Nothing particularly new here, but fans of the series will love this game
Gameplay - Nothing particularly new here, fans of games like Smash Bros will be constantly comparing this game to similar predecessors but the option to use the Wii’s motion sensor controls make this game feel kind of new, and the new destructible / altering environments separate this game from being just a plain old copy of older brawlers. If the motion sensor controls are just too weird for you (if you're used to using the gamecube controller) then it’s simply a matter of plugging on in the controller ports then you're ready to go. Billy & Mandy, like Smash Bros, does suffer some camera issues - sometimes when there’s a lot going on in the game, the camera ends up zooming out to try and fit pretty much everything on the screen, its not that much of a problem but in hectic multiplayer modes like tag it can be a bit disorientating. The arenas you fight in are very interactive and pretty much fully destroyable which is a nice touch, and the stages constantly shift from "tiers" (usually about 3 or 4 tiers per stage) for example, one minute you're fighting in the Egyptian tomb underneath Irwin's house, then the whole thing collapses on you and your characters die and are sent to the Nordic afterlife, these tiers add variety to what would be a pretty dull stage otherwise. The story mode is pretty short, you'll only play it through to unlock other characters and costumes, but the Mission Mode is longer and offers specific challenges to complete, some of which are particularly challenging - one where you're Grim and have to fight Lord Pain, the Boogeyman and General Skarr all at once, when they're all against you, and each hit sucks mojo from the opponent - comes to mind. Mission mode unlocks new characters and costumes and you'll spend more time playing through mission mode than story mode. This game shines in its multiplayer mode, up to 4 players each choose a character, each of which has 3 different costumes, from there you choose one of the many battle modes, from a simple "last man standing" to an explosive tag match and a unique Billy & Mandy style Basketball game (a particularly hectic mode to choose for multiplayer), from there you can choose a stage, of which you can choose one of the 3 or 4 tiers to play in, from there you can choose battle parameters - for example, if you don’t perform a melee attack within a certain time span you explode and take damage - there is an absolute ton of battle parameters to choose from, from there you can even choose one of the many weapon sets which can alter the gameplay significantly. As you can see, such a huge variety of options to choose from makes sure that no two battles are ever quite the same.
Graphics - I really like the job they did on the cell-shaded graphics, carrying on the feel of the cartoons through the game, both the stages and characters look identical to the cartoons, there are the odd "huh?" moments with some of the cutscenes in terms of the character models (Billy's dad's nose looks a bit squashed in one of the cutscenes that he's in) but its expected that when you're taking 2D anything and making it 3D, there’s going to be some differences between the two. Overall a visually impressive game.
Sound - ALL of the voice actors from the cartoon feature in the game - I'd hate to see a Richard Horvitz sound-a-like, I mean, the guy has such a...distinctive...voice, the voice acting is all done fantastically, each character adding their own little quips about their opponents (which are opponent specific I might add - characters actually taunt each other, referencing to a few episodes often - a really nice touch) I've often lost a life due to laughing so hard at some of the things the characters have said - Billy, General Skarr and Hoss Delgado in particular set me off pretty bad. The only problem with the sound is that each character only has one entrance / victory line and these get annoying after a while - not that much of a problem, the entrances and victories can be easily skipped.
Value - I picked this game up for about £30 and as I mentioned earlier, such a huge variety of options to choose from with the many modes this game has makes this title good value for money, your friends will get sick of one of you constantly beating the hell out of them long before you actually run out of things to do.
Tilt - although essentially nothing all that new, the destructible / altering stages and the many modes and options to choose from sets this game apart from similar predecessors.
The main plus with this game is the games massive variety of things to do, parameters to set, modes to play and characters to use. Gamers who loved Smash Bros will have a hard time comparing the two as Smash Bros is (rightfully) up there on some metaphorical pillar for a lot of people, and in that case this game may come across as just a tired, old copy. If you look past the similarities this game is a decent brawler and adds a lot of variety that past games haven’t featured. A must buy for fans of the series and you will love every minute of this game, for other though, rent it if you want, its nothing all that new but some may find the multiplayer mode reason enough to buy this game.
Thank you for your time and thanks for reading my review!