Been Having These Weird Dreams... (Weird Dreams)

Member Name: wampyrii

Product:	Weird Dreams
Date:	01/09/01 (92 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: see review

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The idea behind this game came from a morning television show the name of which escapes me. It was one of those Saturday things aimed at kids anyway and Weird Dreams was the phone in game which they could take part in to win prizes. Well of course, in a clever piece of marketing they packaged it up and released it in time for Christmas one year...and it still bombed because it basically sucked.

The problem is with this game, is that whilst it looks very nice and has some very interesting and innovative touches, it simply isnt very playable. Its too tough at first and then too easy and you'll waltz through the later levels. You start on the operating theatre with surgeons standing over you, the heart monitor blipping away as you drift into unconsciousness...awaking inside a candy floss machine at a fairground. The stick comes around and you must time a precise jump onto it to escape(and I DO mean precise), where you will then be chased in your pyjamas by a giant wasp into the hall of mirrors where you pick your level by jumping into a particular mirror.

The level are varied and equally surreal, things such as catching flying fish in the desert...and then whacking stone statues with them before they get you...yes they are alive, or running around a garden filled with man eating roses whilst a lawnmower hunts you down...hmmm. Someone obviously has a very strange mind but at least the levels are interesting. Interesting is the word however, fun to play isn't another description to be added to it. Yes the game looks very nice, the sound is good and the music suitably appropriate for each different level, but the playability is sadly lacking. Its too hard initially, everything has to be done too preeisely and one wrong move leaves you dead and back at the start. No one wants a free ride, but there is such a thing as making a game so hard that it become little more than frustrating. This game is frustrating. Then all of a sudden it gets dead easy
as if the programmers realised how hard it was and decided to give us a break - a BIG break because it becomes really easy. A balance would have been nice guys. Another gripe is that there are not that many levels to play, so once you have mastered them then that is all, there is no replay value here either.

In terms of novelty then yes, this is good and it also looks and sounds very nice. But its not a good game as such and definitely not one I would recommend.

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