Review: Think Donkey Kong Country without the monkeys.
It would be impossible to count all the generic platformers that have appeared on various consoles. There are those like Mario, some like Donkey Kong Country and even ones like Sonic. Artoon borrows and carries from each type to give birth to a strange and yet pleasing title, Pinobee: Wings of Adventure. You take the role of the robotic bee named Pinobee. He is the creation of Grandpa Bee, an old inventor who decided to build a hero to protect the world. The unexpected happens when Grandpa is kidnapped and it’s up to Pinobee to travel through dangerous worlds to save his creator.
With titles like Tony Hawk, Iridion, and now Pinobee, Game Boy Advance’s graphics are becoming more and more impressive, and the ones found here looks just as striking as the SNES’s Donkey Kong Country series. Pinobee’s animation is smooth and the backgrounds are done very well with no framerate problems at all. The visuals aren’t outstanding, but very good for Game Boy quality. The audio is nothing to sing and dance to. There are only a few tracks that are repeated for every couple levels. The sounds are very basic, so don’t expect any cute voices from the bee or his insect enemies; though, that might be a good thing. Despite the lack of variety, the few songs present are above average and there isn’t much to expect from the sound effects anyway.
The gameplay doesn’t vary all that much either. Even when the level changes it feels almost like the same thing over again. You will find yourself jumping through the forest and bopping little critters on the head no matter what stage you’re on. Pinobee has the ability to climb up walls and do a Yoshi style air kick to stay afloat. He is also capable of jumping, double jumping, triple jumping, quadruple jumping, etc. As you progress you’ll encounter a fairy who can improve your skills by extending your jump with an extra air "Dash”, which might remind some of the Mega Man X series. Occasionally a boss fight breaks up the traditional stages and the battles with them, while not extremely difficult, provide a nice change of pace to the game. If you can get past the redundancy of jumping around then the gameplay is quite good. History has shown that games with a lot of jumping aren’t necessarily bad as long as it’s done well.
Pinobee has a pretty cool item feature that adds depth to the game. Strewn through each location you’ll find question mark bubbles that contain random power ups. Each power up has a suit (hearts, diamonds, etc.), a number and a color. These all fit in 4 by 4 squares and when you get four of the same color and number or same color and suit then you get a bingo. That will grant you some upgrade such as more energy, better defense or stronger dashes. However you can only hold so many so as you will have to decide which upgrade you want to achieve and explore each stage to find the piece to complete the bingo. To expand upon this feature you can link with another Pinobee user and trade your items so you can obtain those rare parts to get upgrades you need to save Grandpa.
Unless you’re really good then after completing the 20 plus stages you will have to go back. Pinobee has multiple endings depending on how you conduct yourself through each world. After finishing a level Pinobee records in his diary what he did right and wrong. These are hints to go back and truly complete the stage. For instance you might need to find your cricket friend or seek the golden enemies. A true Pinobee master has to do everything if they want to save Grandpa. According to the story Pinobee never received a heart so by being nice throughout the game he is supposed to learn to care enough to help his creator. Whatever the reason you will probably want to go back and fully explore each stage.
