Piglet's Big Game
| Piglet's Big Game | |
|---|---|
 PAL region cover art for PS2 | |
| Developer(s) |
|
| Publisher(s) | |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance |
| Release date(s) |
GameCube PS2 GBA |
| Genre(s) | Action-Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Disney's Piglet's Big Game (also titled Piglet's Big
Game) is a 2003 action-adventure video game by Gotham Games, Disney Interactive Studios and Doki Denki Studio. The game centers around Piglet and how he tries to show how he can help. The game is based on Piglet's Big Movie.
Playable characters
Winnie the Pooh: Pooh can walk slightly slow and must dodge Heffalumps and Woozles that he attracted with his rumbly tumbly. Only playable in Owl's and Tigger's dreams.
Piglet: The star of the game. Piglet can move much faster, and is able to intimidate a monster by making scary faces. If he gets scared by a Heffalump or Woozle, he can find a Christopher Robin balloon to comfort him.
Tigger: Tigger can sneak around to avoid detection by monsters, and must stay out of their flashlight beams, he can also bounce to go faster. Only playable in Roo's and Rabbit's dreams.
Plot
This game primarily features Piglet going into his friends' dreams and scaring "Heffalumps" & "Woozles" to help his friends collect valuable items.
The game starts with Piglet observing Pooh reaching for a bee hive, Roo reaching for a ball that is caught in a tree, Owl trying to remember where his memory book is, Rabbit planting his carrots, Eeyore having his usual gloomy days, and Tigger painting his house to look like him.
Piglet sees a shadowy monster called the Granosorus and is scared of it, but it disappears before his friends can see it. Even Christopher Robin does not believe him. Christopher tells Piglet to overcome his fears, but Piglet says that heroes are supposed to be big and brave, and since he is the opposite, he realizes that he will never be a hero. Piglet leaves the Hundred-Acre-Wood as his friends start to fall asleep doing what Piglet saw them doing. Piglet magically enters their dreams and begins to help them find their missing items. After helping them all, the Hundred Acre Wood get flooded and Piglet attempts to save his friends, who are trapped on islands with Heffalumps and Woozles. Once Piglet rescues everyone the Granosorus appears, but Piglet was able to scare it off. Christopher Robin comes and after learning about their adventures he gives everyone a picnic to celebrate Piglet's bravery.
Levels
- Pooh's Dream - A candy-themed world, Piglet must find Pooh and then find him some Honey.[5]
- Roo's Dream - A forest-themed world made of cardboard and paper, Roo has carelessly locked himself in his playroom, so Piglet must unlock the door and then help him get his ball out.[5]
- Owl's Dream - a library-themed world, Piglet must find Owl's memory book.[5]
- Eeyore's Dream - an enchanted castle-themed world Piglet must release the colour and get rid of the enemies in Eeyore's dream.[5]
- Rabbit's Dream - a garden-themed world, Piglet must help Rabbit's Carrot Extractor to work.[5]
- Tigger's Dream - a location made up of multiple seasonal themes, a stripy forest (summer section), a snowy cliff side (winter section), an amusement park (fall section), and an outdoor botanical garden (spring section), Tigger has lost his stripes. Piglet must find them.[5]
- The Blustery Day - This is not a dream. Was Piglet really a Hero? All of Piglet's friends are stranded. Can he save them for real? [5]
Enemies
- "Basic Heffalump" – These enemies have a fairly average elephant body shape but are also able to walk bipedally; they are faced all throughout the game, including the final level.
- "Bee Heffalump" – Bee heffalumps have an elephant's head and feet and a bee's body; they are faced from Roo's Dream, Tigger's Dream, and in the final level. They can move relatively fast but are also defenseless.
- "Tuba Heffalump" – Most of them can be found sleeping rather than patrolling a set area and will be awoken if they are approached too quickly, they are also able to shatter the grimace code in grimace mode so be quick to scare them off. The Tuba Heffalump appears in Eeyore's Dream after you beat the scary door, and in Rabbit's Dream, Tigger's Dream, and also in the final level.
- "Jackpot Heffalump" – They are more or less robot heffalumps with jackpot machine slots in their chests and they move around on a thin wheel, they can mess up the indications in grimace mode and replace some of the correct indications with question marks, they don't move all that fast. The Jackpot Heffalump is in Rabbit's Dream and Tigger's Dream and also in the final level.
- "Roadsweeper Heffalump" – These enemies can only be found in Tigger's Dream. They spend most of their time sweeping up leaves from a path with their brooms, they do move quite fast though, and they can hide from scary faces by sweeping up dust, causing the grimace code to go invisible for a couple of seconds. The Roadsweeper Heffalump is not in the final level.
