Cory in the House

$30, Nintendo DS

Teaches: reading, logic, memory, timing, spatial relations

CTR Rating: 42.5%

CTR Review

This game, based on the Disney Channel TV show of the same name allows players to take control of the three leading characters: Cory, Newt and Meena as they save Washington DC from evil hypnotizing bobble-head toys. The story isn't exactly compelling, but it moves the game along and some of the dialogue is pretty funny... But it could really do without the laugh tracks after each joke. The game cycles through four distinct parts, the largest of which is a generic adventure mode where you run around on fetch-and-carry missions, dodging, stunning, or sneaking past security guards, hypnotized people and the like. The controls here are kind of clunky, mixed with a not-quite-top-down perspective and no real depth to gameplay this alternates between uninteresting and frustrating. There's also a timed maze-like activity where the player guides Cory down the streets of DC that's fun, if unremarkable, flying sequences with the Spy Fly that are too slow to really be interesting, and a rhythm minigame that seems to completely ignore the rhythm of the song being played. All-in-all this game doesn't really have anything to offer, being generic at its best and awkward and frustrating at its worst. Bag it.