The game shares a lot in common with the show, all the way down to its charming characters and humourous dialogue, as well as its gadgetry and lingo. The game begins as Kim is once again trying to prevent Dr. Drakken from succeeding in his evil plans of stealing a prized monkey idol that has mind controlling powers. However, Kim’s clumsy friend Ron Stoppable lives up to his name and gets in the way, knocking the idol, and swapping the brains of Dr. Drakken and himself. This eventually leaves Kim and her evil counterpart Shego to work together in attempting to switch the brains back to their rightful owner – plenty of bad guy punching and high flying acrobatic jumps are assured.
Similar to the series’ earlier game adaptations on handhelds, What’s the Switch? is a 2D platformer where you’ll be able to jump, flip, kick and use some great gadgets to progress further. In a way, the game is much like Viewtiful Joe or Spiderman DS, where you’ll be able to make turns down different paths, giving the game that slight 2.5D feel to it rather than strictly being a standard side-scroller. While you’d typically expect a kid’s game to be fairly straightforward, the game allows you to perform wall jumps, slides, fighting techniques and the use of grapple hooks to soar to higher heights contributing in making the game that much more harder and varied.
Everything you’d expect in a platformer is well in place in Kim Possible. Each level requires you to find several different tokens, defeat bad guys and use various platforms to excel further through the level. You’ll be able to play as Kim and Shego, both of which who provide a number of unique differences between one another. Not only will you experience the level from a different perspective as the pair work together to reach their goals, but each are able to use different gadgets to help in certain situations. Kim can use a grappling hook to swing over gaps, bubble gum to activate switches and to stop enemies in their place and a electro magnetic scrambler to reveal hidden objects and enemies. Meanwhile, Shego has a grapple beam (identical to Kim’s grapple hook), but also a magnet to bring objects and enemies towards her and a destructive punch that can deactivate certain switches. Unfortunately, the better abilities aren’t available until the later levels and the idea of adding gadgets feels a tad under-utilised with only three options for each character.
Take out bad guys AND helicopters. Clever.
The situations that Kim and Shego get themselves in are often presented in generally humourous and well-presented cutscences that are used to paint the picture for each level. There are 11 levels in total, with several fast paced secret levels to unlock. There’s a great level of variety and design in each of the levels - you’ll often be leaping from the ledges of a Japanese city, sliding in haunted houses and epically jumping from car to car on crowed highways. In addition you’ll also be able to play several levels as Ron’s pet mole Rufus, where you’ll need to run through tight areas to unlock doors and cut through wires. The backdrops for each of these levels are excellently presented and the varieties offered in each of them are of equal quality.
As mentioned previously, there are a handful of tokens to find in each level. Generally you’ll need to find anywhere between 100-200 blue tokens, as well as other smaller tokens to unlock additional content such as mini-games, costumes, music sound tracks, secret levels and a handful of concept art. Acquiring most tokens require precise acrobatic jumping and movement, and the ability to break open hidden paths – so expect to pull each level apart as you try and uncover all of the hidden tokens and unlock all of the goodies. If you have a second controller you’ll also be able to play a number of multiplayer modes.
Rather than simply mashing on one button throughout the adventure, the game mixes up the action with a number of fighting sequences to defeat bad guys. Some will require use of your gadgets, meanwhile others will need you to perform flying kicks or back flips to out manoeuvre them. There’s a nice mix of enemies including typically clichéd big bad guys with heavy armour, as well as the more traditional fighting ninja monkeys expected from the series. Even better is that some levels include boss battles to mix up the action.
Clearly no match for Shego.
The presentation of the game is on par with the television show, although offering a slight graphical difference in appearance with character designs. Most levels are vibrant and full of colour, and the game sports some excellent animation as is seen as Kim jumps from wall to wall. Equally, audio is of similar quality of the television show with the soundtrack offering familiar tunes and voice acting from the cast of characters. Disappointingly, although the game has possibly a dozen different tunes, there is actually very little that sets them apart from one another. Generally though, the tunes do a nice job of portraying that Mission Impossible-like secret agent feel to the game.
There are a few shortcomings in this generally well-executed platforming experience though, namely its length. While the game offers a healthy range of variety and levels, the game feels as though it prematurely ends before tapping into its potential. Additionally, a longer list of gadgetry wouldn’t have hurt either, after the three already in the game providing a ton of variety in puzzles and progression.
Kim Possible is surprisingly a quality game that is not only one of the most enjoyable kid-oriented games for years, but also a well-rounded platformer. In hindsight, there are plenty of rough edges that could’ve easily been ironed out to appeal to a broader audience, however, the game does what it was intended to do – appeal to the kids. The game isn’t overly simple and there’s enough variety and depth in the adventure that puts this well above any other children’s game out there. You’ll be surprised.
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