Sonny With A Chance DS-Review

Get ready to get So Random! as you enter the world of Sonny and her friends. Complete challenges across the studio and beat your friends to become the ultimate random on the set of So Random!

For those of you who don’t know Sonny With a Chance is a hit tv show starring Demi Lovato on Disney Channel. It features quirky humour and is a well rounded show. However when a game is introduced will it follow the classic tv-game tie in curse? The answer is no, not really. The game clears up pretty nicely.

Game-play

The key feature of the game is the board game feature. You pick a So Random! cast member from the list of Sonny, Tawni, Nico, Grady and Zora. Then you run around the board game trying to collect as much fan mail as possible. But don’t think this is a simple game that offers no excitement. There are various different squares that have different effects, for example some give you fan mail, some take it away, some activate sprinklers and some set off mini-game events which is where the game begins to heat up. The mini-games can be best associated to a game like Wario-ware or Mario party. They are seamless, enjoyable, well structured and most of all there is a wide range. All mini-games are based after So Random! sketches such as Dolphin Boy, Mall Dancers and there’s even a mini game where you blow into your DS to knock over Chad Dylan Coopers cardboard cut outs, just like in the show. The thing that makes this game enjoyable is that it can feature a story like element in the board came that can be continued every time you turn on your DS. But then it has a complete party game feel that is perfect for journeys or even a couple minutes between work or school. The only problem is that you have to first play the mini-games in board game mode to then unlock them. But you must then buy the mini-games with points you earn to play them on the quick. Besides this, the game-play is imaginative and inventive.

Graphics

Here the game drops slightly. The graphics aren’t amazing. Sonny has red eyes and the only characters who really resemble their on screen character are Nico and Grady. Yet the game doesn’t need to rely on graphics to pull it through. The game-play makes up for it. The point is that the graphics still give you an enjoyable play through. The pictures from the show look very good as do the locations of the mini-games and the entire set of Sonny With a Chance. They aren’t awful at all in-fact their good. But they just aren’t amazing and some extra emphasis on making the characters look like their real life counterparts would have been nice but overall I can’t bring the game down on the graphics.

Multiplayer/Soundtrack

Firstly the multiplayer is out of this world. It features everything you love from the original game but with other players. I did some DS download play with my cousin and enjoyed every minute of it. I have always felt that Disney games try to bring the family together to have a good time and this game really hits the spot on that mark. I spent hours, literally hours with my cousin playing this game. Now we don’t share much mutual appreciation for games, but we both massively enjoyed playing this title together and I think Disney really hit a goal with this title. On the soundtrack front, the soundtrack is lively, exciting and really captures the random feel of the series. There features music that really sets the scene for the mini-games and a lovely musical version of Demi Lovato’s So Far So Great on the title screen. Altogether the soundtrack and multiplayer wrap the game up with a nice little bow.

Storyline

The game really doesn’t feature a storyline. But thank god that it doesn’t. The mini-game structure just would not work with a storyline as it would completely divert away from the point. In a summary the So Random! studio has been turned into a board game. As much story as this game needs to deliver it in my opinion. The mini-games have little stories which are nice and give a little sub-text as to why I’m shooting water out of my head or why I am cleaning a floor whilst running away from a farting dog names Lassie.

Conclusion

I can’t knock Sonny With A Chance, I really can’t. It just has all the right moves in all the right places. Its the sort of game that you just can’t get off, no matter how hard you try which I haven’t seen in a game since Pokemon on the Gameboy colour. Everything is delivered and at the end of the day its fun, its not a game to be taken seriously. The gags are comical and its just mini-game madness. If you want a serious game wait for the new Zelda or something, but if you want a barrel of laughs and a DS game you will play repeatedly for hours on end, you’ve got one.

Good Points

• Doesn’t take itself too seriously
• Hours of fun
• Seamless play
• Over 50 mini-games
• Brings the family together
• Awesome soundtrack

Bad Points

• Having to buy mini-games after playing them first to use in quick play
• Little character resemblance