GENRE
	Action/Puzzler
	DEVELOPER
	Breakthrough New Media/Big Blue Bubble
	PUBLISHER
	Namco Hometek
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1
	CONNECTIVITY
	No
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The GBA is littered with licensed software. It was inevitable, really, as the platform is both popular and fairly inexpensive to develop for, not to mention the endless amounts of licensed properties to base software. Unfortunately, a great deal of these titles are barely playable, appealing to fans of the respective properties and to few others. That being said, it's kind of refreshing to see a thoughtful licensed game of Atomic Betty's caliber.

Graphics are one of Atomic Betty's strong points. The story is conveyed through still, comic-book styled panels which accurately reflect the TV show's atmosphere. The in-game engine is surprisingly crisp and renders the characters in vivid pastel colors, echoing the details of the cutscenes accurately. The animations for the player characters and enemies are also smooth and well thought-out. Paloma pulls out her iPod if she stands around too long, and X-5 starts waving at the camera, with no heed for breaking the fourth wall whatsoever. Standard enemies--robots, for the most part--are clunky and stumble around blindly. The boss enemies are animated nicely, occasionally taking up the entire screen with their watercolor hues.

Backgrounds are done well enough, but a few more changes in detail between levels would have been nice. Platforms and elevators are clearly cut from the same model in each stage and switches are exactly the same. A series of starfighting levels is rendered in pseudo-3D, although only asteroids and a select few other obstacles are present.

The music in Atomic Betty is somewhat repetitive. The program's theme is interspersed with a couple of subdued mood setting tracks, but they really don't do anything special. Sound effects are appropriate, but once again, do not particularly stand out.

>Atomic Betty takes a different tack than most licensed GBA games. It's still in 2D, of course, but the game is more than a standard platformer, instead requiring some actual thought.

The plot plays out just like an episode of the television series. Betty is getting ready for the big basketball game when her rival, Penelope, steals her completed homework and throws it down the stairs into the school's basement. Knowing that she won't be able to play in the game unless her homework is finished, Betty rushes down into the dark, dank basement with her friends Paloma and Noah along to help. Unfortunately, just as Betty grabs a piece of her scattered paper, Maximus I.Q. starts another of his dastardly plots for galactic domination, and Betty is beamed aboard her spaceship to stop him.

Each character has a special ability, and completing each stage requires use of all three characters in a back-and-forth fashion, reminiscent of the Super NES game The Lost Vikings. Play takes place on Earth and in space with a different set of characters backing Betty up in each area--Noah and Paloma on Earth and Spanky and X-5 in space. Surprisingly, the characters are not perfectly analogous, and each has slightly different abilities.

While Betty can fight robots and evil aliens when in space, the emphasis of gameplay is on finding and accessing computer terminals or homework pieces on Earth. Once located, this will engage the player in a simple but somewhat diverting mini-game, unique depending on stage.

N/A

Clearly, this game is targeted more towards fans of the Atomic Betty cartoon--meaning, the younger set--than towards traditional gamers. The challenge level isn't very high, and it would be surprising if a full playthrough of the game took more than two hours for anyone older than, say, twelve.

But, it's quite something that the developers chose to go in a different direction than a standard cookie-cutter action-platformer for this licensed title. Where they could have grafted new sprites onto the old formula and called it a day, they instead put a little thought into the game design and came up with something that will engage player's minds as well as their thumb reflexes. While it isn't quite as classic as The Lost Vikings, it's a sight better than its counterparts. Atomic Betty has a few problems with its lackluster soundtrack, occasional spotty control and slightly off jump-timing, but since rock-solid platforming isn't the focus here, it's a forgivable error.

Basically, Atomic Betty is a better-than-average game for kids, and one that will keep them on their mental toes, to boot.

6.9/10