Jack Skellington got rid of Oogie Boogie in the movies so it’s safe to leave leave the castle. Halloween Town is safe of the monster, but when Jack comes back to town, the place is crawling with ghosts and skeletons. What happened? Oogie Boogie is back – common, you didn’t think he was finished forever, did you? So, it’s up to Jack to restore the town back to how it was before he left and without these creatures.
It was like I was back in the movies, one of my favorite films of all time Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas is now a major motion video game with Oogie’s Revenge! The game takes place a year after the movie ended, and just in time for the Halloween season, you can help Jack Skellington on his mission!
I switched on the Playstation, and what do I hear – the music, the sounds, the look of the movie! Even the beginning of this game had the same voice over as the movie! And when you’re waiting for the different levels to load, we’re treated to ‘This is Halloween.’
Start in the Town Square, fight the skeletons and ghosts; the more souls you collect, the more special weapons you can earn. With those weapons, you can destroy Oogie forever. As you travel through the square, you meet the towns people who help you out with advice.
But you’ve got your own neat little ghoul-bashing tool of your own – some soul rubber. And what’s soul rubber, you might be asking yourself? Well, it’s green goop that’s attached to your wrist. When you shoot it out faster and faster and as you kill more and more of the skeletons, it turns blue and red and gain more strength. Actually, I guess you’re really not killing them, cause they’re already dead, but you get the point.
It’s a real blast shooting the soul rubber, especially when you find the hidden rooms in the game. And they’re hidden, so I can’t even give you a hint of where they are. But if you find them, there’s a bunch of opportunities to pick up more points. But I will give you a little bit of advice, walk along the town square, walk along any kind of walls and you might, just might be able to find a few clues.
If you remember the movie, you’ll definitely be familiar with the sets in this game. It really looks good and similar to the film. And Jack and the rest of the characters look exactly what Tim Burton made back in 1993 (of course, with a little computer enhancing). But, in the world of real life characters in video games, it was cool to see the video game version of Jack Skellington.
The loads on the game are very quick going from level to level and room to room. I was pretty impressed with that; it made it nice that I didn’t have to wait more than four or five seconds to load up another room – good stuff!
Also what’s good about this game are the character voices, Chris Sarandon, who used his voice talent in the movie returns for the video game. The other returning voices are the mayor (Glen Shadix), Oogie Boogie (Ken Page), Pee Wee himself, Paul Reubens as Lock, and many more. I’m still impressed when actors realize they’ve made an impact on the fans and voice their parts in video games – especially in this game, which is coming after 10 years past the release of the film.
I did have a little trouble trying to figure out what the object of the game really is. I do have to say, it is fun slinging your soul rubber, but you can only do it so much before it gets monotonous. Maybe I’m just a bit too old for it, but I’m only 27 – am I too old? I know it’s fun for kids to play this game, but I don’t know how long it’ll take before they’ll get tired.
Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie’s Revenge is in stores now, it’s rated ‘E 10+’ for everyone 10 years old and over. And maybe with the popularity of this game, Tim will decide to get back to the drawing board for a sequel to his original film. Common Tim, everyone wants to see what’s up with Jack Skellington! You can pick up The Nightmare Before Christmas on DVD.
Dont't forget to also check out: The Nightmare Before Christmas