Avalanche Software is not one of the worst developers around, every now and then a decent title does make its way out, but Bolt is not one of those lucky few. I actually enjoyed one of their previous Disney games, Chicken Little 2: Ace in Action for the Wii. I never saw the film Chicken Little, but if I enjoyed the game, maybe lightning will strike twice with Bolt.
Well if lighting did strike again, it definitely fried Bolt. I was able to play both the Wii and Xbox 360 versions of the game and each had a stack of flaws, which started at its core. The game is extremely repetitive, I’m not directly talking about its levels or its combos, I’m talking about the enemies. The shier amount of the same exact enemies that you have to fight over and over again, to progress to the next stage, is obnoxious. The game feels as if it could offer a nice fun time, if it had simply cut down on the amount of enemies that the user has to fight.
The Xbox 360 version is of course the version that looks better. It isn’t on par with the CGI in the film, but it’s good enough. Don’t make me talk about the Wii graphics. There’s really no reason too since we all know Wii is not a beauty machine.
The gameplay feels more stable on the Wii front. The game doesn’t fully utilize the motion capabilities of the Wii-mote. The gameplay is practically the same on either version. For some reason it feels easier to play on the Wii than on the Xbox 360.
One of the worst things about the game is actually playing as Bolt. The game switches the player off between Bolt and Penny. Penny has more stealthy levels while Bolt is pure beat-em up. Bolt’s animations during gameplay is awkward to say the least. For some reason when he does his mid-air attacks, after the enemy has been defeated Bolt pauses and floats in the air for a couple of seconds. Why? I don’t know.
If you want to play a relatively recent and good Disney game, try Chicken Little 2: Ace in Action for the Wii. It’s actually fun to play. Bolt isn’t amusing at all. It left a bad taste in my mouth.