- "Basic Woozle" - Just like the basic heffalump, the basic woozle is also able to walk bipedally; they have a distinctive woozle body shape, but they can't run that fast and also have no way of hiding from a scary face. The basic Woozle can be found in any Dream but just like the Roadsweeper Heffalump, they aren't in the final level.
- "Hide And Seek Woozle" – These woozles are the largest in body height and they wear distinctive magician clothing; they resemble vampires and they can hide from scary faces by covering themselves with their cloak so don't complete the grimace code too quickly, and Piglet faces them past the scary door in Roo's Dream, Owl's Dream, and Eeyore's Dream. They are also in the Final Level.
- "Mirror Woozle" – These distinctively French woozles supposedly spend all day admiring themselves in their mirrors, and are able to slow down a scary face process by using their mirrors to flip the screen and therefore making it more confusing to complete the grimace code. The Mirror Woozle appears in Eeyore's Dream and Rabbit's Dream. They also appear in the Final Level.
- "Sporty Woozle" – These dog-like woozles are apparently like to take part in a wide range of sports, from boxing to tennis; not only can they use their rackets to change one of the symbols in grimace mode, but they are also quite capable of keeping up with Piglet when he runs away, but their vision range is not all that good. They appear in Tigger's Dream after you pass the scary door, and the final level.
- "Talking Door" (also called "Scary Door") – The Talking Door only appears in every second level when Piglet gets to the near end of the game. He can only be scared when Piglet learns every last scare he has unlocked in each level. He can't move and also doesn't appear in the final level.
- "Scary Tree" - The Scary Tree is only in Owl's Dream and Eeyore's Dream. Just like the Talking Door, it doesn't move and is not in the final level, but it shouldn't be that hard to scare it.
- "Granosorus" - The Granosorus appears in the final level. It is just a scary Shadow and really big. It's not very fast and also can't protect itself from scary faces so it shouldn't be that hard to defeat it.
Final Level
After Piglet completes all the Dreams he can head to the final level A Blustery Day. In the final level, all of Piglet's friends are stranded on different islands with one (or two) Heffalumps or Woozles. Piglet must Scare the Heffalumps and Woozles and rescue his friends using items from their dreams. If the player is too slow or if he makes a mistake, one of Piglet's friends might get scared by a Heffalump, or a Woozle and the player will have to start over.
- Pooh Bear is trapped with a Basic Heffalump.
- Roo is trapped with a Bee Heffalump.
- Owl is trapped with a Hide and Seek Woozle.
- Eeyore is trapped with a Mirror Woozle.
- Rabbit is trapped with a Tuba Heffalump (Which is Sleeping) and a Jackpot Heffalump which will appear when you head to Tigger's Island. Because the Tuba Heffalump is sleeping, it will not scare Rabbit but instead, the Jackpot Heffalump will.
- Tigger is trapped with a Sporty Woozle.
At the end, Piglet must face the Granosorus and scare it off before it tries to scare his friends.
Voice actors and their characters
- John Fiedler - Piglet
- Jim Cummings - Winnie the Pooh/Tigger
- Ken Sansom - Rabbit
- Peter Cullen - Eeyore
- Nikita Hopkins - Roo
- Kath Soucie - Kanga
- Andre Stojka - Owl
- Michael Gough - Gopher
- Tom Wheatley - Christopher Robin
- Laurie Main - Mr. Narrator
Reception
Like the movie, the game received positive reviews as well. Ryan Davis, in a review for GameSpot, deemed the game very much superior to most children’s games and movie tie-ins, and praised the voice acting, sound and art design (which features "surreal" imagery of the character’s dream worlds). Davis also noted the game’s gentle pace.[6] IGN's Chadd Chambers gave the GameCube version 7.0/10,[7] finding the gameplay simple but well-executed and easy to control and the battle system well-suited for the young target audience due to its lack of violence.[1] He compared the graphics positively to the look of the cartoon and praised the "quite enjoyable" art direction,[1] the real-time shadows, and the quality of the cut-scenes.[7]
Notes
- 1 2 3 4 5 Chambers, Chadd (2003-03-14). "Piglet's Big Game Review (page 1)". IGN. Archived from the original on 2004-06-03. Retrieved 2015-08-26.
- 1 2 3 "Piglet's Big Game (GBA)". IGN. Archived from the original on 2004-12-17.
- ↑ Bramwell, Tom (2003-02-14). "Piglet's BIG News Story". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 2015-09-04. Retrieved 2015-09-03.
- ↑ "THQ and Disney Pair Up". IGN. 2003-09-10. Archived from the original on 2004-12-09.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Piglet's Big Game PS2 Manual
- ↑ Davis, Ryan (2003-05-02). "Piglet's Big Game Review". GameSpot. CBS Interactive, Inc. Retrieved 2009-06-03.
- 1 2 Chambers, Chadd (2003-03-14). "Piglet's Big Game Review (page 2)". IGN. Archived from the original on 2004-06-03.