| Introduction
The Flintstones was the first prime time animated
series ever and with two movies and constant reruns,
it shows little sign of losing its popularity. Placing
a stone age family into sitcom land was a stroke of
genius and the show formula has been replicated many
times in both animation and live action. The Flintstones
have spanned the various GameBoys although not all of
these outings have been regarded as a success. This
is their first outing on the GBA and with a plot that
has Barney captured by an Evil Henchman it can't help
but be a fun title, or can it?
GamePlay
Big Trouble in Bedrock is set over four themed areas
and each one is split into three sub levels. Every section
here has the same objective - get to the end of the
level. This isn't always as straight forward as it sounds
as many of the earlier levels are tackled by negotiating
moving platforms in the sky but except for the odd indicator
you're never entirely sure which direction you're heading
in. There's not really anything you must collect although
50 clams will get you an extra life. At the end of each
area you'll battle it out with the evil Dr. Sinister
although this is never really that tough either as there
are always plenty of health and power-ups lying around
to defeat him.
The rest of the game is... well almost identical
to the first level actually. There are no sub-games,
no secret passages and, worst of all, not much fun.
The fact is that this is a platformer in its purest
form and that's absolutely all. You've probably noticed
at the top of this review that there's no mention of
the save options. This is because, remarkably, there
are none. No password or battery backup is available
and while this is not the most challenging of titles
there's little chance of it maintaining your interest
long enough to play right through.
Controls
The control method, as with all platformers, is pretty
simple. Fred only has to jump and throw items in addition
to the usual moves. Even so you can actually change
the key configuration via the options which seems rather
pointless given the lack of complexity. The actual in-game
controls are one of this title's highlights as Fred's
sprite detection is excellent when making contact with
both enemies and the various moving or stationary platforms.
Graphics
Everything here shouts Gameboy Color and if I didn't
know any better I would swear that it was actually an
older title that had simply been ported over to the
GBA with no enhancements and very little care. All the
cut screens appear to have been captured from the TV
series and the animation of the main sprite of Fred
seems to moonwalk across the terrain with little contact
between his feet and the ground. Most of the backgrounds
and other animation is much better and generates a fair
reproduction of Bedrock however you do get the feeling
that the GBA's capabilities are never really exploited.
Sound & Music
All of the various sound effects and music can be
listened to using the options menu. This contains around
70 clips of dialogue and audio from the series but there's
no Fred yelling 'Yaba-Daba-Doo' which is a little disappointing.
Likewise the music is varied with six background options
but, alas, no Flintstones theme tune. Strange omissions
considering Swing had already obtained the cartoon license.
Final Comments
There are many minor details that could have lifted
this title from a below average experience to a good
one, some sub-games for instance. The lack of any save
or password feature is serious oversight and the absence
of the series theme tune or samples of Fred yelling
is a complete mystery. Overall you're left with a frustrating
and repetitive platformer which appears to have exploited
the animated license very little and falls neatly into
the trap we so often find any TV/Movie tie-in game.
In short this game feels more like a GBC title than
an Advance version which may not be a problem except
for the higher price tag.
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