Hail all,

Category: Opinion

Sometimes Publishers astound me with their stupidity. Honestly. It seems that Publisher Crave (who themselves aren't exactly the smartest bunch, publishing mostly shovelware) decided to up it a notch recently with the reveal that Mr Bean's Wacky World of Wii was to get a U.S release.

Ok - hold breath.

Now I, like many others - enjoyed the Mr Bean series. I didn't love it, I don't own the DVD's and dont plan too. I dont go out of my way to watch it if its on TV. I've never seen the films. Still, I liked the show. But it was a very physical comedy. It required an almost completely mute character who was always just making a mess of everything - sometimes in a bizarre and unreal fashion.

Deep breath.

So, the idea to make an animated series based off that 7 years after the show ended was a poor idea indeed. The show ended after just 14 episodes. The animated show, which was quite crap, lasted just 26 episodes. That finished in 2002. Than along comes a developer who decides to make a bad game, release it in the UK (arguably the best market for a Mr Bean game) and they call it Mr Bean's Wacky World of Wii. And they base it on the cartoon, which is worse.

Another breath.

Yet - that's not even the worst part. They release the game in 2008 with almost zero publicity, right around the Holiday sales rush, and the game dies a slow death at retail. It's critically panned.

And now Crave thinks - wait, why don't we go to the trouble of releasing it into the US market? In 2011? Yep - that's right. In 2011.

So, to cut the story short, we have a game thats to be released in 2011, based on a terrible game that no one wanted released in 2008, which was based on a crap cartoon released in 2002, which was based on a one-off series which didn't lend itself well to games, made in 1995. The mind boggles.

Sometimes, Publishers astound me with their stupidity.

Cheers,

Saga.