Adventure Time – Legends of Ooo: Big Hollow Princess

What time is it? iOS licensed game reviewing time! The Cartoon Network show Adventure Time is incredibly popular, not just with kids, but with adults, and any comic-con is sure to have fans cosplaying as many of the show’s characters, even ones from a gender-swap universe episode they did. Part of the reason for the older fanbase is that while the show is colorful and silly for the kids, the dialogue is witty, has characters with some depth that go beyond a black-and-white, good-and-evil morality scale. It just does a fantastic job with building its universe in subtle ways that reward the long-time viewer. So, a game based on the show has a tall order to live up to, and for a $0.99 iPhone game, Adventure Time - Legends of Ooo does its job.

This is one aimed at the younger set, as the game never gets too difficult. It’s a basic graphical adventure, where Finn and Jake must collect items and interact with characters to advance the story along. Ice King has frozen 3 princesses, so Finn and Jake must build a big hollow princess so they can sneak into his lair to figure out how to break his spells, then save all the princesses, along the way helping out other characters in the show like Marceline and Lumpy Space Princess.

While it’s short, it’s kind of like an episode of Adventure Time: there and enjoyable for a brief moment, and then poof, it’s done. The writers for the game did a good job at making the characters feel like they do in the show, and threw in some references to episodes of the show for long-time fans to pick up on. Even having to collect snails, which are usually hidden throughout the episodes of the show, in order to get hints works well, and there’s a clever meta-gaming moment with the snails. Plus, there’s voice acting for Finn, Jake, and the Ice King.

Adventure Time: Legends of Ooo is short, and adults should have little problem with beating the game and getting the Game Center achievements. But for fans of the show, it’s a rewarding experience, jnand for the price of a taco, worth checking out.