The Hunchback of Notre Dame Topsy Turvy Games - PC Review

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Second in the GameBreak! series after Timon & Pumbaa's Jungle Games, Hunchback of Notre Dame Topsy Turvy Games brings back to life the original characters of Hunchback of Notre Dame, the 34th animated feature film from Disney Studios. Published by Disney Interactive with the technical help of 7th Level, this title offers five different games, targeted for children from ages 7 to 15, as well as adults and fans who enjoyed the movie.

The games featured in Hunchback of Notre Dame strike by their simplicity, but although they are easy to learn, only the best players will be able to master them. All games allow one or two players to play, with three of them featuring head-to-head game play for even more of a challenge. The two levels of difficulty will satisfy everyone, with an easy level for younger kids and beginners, and a difficult level for hard-core gamers.

Hunchback of Notre Dame Topsy Turvy Games are presented by the very same gargoyles as the animated movie, known as Laverne, Hugo and Victor. Playing the role of the game hosts, they sure bring a serious dose of humor to the game with their sidesplitting commentaries. Using the same voices from the movie, Jason Alexander (alias George Kostanza on "Seinfeld") incarnates Hugo, while Charles Kimbrough (alias Jim Dial on "Murphy Brown") personifies Victor. The third character Laverne, is interpreted by the voice of Jane Withers.


Laverne	Hugo	Victor

As game hosts, the three gargoyles will give you a description for each game, accompanied by a simple animation to explain the various goals, not to mention the numerous jokes and comments you will hear in the process. But their role isn't limited to only a presentation as they will also compliment or laugh at you during the game, depending if you are doing well or not.

Disney's expertise in animation is, needless to say, the best in the business, and the developers knew how to make use of it. Over 8,000 cells of original animation were created for the making of Hunchback of Notre Dame with amazing results. Children will interact with the lively characters of the film, including Esmeralda, Djali the Goat, Clopin and the three gargoyles. Throughout the games they will discover the various backgrounds set outside of Paris' cathedral of Notre-Dame, at the time of the annual "Festival of Fools".

The games of Hunchback of Notre Dame provide players with diverse experiences. Upsy Daisy is an action-oriented game where the player must, at the same time, learn to use air currents with their aerial balloons and try to pop other opponent's balloons while avoiding various traps such as balloon thieves, flying pigs and stilt walkers. The player with the most balloons left after a round wins that round, and the player who scored the best out of three rounds wins the match. In Le Food Feud, your shooting skills will be heavily tested. Given a limited amount of food, you must hit festival fools with the food before they hit you. The game is divided into a ten-course meal, serving the best French cuisine from the Vichysoise to the Lobster Bisque, through the Chicken Cordon Bleu and the Chocolate Souffle. A pure delight! However, your task won't be as easy as it looks. As you progress further in the game, the number of people to hit will increase while the quantity of food to serve will remain the same, leaving you with only a few to waste. The characters you must hit, appear in many locations on the screen and stay there for a short period before throwing their food at you. As the game uses a first person view, the screen will soon be covered by food if you are not quick enough. Le Food Feud is definitely my favorite, but it is also the most difficult. If you are looking for something easier, try out Chiseler. The goal is to chisel away all the stone bricks from the wall using a marble pigeon and a paddle controlled by the player before your adversary. The only difficulty is that some stones will need to be hit more than once to disappear. If you miss your marble pigeon, Laverne will launch you another one after you have waited a few seconds. The first player to eliminate the wall will get the image behind the wall animated. If you prefer sport-like games, the Djali Bowling is for you. In this Bowling game, everything plays as the real sport, with the exception that the bowling ball has been replaced by Djali the goat, and the pins by festival fools. Three parameters will condition the trajectory of Djali: the position on the lane, the speed, and the head-butt angle. Only when you press the Go button you will see the goat knocking the fools on the stage. If you score three strikes in a row, you will see a special apperance of Esmeralda. Finally, if you are more into brain games, Inside Outwords seems to be more adequate with over 600 puzzles to challenge your mind. In Inside Outwords, common words and expressions have been transformed into their opposites. Your task is to find the correct expression among three proposed answers. While each correct answer will reward you with points, incorrect answers will deduct points from your score. To add to the difficulty, a timer has been added and you must first buzz-in before choosing the right answer.

Conclusion:

Although Hunchback of Notre Dame was first designed for children, the game might appeal as well for adults with its remarkable design. Not only do the graphics look sterling, but also the soundtrack plays admirably with the original music from the film. At no time, you will get bored in the game. The hilarious commentaries from the gargoyles will keep you awake, and even the loading sequences feature small animations. Rarely has a game for children been so well made, and no doubt it will be another smash hit for Disney Interactive.

Written by Frederick Claude

Click here for screen shots.

System Requirements:

486 DX-33 MHz or higher,
Min 8Mb memory,
Windows 3.1 or Windows 95,
Hard drive required with 10Mb free,
Double speed CD-ROM drive or faster,
256 SVGA display (PCI or VLB recommended),
8-bit sound card Windows compatible,
100% Microsoft compatible mouse.