The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy (video game)

The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy is a 3D arena-based fighting game, similar to other games in the same style such as Power Stone. In the game, up to four players battle in a three dimensional arena and perform light and heavy style attacks in an attempt to deplete their opponents' health and knock them out. Only Billy, Mandy, Grim, and Irwin are initially available; all other characters must be unlocked through gameplay. Game Boy Advance version The Game Boy Advance version follows the same plot as the console version, but is instead a sidescrolling beat 'em up with platforming elements. Players control Billy, Mandy, and Grim as they traverse 2D stages, fight enemies, and jump over obstacles. Enemies will appear at predetermined points in stages and attack the player, all of which must be defeated to continue progressing through the stage. Defeating enemies will increase the player's Mojo Meter; when filled, the player can enter a temporary powered-up state, in which their character will be rendered invincible and able to instantly defeat any enemy they touch. Like the console version, weapons will sometimes appear which can be used to more easily defeat enemies. The main Story Mode features a brief campaign for each character, each consisting of a handful of short stages before concluding with a boss fight: Billy battles General Skarr in Endsville, Mandy pursues Jack in the pumpkin patch, and Grim confronts Nergal in the Underworld. Only Billy's story is initially available, while Mandy and Grim must be unlocked; players must complete all three stories to see the game's ending. A mission mode is also available with several unique scenarios for players to complete. Each time the player completes a story or mission for the first time, they will earn a Mojo Ball, which are used to unlock the other story campaigns and missions. Collecting all 54 Mojo Balls unlocks a concept art gallery. ==Plot==

Someone breaks into Grim's trunk and releases his Mojo Balls, orbs of dark magic that infect anyone who touches them with supernatural rage, causing everyone in Endsville to senselessly fight each other. Following a suspicious trail of feathers, Billy, Mandy, Grim, and Irwin travel to various locations from the series to simultaneously recover the Mojo Balls and look for clues as to who released them, defeating others infected by mojo rage along the way. After being led back to Billy's house, the group recovers the last of the mojo from the brain-eating meteor that crashes in his backyard. The others then discover that Billy was the one who opened Grim's trunk hoping to free "Moe and Joe"; a curse Grim had put on the trunk as a failsafe measure had caused Billy to begin sprouting chicken feathers, which he had been leaving a trail of so he would not get lost. Everyone is infuriated at Billy, and Mandy breaks the fourth wall to express hope that the game includes a mode where they can all beat him up. The player is then able to control Mandy and attack Billy for the duration of the game's credits sequence. ==Development and release==

On February 15, 2005, Midway announced a licensing deal with Cartoon Network to develop games based on three of their properties. Games to be developed under this deal included The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Ed, Edd n Eddy: The Mis-Edventures, and a ''Dexter's Laboratory'' game which was later cancelled during development. The voice cast of the TV series reprise their respective roles for the game with the exception of Jack O'Lantern, who is voiced by Maurice LaMarche in place of his original actor Wayne Knight. "Weird Al" Yankovic, who previously portrayed the Squidhat in the series, voices the in-game announcer. and includes two songs originally written for episodes of the show: "Darkness" by SPF 1000 ("Battle of the Bands") and "Brains!" by Voltaire ("Little Rock of Horrors"). The GameCube and PlayStation 2 versions were released in September 2006, followed by the Game Boy Advance version in October and the Wii version in November as a launch title for the system. The Wii version would be the only one released outside of the United States, releasing in Europe and Australia in March 2007. A Microsoft Windows version was initially planned, but was cancelled during development for unknown reasons. The PlayStation 2 version came packaged with a bonus DVD containing the season one episode "Little Rock of Horrors" and behind-the-scenes footage featuring series creator Maxwell Atoms and actors Greg Eagles, Richard Steven Horvitz, and Grey DeLisle. ==Reception==

The game received "mixed or average reviews" on all platforms according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. GameSpots Greg Mueller said that while the game is fun for the "first few hours" and has "Fast-paced gameplay", the game action "gets old quickly" and has a very short story mode. IGNs Mark Bozon highlighted the presentation and appeal of the GameCube and PS2 versions. Bozon later called the Wii version "a solid game with minimal Wii advantages and a few technical limitations." ==References==