PixlBit

We're gettin' the band back together.

Blues Brothers 2000 is a platformer based on the movie of the same title. Having never seen the movie, I can't say exactly how the game follows it. The game has its own quirks, but I've been told not the ones you'd expect from a Blues Brothers movie. The object of the game is to collect all of the notes in your song, all of your band’s instruments, and rescue all of your band’s members so you can enter the Battle of the Bands.

You play the role of Elwood, and you start out in prison for some unspecified reason. You can't advance to the next world until you've collected the ten notes in the current world. The game has four worlds, going from the prison to Chicago, a graveyard, and a swamp, so it’s pretty short. Each world has a boss at the end, as well as a mini-boss or two somewhere in the middle.

The hit detection is downright atrocious. Sometimes a punch will go right through the enemy. Other times, a seemingly dodged attack will still hit you. It's even possible to be hit when an enemy has just started their attack animation, or, in rare cases, will make no movement at all. Jumping on moving platforms shares a similar detection issue. Far too often, you'll clip the lip of the platform, and fall right through. This is especially common when attempting to jump on one from below. These platforms are rarely placed over bottomless pits, so falling usually just means having to climb back up.

Throughout the game, various characters you come across will teach you dance moves, which will become necessary to succeed at the Battle of the Bands. These moves involve pressing directions on the analogue stick, followed by either the A or B button. The button combos appear on the screen, and must be pressed in time with the rhythm. The commands start out simple, and become more complicated as the game progresses. It's an interesting diversion which fits the theme quite well. There is also a 2-player dance-off mode, and whichever player performs more actions correctly will be the winner.

The graphics are a mixed bag. The environments look like they were put together with building blocks, with simple textures stretched across them. Fortunately, there is little fog, and although the framerate is low, it is generally stable. The animation is stiff and choppy, often seeming as if several frames are missing.

The sound may be the high point of the game. The music is jazzy and upbeat, though it is a little repetitive, largely due to the fact that every world shares the same selection of tunes. The quality is a bit muffled, mostly because of little stereophonic separation. The renditions may attempt to mimic music from the movie, but I've no idea. The game contains all of the classic cartoon sound effects, none of which I could even begin to spell here.

The controls get the job done for the most part. There are a few moves that you need to press two buttons to use, but, if thought were put into it, you could map them out so they’d only be one button. Jumping can sometimes be unresponsive. When running down a slope, pressing the jump button often doesn't result in a jump. This can be corrected by first standing still, and then jumping, as a running jump doesn't have any more momentum than a jump from a standstill.

There's no denying that Blues Brothers 2000 has numerous issues, but it also has its moments. Whether or not these problems can be overlooked to enjoy the good depends entirely on the player. There's no shortage of good platformers on the Nintendo 64, but if you’re a fan of the movie or just weird games in general, this one might entertain.