Eh, it's not exactly bad, but it's not very good either.

User Rating: 5 | Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian The Video Game DS
By macabre190788 | Review Date:
Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian for the Nintendo DS is, as you may have figured out already, based on the successful Ben Stiller comedy. Successful in terms of box office, I don't think it's a great movie. But I got a few chuckles out of it, and this game was really cheap, so I figured what the heck? I'll buy it, try it, and I just finished it. It's not a disaster like some other moviebased games. It's a functional platformer from start to finish, yeah "functional", not exactly high praise I know. But the thing is, it's a perfectly playable game that's most suitable for young kids. It's kinda like a "my first platforming game". It's nothing special and rather uninspired and dull. It's easy, uncomplicated and straightorward. Though some Spider-Man-esque swinging sequences can occasionaly be quite troublesome. Also, you'll sometimes find these boxes that give you information about various historical events. So there is some educational value here.

You play as Larry, the nightguard. And you run through 27 2D levels, equipped with a flashlight as your main weapon, your only weapon. Wait? Flashlight? As the late, great Chris Farley said: "La-De-Freakin' DAH!" But not to worry, throughout the game, as you progress you'll discover and unlock various magic abilities. Abilities which enable you to fly, shrink, superjump, walljump and so forth. So there is something to keep you interested. Defeating enemies is simple, just flash them with your flashlight two times, and you're good to go. Yeah, sounds simple huh? And it is, you will encounter some boss battles though. But they're real easy as well. These include Kah Mun Rah, Napoleon, Al Capone and Ivan the Terrible.

The game looks fairly decent. But the cutscenes, oh man, the cutscenes. The back of the cover says "contains the likeness of Ben Stiller". I'm sorry, but has Ben Stiller been involved in a horrible accident, one involving toxic waste being spilled all over his face recently, that I've somehow missed. The character in the game, Larry looks NOTHING like Ben Stiller, he looks like a creepy, mutated chimpanzee. Oh well, what bothered me more was the lack of voiceacting in these cutscenes. No character speaks in the game. A bit disappointing.

Kids may want to play this, and it's not terrible, just bland and uninspired. But going to a real museum would probably be way more fun than playing this game. And more educational.
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