This Way Back Wednesday game follows our month long retro Christmas games. Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas may be considered a Halloween movie or a Christmas movie, but to me it’s both. This is actually a year round movie, because it’s so good and holds up to this day. Like most popular children’s movies a video game was made, but this game was released many years after the release of the movie. The Playstation 2 game The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogies Revenge was actually released 11 years after the movie was released, and even though it didn’t coincide with the movie release it was still a hit.
At the time of this games release I was still rocking my Playstation 2 and Gamecube, but my financial status didn’t allow me to buy the game. I was never much of a renter and no one else I was around at this time in my life played video games, so there was pretty much no way for me to play it. With the technology of today I am able to finally play the game that came out 11 years ago, kinda funny when you think of it.
Usually I play until I die, but since I died the first time I fought Oogie Boogie, so I gave it a second try and beat him. The game’s voice acting is really good and the song available is pretty close to the movie version. You play as Jack, using a weapon that the Dr. Finkelstein gave him that looks like flubber. Oogie Boogie has taken over Halloween Town and released monsters all around, it’s your job to defeat Oogie Boogie and rescue Sally, who was captured at the end of chapter 2. I forget that this is the DVD and only so much can be fit, because the levels were really short and involved more exploring than fighting. You do get to meet some of the characters from the movie and even learn their names, if you didn’t know them. Like most games, there are locked sections and you need to complete tasks before they are unlocked and there are also hidden areas. You collect soul coins when you defeat monsters and when you fight Oogie Boogie there are music notes that come off of him when hit. When you collect enough of the music notes you get to do a brief Dance Dance Revolution mini game which ends with an attack, and the damage is based on how you did with the game. As far as the coins, those are used at the witches shop to buy health extensions, bottles and other items as the game goes along. The fountain in the middle of the town can replenish your health at any time, and if you have any bottles you can fill them up and use them in battle to replenish health. There are a two attacks that you perform at first, a whip and a grab attack. The whip is a normal hit and the grab attack can smash an enemy in the ground and then use them to attack other enemies. Holding down the button winds up your weapon and makes it perform a more powerful hit, although when winding up you do leave yourself open to take damage.
I only completed two levels and that was only because it took so long for me to get my Playstation 2 to work with my PC, but if you guys want I can go back and play the rest of the levels. If you have a chance, check this game out if you want to play something retro and fun.