The Three Stooges Review

The Three Stooges

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Publisher: Metro3D

Developer: Cinemaware

# of Players: 1

Category: Action

Release Dates

N Amer - 03/28/2002

Official Game Website

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The Three Stooges, you gotta either love 'em or hate 'em, usually depending on what gender you are. Back in the old days of gaming, Cinemaware was known for their flashy games, one of which was The Three Stooges. It captured the essence of the bumbling trio very well, mostly with its use of movie clips and artwork. The game has been brought to the GBA console virtually unchanged from the original, except in terms of graphics which have been updated very nicely.

Curly, Moe and Larry must raise $5000 in 30 days to save an orphanage from foreclosure by the evil banker, Mr. I. Fleecem. Jobs are chosen by picking a square with a listed job or other win/lose money situations. To pick a square, players must hit the control pad at just the right moment, similar to the wheels on many game shows. There are hazard squares called "traps" - get four of these and the game is over. There are essentially five mini-games: Boxing Match (my least favorite one), Help Wanted Waiters, Help Wanted Hospital, Cracker Eating Contest, and Trivia. Boxing Match is a very simplistic side-scrolling platfomer, similar to Paper Boy in that gamers have to avoid obstacles in their paths. Help Wanted Waiters is an easy arcade game whose goal is to throw pies as fast as possible, and Help Wanted Hospital is another arcade style game wherein the stooges follow the hospital cart and catch falling supplies. The Cracker Eating Contest involves snatching crackers from oysters and Trivia, is, you guessed it, trivia. A couple of these games have been changed slightly to make it appear there are more mini-games than there are, but they're still the same games.

The game's visuals are great and bring back the flavor of the Three Stooges very well, and this aspect of the game will appeal to fans of the movies. Even those who are not big fans will still enjoy the nostalgia. The gameplay, however, leaves much to be desired, mostly in terms of depth; there's just not much here to keep anyone's interest for long. Even arcade-challenged players like myself can master the games in a few rounds of playing and then go on to save the orphanage easily. My family reached a general consensus that this game didn't rate above the mediocre.

Reviewer's Scoring Details

Gameplay: 5.8
Not much to it.

Graphics: 8
Really nice graphics that capture the essence of the Three Stooges.

Sound: 7
The music and sound effects were a good match for the theme.

Difficulty: 5
Very easy arcade mini-games, not hard for anyone.

Concept: 6
Basically, the same game revisited from before.

Overall: 6
Not a bad game, but not a good game either. Some things should be left in the past.