Danny Phantom is a fairly new show on Nickelodeon, created by the same people responsible for The Fairly Oddparents. The same humor and whimsy of The Fairly Oddparents TV show is also present in the Danny Phantom show, but does it translate over to the GBA in this new game? While the game looks pretty much like the show, that’s about all that can be said for any similarity between the two.

The game’s premise is that Danny and his classmates are all set to take the CAT (some type of high school standardized test), when trouble intervenes. The usual super-villain taking over the world is present, but the twist is that this time it’s the hero himself who is the villain. Clockwork, a ghost who can manipulate time, is trying to turn Danny into a future evildoer, by causing havoc with his friends. Other evil ghosts aren’t happy with the idea of the competition, so they battle Danny throughout the game to prevent him from gaining increased powers.

This story is actually a somewhat innovative one, and sets up the game’s future action in a logical, interesting manner. The opening movie describes the problems facing Danny and his friends in a well-crafted cartoon that is very reminiscent of the TV show. Too bad the game falls down on actually implementing this plot with any type of usable information or direction during the following levels.

After the initial animated movie setting up the background information, players will play as Danny Phantom, Dan Fenton and a strange, ghostly super-villain. Danny Phantom seems to have much more agility and power than Dan Fenton, so why players would choose Dan is a mystery in itself. The only reason I ever switched between the two was to gain power in Danny Phantom’s special powers meter, as for some reason I could never figure out how to fill up this meter while playing in Danny’s mode, but when the characters were swapped and Dan Fenton was present, the meter would fill up and stay that way when swapped back over to Danny.

Danny has two power meters, one for general health and one for special powers. These special powers are a combination of weapons and increased power for the Plasma attack ability. As Danny successfully completes the levels in the different worlds, his weapons and plasma power increases. There are brief descriptions of these abilities in the manual, but it is still confusing as to when and where players would need to use these items. For instance, early on in the game Danny is stopped by a wall through which he evidently must pass to continue the game after the ghosts in that area have been cleared. It’s pretty obvious that he has to go through the wall, but just how to do so is left unexplained. The manual states that the R button is used to toggle through the weapons and special powers, but as the special power meter also has to be filled in order to actually use these powers (which isn’t explained in the manual, all it says is that the more Ghost power he has, the more powerful he becomes. It also states that accumulating this power will “unleash” the plasma attacks, but there are no descriptions on what these plasma attacks can do. And, the biggest question is how exactly to fill this meter?).

So, I spent a long time jumping Danny Phantom at this impenetrable wall, when quite by accident I figured it out by randomly mashing all the buttons on the GBA. Hitting the Select button toggled back over to Dan Fenton (which again isn’t mentioned in the book’s button control section), which filled the special power meter. When hitting the Select button again brought up Danny Phantom, the special meter was still filled, and Danny was then able to use a special power that enabled him to pass through walls. Of course, which special power I had selected at this time was unclear, as I was still just mashing buttons. On restarting the level, I figured it out. Yeah, this was fun and made me want to play further.

Ok. Now that I knew what I was doing (sorta, anyway), I forged on.

The game is evidently split up into worlds, which have a certain number of levels. There isn’t any description of these in the manual, so it’s left up to the player to discover the levels during play. Most of the levels involve playing as Danny Phantom, who has to beat up various ghosts in order to clear the area and move on to the next area. As he fights, he can pick up gadgets, but these are temporary and specific to the area, it seems. Experience points are awarded to his speed, defense and offense abilities. Once a level is completed, a scoreboard detailing how many points were awarded for experience and enemies defeated, plus other stats like the time to complete the level, are listed. Then, it’s on to the next level. While most of the levels just involve clearing the areas of bad guys, some levels are an arcade type of racing past obstacles.

Mini-games are also supposedly available, but again, there is minimal description of how to access these in the manual. Evidently, a password is used, but how to earn this password is unclear, as in how many levels have to be beat, or if a certain number of points have to be earned in the levels to open them. I still haven’t gotten a password yet, so dunno.

Danny’s basic abilities include running, jumping, punching and a punch-kick. All of these work fairly well, except for the jumping, which is abysmal. Danny just can’t jump very well, and spends a LOT of time falling off high ledges as a result. This wouldn’t be so bad, but for the fact that the game makes players restart the level at the beginning each time this happens. This didn’t become annoying until the third world on the second level, when Danny had to jump from building to building as he fought the ghosts. It became extremely frustrating to finally get almost to the end of a level, only to fall off the building and have to restart at the very beginning of the level. Our resident action game guru of the house didn’t have any better success, either, and declared “no more.”

The end result of this bad jumping effectively stopped us at the third world, so what lies beyond is anyone’s guess.

It’s too bad about the bad control design, as this game has the appearance of maybe being a decent game, although the levels have a sameness about them, as most of them just involve beating the bad guys up to clear the levels. The various weapons don’t really add much to the game-play, and are hard to figure out, to boot.

It’s unclear who the target audience is for this game, as it would appear to be a kid’s game from the subject material and choice of difficulty levels, but there are some things missing that are usually included in a kid’s game, like health power-ups or generous save points during the levels. At the same time, this game is really too easy for most adults. The only reason we didn’t advance in the game any further was because of the bad jumping, not because the game itself was particularly difficult.

Parents of fans of Danny Phantom should probably avoid this game, as it may be frustrating to younger players. Older players will find it uninteresting.

Gameplay: 5.0
The game-play isn’t any fun, mostly because of having to play the same area again and again, because Danny can’t jump. He dies and the level has to be re-played. Not fun. Also, the levels have a sameness about them, with most consisting of just beating all the ghosts up until they disappear and Danny can then move on. The mini-games probably break up this somewhat, but who knows….

Graphics: 8.0
The graphics are well done, and evoke the TV show nicely.

Sound: 6.0
The sound is average, and matches the show's theme.

Difficulty: Medium
The game isn’t meant to be difficult, but is in reality because of the bad button controls and lack of information.

Concept: 6.0
The design team appeared to be trying to have fun with this game, with the ghostly comments in the credits, but the presentation was dismal.

Overall: 5.5
This is yet another game tied to a popular kids' show, and unfortunately it belongs to the vast majority of so-so products based on a famous license. Pass this one by.