Is she a schoolgirl juggling the traumas of life with her athletic aspirations? Or is she an atomic-powered superhero saving worlds? Or she is even a spaceship pilot, dodging meteors and blasting space junk as she navigates toward her destination?

The answer is …

D. All of the above.

Welcome to Namco’s Atomic Betty, a GameBoy Advance title that weaves together a variety of level types, and several mini games in an effort to become a platformer with broad appeal. Unfortunately, this game is a little too simple and too short and bounces from one area to the next without much rhyme or reason.

The game begins with Betty trying to get to school on time with her homework, so that she can play in the big game. Unfortunately her cat has stolen her papers and scattered them in the school’s basement (don’t even ask how all this came about, it is not explained why a cat would steal homework nor how it managed to run all the way to school to put them in the basement). Two friends (Noah and Paloma) immediately tell Betty they will help her recover the papers, which is the precursor to the main mechanic of the game – a team of three with differing abilities that must be used together to solve levels. For example, the girl can slide under objects; the boy can pull boxes out of the way, and so forth. This bleeds over to other levels with different characters, all of whom must combine their talents to accomplish tasks.

When she finds a paper, Betty is immediately rendered out as a pencil drawing on lined paper in a mini game that requires shooting baskets (as in basketball) with a power meter and moving aim key – which means you must time the shot and have the right touch – in order to recover the paper. Once this task is finished, Betty is about to head to the big game when suddenly she gets a call from her galactic commander, to enlist her services to fight the evil forces of Maximus I.Q.

You get to pilot Betty’s hyper-galactic star cruiser, and this because a very arcade experience as you move it side-to-side or up or down (or a combination of the two), shooting asteroids, and collecting weapon recharges en route to the new locations, where you will team up with Sparky and X-5 and essentially work through the same platforming challenges with some minor exceptions. Betty will be using her lasers to blast minions of the bad guy, while X-5 has the ability to use a jet-pack to hover.

Each level has objectives and in order to accomplish those, players will be tasked with beating the mini games associated with them. The mini games are fairly similar to what has been found in other titles, so there is not much original here.

However, what Atomic Betty does offer is a graphic scheme that keeps the whole tone light and happy, and the game itself fits that concept to a tee. This is not a grandiose adventure game, but rather a series of scenarios that have minor connections with the level before, offering up simple puzzles and a control scheme that is very easy to use.

The audio score is skimpy at best.

But this is obviously a game targeting younger players and in that regard it succeeds in providing an entertaining, though short-lived, experience. Atomic Betty is yet another cartoon transitioning to the gaming market and while it does nothing to advance the genre, it has found a good fit in the 2-D platform style. 

Gameplay: 7.0
Simple concept, easy to use controls and a variety of game styles are offered up here in this cartoon-turned-video game.

Graphics: 7.0
The levels are finite but decently conceived and the animation offers a nice variety of styles. The game looks fairly good.

Sound: 6.0
The sound effects are Ok, but the music is minimal and repetitious.

Difficulty: Easy
With only about 20 levels, it is easy to zip through this game.

Concept: 5.0
There is really nothing new here. Most of the mini games may bear different names, but if you have any platforming gaming experience, then you have probably played them under a different name.

Overall: 6.0
A child’s title that bounces around through many environments, Atomic Betty relies on the same formula seen in other titles, only changing up some of the characters involved and trying to introduce new abilities. This may be a good title for younger players familiar with the cartoon. It has some variety, the levels are short and the atmosphere is light.