This will come as a surprise to our regular viewers, but the *Mr Bean* game on PS2, released by Blast Entertainment, isn’t that bad. I know, I was surprised too.
Based on the animated Mr Bean TV series, you must save Teddy who has been kidnapped. Working your way through a number of garden-themed platforming levels, you have to work your way around a variety of enemies (dogs, bees, old women) whilst avoiding fatal pits of doom. On your journey you must also collect special jigsaw pieces which are locked inside treasure chests dotted around each level. By collecting all of the jigsaw pieces you can then unlock the door that leads to the sewers and the resolution of the game. For completionists you can collect cat biscuits on each level, but this is perhaps best saved for the masochists out there. They’re not all that easy to pick up.
It’s not all happy sailing though. More often than not the camera is too close to Mr Bean, meaning you collide with enemies and damage-inflicting objects all too frequently. Judging perspective of a jump can be difficult, but thankfully if you die you just return to the last checkpoint you activated. Still, it doesn’t stop the increasing frustration as you misjudge the timing of your jump over and over again.
Other problematic areas include the weapons, which are ineffective at best. In a kid friendly move, the big spray, frying pans and so on only stun your enemies rather than kill them. It also gets annoying when you find a sign telling you what to do every few steps. Do it on the first level perhaps, but is there much need for it after that? No. The answer is no.
There are a couple of mini games to distract you from the platform game, namely Vac-a-Mole and jigsaw puzzles. Vac-a-Mole is activated through mole-shaped garden statues and does what it says on the tin. Armed with a vacuum, you run around the garden vacuuming up rogue moles. Achieve the target score and you’ll be given bonus items that will help you in the main game. These are nothing special and can easily be collected as you progress through each level.
We encountered an issue with these levels as they had a tendency to crash the game. As such, because you need to construct a jigsaw puzzle to unlock the sewer the game kept crashing before we could finish and unlock a change of scenery.
One day we might get a copy of the game that lets you play to the finish, although we can’t imagine there will be that much left to explore.