Igor the Game
Ages: Everyone

There's more going on here than on the Wii version. Back story - Dr Schadenfreud* the most evil of the evil scientists has wooed away Igor's love by telling her lies. Igor plans to confront the evil doctor by meeting him at the Evil Science Fair. To do this, he has to create a monster to enter into the competition. It's easy the first time and now this monster has to battle other monsters to gain more strength, repair parts, increase health points, gather money, increase speed and skill. It is here that the game looks like Puzzle Quest, where you try to hit as many of the same kind of falling items with a glowing ball to score, and this transforms into a battle sequence.

The battle takes place in the top screen, although, like the Guitar Hero game, you are too busy focusing on the battle sequence to enjoy the animation on the top screen. To attack, wait for the gauge fill up and then: green - left punch, blue - right punch, red - left kick, yellow - right kick. Too bad if you are color blind.

With enough battles, your parts begin to wear out, which necessitates a trip to the recycle plant for more parts. You begin to realize that different parts have different attributes and at this point you will begin to play the game with more skill.

There are plenty locations to visit and fight - slime pond, pain pit plus a Frankensnoozle shop for new body parts and of course your lab with the monster maker. Locations are on the map and all you do is tap on a location to be transported there. There are plenty of places to visit at the beginning before you have to get into the unlockable parts.

The manual is disorganized and the onscreen instructions, while good, cover too much to remember at one time. So what to do - start over again? If instructions are given in game, then it is absolutely necessary that there be a help section where players can re-read them. Saves are one of the options in the context menu. I don't know if this game follows the movie - but I have always thought that in the Frankenstein movies - the best part was making the monster. Once again, the DS version offers more game play than the Wii version - cheaper too.

* Schadenfreud (Ger.) One who takes pleasure at the misfortunes of others.

Fun Factor: Interesting combination of monster making and the match three game
Female Factor: Eve is the strong, compassionate monster
Player Friendly: The manual has lots of information, but is disorganized. Saves are in the context menu and visible.

Reviewed by: Editor - 12/08