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All good things must come to an end. So must the bad things, thankfully. This is the fourth
and final Zhu Zhu Pets DS game I have left to review, all four sent to us by the legendary
Felicity from the UK...all four pretty much identical.
I'm not sure if that's mercy or torture, because frankly, it feels the same.
That's right. In case you missed the first three reviews...holy crap, these games are
freaking identical. And it continues right 'til the end with Zhu Zhu Pets: Featuring
the Wild Bunch. Only with this one...hey, let's add a pointless structure.
Because things were going a little too well, right?
So, uh...another crazy piece of information here. And maybe depressing. In our review
of Zhu Zhu Princess, I said that I couldn't believe they released three Zhu Zhu games
in less than two years. That's just ridiculous. But oh, wait...it gets better. Because this
one, Zhu Zhu Pets: Featuring the Wild Bunch? This is actually the second game. So let's
update the timeline here...
The original Zhu Zhu Pets in March of 2010.
This one in October, seven months later.
Zhu Zhu Princess in February, only four months later.
Wrap it all up with Zhu Zhu Babies that November.
That's four games...20 months. There's kicking the dead horse, and then there's bashing its
face in with a ball-peen hammer. Sure, it's morally and arguably legally questionable
behavior. But hey, as long as it sells more hamster games, pass the f*cking hammer.
I'll tell you what, though. Of all four of these Zhu Zhu games on the Nintendo DS, this
is actually the only one that feels different. Although...not because of the gameplay. This
is still the same game at its core. What's different, though, is the game's structure.
Unlike the other games, which are more streamlined...this one's a lot more stupid.
How about that? The one thing it does differently ends up making it worse.
So, obviously...this is another pet game and hamster, maze...thing. Half the game is nurturing
your hamster, half is shooting it through tubes like a tennis ball on American Gladiators.
Only not really, because that would be fun. About that structure, though. So...instead
of the mazes just being attached to the hub, they're on a map.
Which means you have to go to a location, walk to the level you want to play on the
map...and no, it's not an improvement. Anything that just makes it take longer to pick a level
is artificially lengthening a game. And especially for a kids game, that's an unnecessary move.
It's not done simply, it's not done intuitively.
It's done poopsky. Hamster poopsky.
You know, I've said in each of these reviews that...these aren't bad games. This is another
decent little kids game. The big problem with these Zhu Zhu games for the DS...is that they're
all the same game. They change something here, add some hamsters there, throw in some new
levels...and call it a new game.
There's literally no reason to have any more than one of these.
Unless you're Felicity. Who has five of everything.
I was gonna do a nice conclusion here, but...that would be too much effort for a collection
of games seemingly made without any. The best one was probably Zhu Zhu Princess, this one's
probably the worst. I don't know. I kind of blacked out for this little series. If you
watched all four...thank you. We suffered together.
And I think what we've learned today is...that's what Zhu Zhu Pets is all about.
Mutual suffering. Mutual suffering and
hamster poop.