Floigan Brothers
For: Dreamcast
Genre: Adventure (/platform)
Reviewed by: Escee (Brandon)
Developer: Visual Concepts
Publisher: Sega
Released:08.01.01
 
Floigan Brothers (the full title is actually Floigan Brothers: Episode 1) is one of the last Dreamcast games. Early on (back around the time of the U.S. launch), this was Sega's "secret platformer project" that was overhyped as being the next Banjo-Kazooie. Well, it's a far cry from living up to the hype, but it's a charming game nonetheless.

You'll take the role of Hoigle Floigan, the older of the two Floigan brothers. You're the little guy, and the game will be centered upon your need to get your younger, bigger, dumber, stronger brother Moigle to do things for you. You'll manipulate his emotions to unlock things, play games with him to earn points, and get him to do things for you to progress. You'll also have to deal with the evil Baron Malodorous and his feline lackies, who wants to take over your family junkyard!

It's a lighthearted adventure/platform game with minigames abound, and it's way too short. It's charming, though, and Visual Concepts did a nice job with the voices and the overall cartoony feel. You'll even find yourself being smashed like a pancake a la Saturday Morning cartoons.

You'll interact with your brother in a variety of ways. The controls consist chiefly of the four buttons: A, B, X, and Y. The X button is used to point at places you want Moigle to go to, or at things you want him to interact with or notice. The A button is used to punch, dive, climb, open, or grab things. The B button is used to call Moigle or offer him something that you're holding. The Y button is used to call the Speak menu, which allows you to toy with Moigle's emotions by insulting him or hugging him, or teach him new things, offer to play a game, or respond to his questions. It's simple enough and it works fine.

The game is fairly straightforward and you can generally figure it out easily. However, sometimes the game is just plain stupid. For example, at one point I taught Moigle to overcome his fear of spiders but he only overcame his fear of one spider -- not the other spider in the game. So he refused to come to where the other spider was, and I couldn't even bribe him to come -- this lasted for probably 10 minutes. Then, all of a sudden, after another failed bribe, he just comes running to the spider... I was relieved, but kind of pissed that the game was so dumb and that I'd wasted so much time on something that shouldn't have taken any time...

The minigames are pretty fun and varied. They aren't overfrustrating but not overly easy (though they are a bit on the easy side). You can teach Moigle a variety of things, including a variety of games to play and earn points with. You'll use your points to teach him more things, and also to bribe him to do stuff with.

The graphics are colorful and nicely done. The camera, on the other hand, is extremely annoying, as it often gets stuck behind things and makes it so you can't see at all. This being the kind of game where you don't actually "die," it wasn't that big of a deal in that it didn't kill you or screw you up, but it was very annoying and should have, could have been better.

The worst part about that game was that it was incredibly short. You could beat it in one sitting if you wanted to. It really feels like just a part of a game, which in fact it probably is as suggested by the "Episode 1" moniker, so maybe when/if Episode 2 comes out, the game will feel more complete.

The game is charming though, and really does a great job at capturing the Saturday-morning-cartoon feel, but it is far too short and the camera sucks. It's a game for fans of the genre. I enjoyed the game, as I enjoy the genre, but I'd only reccomend it to those who really enjoy the genre, and hopefully can find the game cheap.

Graphics
The graphics are great, and capture the cartoony feel prevalent in the game.
 
Sound
Voice acting and cartoony sound effects are well done. Background music is just kind of there, but it certainly isn't bad.
 
Gameplay
Way too short, but otherwise fun and varied.

Control
The camera sucks. The controls themselves are fine and get the job done.
 
Lastability
Um, well, you can go online to download little extras, and that would have been some nice lastability, but the fact that the game itself is only about 2 hours long kind of negates that fact.

bottom line: It's way too short, but if you can get it for cheap, it may be worth a look for fans of the genre.

04.07.02

click on the above screenshots for larger versions.
 
images from ign.com