions of already existing classic arcade games...

Like...Influenza?

It is literally baby's first Asteroids.

Terrible, terrible game.

And when the game reached its conclusion, it felt like...nothing...

Unless you are a hardcore fan of this show, avoid this game at all costs.