Review: Dr Maybee and the Adventures of Scarygirl

Posted by Ben on August 20th, 2011 | 0 Comments | Tags: Dr Maybee and the Adventures of Scarygirl

I initially toyed with the idea of making this review as comparatively brief as the time I spent with Scarygirl, but then I realised that a review consisting of one paragraph and a score would seem a little bit unprofessional, so I quickly abandoned that idea. However, let it be known that Scarygirl is a startlingly short game, and the fact that it has the gall to end on a cliffhanger only makes it worse.

If you even glance at the screens, you’ll know in an instant that Scarygirl is a platformer. You jump, you spin, you make it across various locales in a 2D adventure. The controls do their job admirably, and are precise enough that I wasn’t frustrated very often by missed jumps, meaning that often I was left cursing the game’s levels, which, while relatively small, have enough different pathways to confuse most players. I found myself wandering around the sewer level for quite some time, until I figured out that I could do a double jump by spinning and jumping at the same time. Of course, this was the last level of the game, so learning this skill there of the game didn’t particularly help in the earlier levels. Now, whilst the levels may be slightly confusing to navigate, the enemies that populate them are the true culprits of my frustrations. Their projectiles are let loose too quickly, leading to many cheap hits, and they have the ability to damage you when you haven’t even touched them, which makes things a whole load of fun.

The saving grace of Scarygirl is the art, which is just whimsical enough to make travelling through the game entertaining, if only upon your first glimpse of each locale. It’s only on the 5th or so trip through a level, with no checkpoints I might add, do you start to lose your appreciation of the scenery.

Scarygirl can’t quite muster up the energy to be anything more than mediocre, but at a length of roughly an hour, you’d be hard pressed to appreciate your time with it. It’s pretty enough, but that prettiness is certainly skin deep in this case. If you got it for free through PS+ like I did, then it’s worth a look, if only to see some of the more interesting creature designs. I wouldn’t recommend ponying up the cash though, there just isn’t enough here to justify it.

A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for review purposes. For more info on our review policy click here. This review is for the PlayStation Portable version of the game.