"Somehow, I had to save the school from this fashion disaster!"
Female role models seem to often be a tough point for children's television programming. Throughout time, we've seen characters like She-Ra, Princess of Power, Jem and the Holograms, the Pink and Yellow Power Rangers, Linka (VIIIIIND!) and Gi from Captain Planet, and just about everyone from Sailor Moon. Stepping up for the challenge in the 21st century is Raven, a pop-tartlet who has her very own TV show, 'that's SO Raven' (yes, written like that). In it, she stars as Raven, a teenage girl going through the trials and tribulations of school...but she has psychic visions! However, these visions are often misinterpreted and lead to all sorts of wacky antics. Apparently.
The GBA game, as you might have guessed, is based on the TV series. Perhaps I should say "loosely" based. It's clear that there were quite a few restrictions on what Raven could and couldn't do, because gameplay involves you (as Raven!) running around on numerous errands for people, all the while collecting dropped bottles of fresh spring water and perfume. Raven's line of defence includes dumping spring water on the floor to make people slip and fall over, swinging her handbag around to deflect objects that are being thrown at her, and SPRAYING PEOPLE IN THE FACE WITH PERFUME. Am I the only one who finds that a bit odd? I can just hear the Disney exec saying "We don't want anything violent. Make her blind people with perfume." At least that gives a logical reason as to why clones of her principal (who spit on you), men wheeling TVs, manic floor waxers, lizard men, and crazy women with shopping bags (just to name a few of Raven's foes) are after her. I'd be pretty angry if this girl came up and sprayed me in the face with perfume.
Objectives for the game include:
Call me crazy, but I wouldn't like to ever meet Raven in real life.
The game has got a catchy hip-hop style introductionary song which is used for a ten-second FMV intro, and in-game cutscenes. It's actually pretty good. Unfortunately, the soundtrack is limited to around five songs for the entire game, and four of them are all hip-hoppy too, making them all blend into one large blur of hip-hop insanity. Don't rely on the music to figure out which level you're in, because you'll think you're stuck in an infinity loop. Sounds include hacking coughs from poor innocents as Raven sprays them in the face with perfume, record scratches when you pick up CDs, and chomping sounds when you get a burger. All in all, pretty standard video game stuff.
The graphics for the game are clear and bright, and the characters are well animated. Raven runs quite comically, with her arms outstretched and her legs pumping like a pair of pistons. It's clear to tell what is a pickup and what is scenery. Unfortunately, the graphic style seems to repeat a LOT, as you always seem to be either at school or at the mall. Then again, that may be a restriction of the license.
As it's based on the hit show!, that's SO Raven is ripe with stills from the TV series. They'll appear during the cutscenes, and you'll also get this creepy eyeball zoom-in-zoom-out thing that happens whenever Raven has a psychic premonition. It's possible to unlock things in a yearbook by completing secondary tasks, but they're just more stills from the show for you to look at, most of which are already seen in-game. In addition, if you do want to go back and unlock any yearbook photos that you missed, it will require a lot of guesswork, as there's no obvious clue as to which levels have got their photos unlocked and which haven't.
Overall, that's SO Raven is a formulaic license title. It's a short experience, and for the time that you play it, it's not really much fun, either. It's probably just me, but I also found that Raven (the TV show character, at least) seems to be pretty nasty and shallow, if the game's missions reflect her show. I can't even recommend this to fans of the show. This game is damning proof that some licenses just shouldn't be made into games.