Package in the mail receiving-ing. Bubble wrap envelope opening-ing. Game cartridge examining-ing. DVD into game console inserting-ing. Sony PS3 powering upping-ing. Video game playing-ing. Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs for the Sony PS3 reviewing-ing.

Meatballs

Now you’d think that consistent prattle like that would get on one’s nerves, but you eventually learn to ignore it. Trust me, I should know. After a few days of playing Ubisoft’s Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs for the Sony PS3 I was up to my ears in ‘verb-ing’. But like I said, I was pleasantly surprised that I wasn’t ready to smash the game cartridge in an attempt to free myself from the ‘verb’able onslaught. The ‘verb-ing’ shtick was a running joke in the movie Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, upon which the game is based. Does one need to have seen the movie in order to enjoy the game? Yeah, it helps;, it helps a lot. However, seeing the movie is not a requirement to play the game. Still, viewing the movie does goes along way to explaining motivation and helps to answer the overriding question, “Why are huge portions of food falling from the sky and why should I care?”

Chili

In the game you play the wacky inventor, Flint, who is just looking for his place amongst the great inventors of the world. In doing so, he invents the F.L.D.S.M.D.F.R. (Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator), a device that can take water and convert it into any food imaginable. The F.L.D.S.M.D.F.R. has been accidentally launched into the troposphere where it has been taking the moisture of the clouds, converting it to food, and raining the food down upon Flint’s home, the Island of Swallow. Unfortunately, the F.L.D.S.M.D.F.R. has become overloaded and the torrent of food it is releasing has begun to mutate. This is exactly where you, as Flint, enter the game. Your objective is to rescue your friends, battle mutating food, and regain control of the F.L.D.S.M.D.F.R.

Hot Fudge Sundae

A nice aspect of the game is that you can solo as Flint, or you can battle with a friend who takes on the role of Steve, Flint’s pet monkey. Together, Flint and Steve wander through a maze of food, battling mutated and animated Ice Cream Chucking Snowmen, Smelly Onions, Twisting Spaghetti Cyclones, Seed-spitting Tomatoes, Cream Shooting Pastries, and Evil Gummi Bears. To battle the wayward food, Flint has invented and assortment of weapons that include: The Hot Enougher, The Forkamajigger, The Upsucker Plus, The Chopper-er, and The Bigacious Pow.

Game play involves moving through multiple levels with a goal at the end of each level, which usually involves rescuing someone. Also, there are approximately 20-30 hidden bonus food items called Hydronic Foodpods, which you destroy to unlock puzzle pieces, which you assemble to achieve the ultimate weapon. As you destroy the mutated food, you collect Hydrons, which you then use to upgrade your weapons. The fun for kids is the chance to play a battle game with all of the violence of a food fight.

Brussel Sprouts

There was one annoying aspect of the game, besides Flint describing every move he was making and emphasizing it with an ‘ing’ ending whether it need it or not, and that was the problem with the screen real estate in the two player mode. Whenever Nikolai (age 8) and I played together he usually took the role of Flint, which meant that I played the second banana, Steve. Well as the game saw it, Flint was the main character so it panned and scanned the screen to favor the Flint character, which meant that Steve would sometimes fall off the screen as Flint moved around. When this happened, the game would give the 2nd player a 3 count to get Steve back on the screen. If the player failed to do this, Steve would get transported to wherever Flint was and reappear standing next to Flint. This was great if I didn’t want to jump through all of the hoops that Nikolai was forced to navigate just to move on. I would just let Steve stand where he was, fall off the screen, get the 3 count and then poof, Steve was standing next to Flint. However, Steve’s transportation antics became a problem whenever I went screen-left to check something out and Nikolai went screen-right or if he accidentally fell through a hole to a lower level and we weren’t done on the upper level… Poof, Steve was standing next to Flint again. Frustration doesn’t begin to describe how annoying this was.

Another disappointment with the game was an unfortunate missed opportunity by the game designers to not take advantage of the PS3 Duel Shock System. Game play would have been a lot more exciting if the controllers shook every time an oversized hamburger came thundering down from the sky.

Overall Impressions

The best way to describe this game for both Nikolai and I was that it was a nice distraction. I wouldn’t call it a great game, but it was fun and kept us engaged. That said, I was quick to notice that the game has very little replay value, a fact that became very apparent to me when Nikolai and I went back to collect the remaining Hydronic Foodpods that we missed the first time and Nikolai stated that he wanted to stop playing for a while because he was sick of looking at all of the food. So with that in mind, Nikolai is giving Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs for the PS3 99 out of 100 Thumbs Up and I’m giving it 5 out of 8 Dancing Elephants.

Parting Thoughts

Lasting impressions of Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs on Nikolai and Caleb (age 5): “I’m brushing-ing my teeth.” “I’m drinking-ing my milk.” “I’m cleaning-ing my room.”

In the Interest of Full Disclosure: We received a free copy of this game for review purposes.