Review: The Grinch: Christmas Adventures

“| I have to admit, The Grinch: Christmas Adventures has a nice visual style.” | November. My most favorite month of the year. Time to start with the lovely Christmas decorations and browsing the Santa Claus movies on streaming platforms. Publisher Outright Games must have thought we take advantage of that. And with perfect timing, behold The Grinch: Christmas Adventures. Everyone probably knows our green fluffy friend and his cute little friend dog Max. Conceived by cartoonist Dr. Seuss. But in my case eternally in my memories because of Jim Carrey’s The Grinch portrayal in How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Let’s give a character who hates Christmas a starring role in the familial and magical get-together. That’s why The Grinch works so well in everything else, including this video game! There is, of course, that curse … the curse of licensed games. The Grinch: Christmas Adventures unfortunately falls partially into this pit, it’s not all doom and gloom but there are aspects that are really very bad. More on that in our review that convinced me to get the Christmas tree out of the basement a little earlier! (and spend a lot of money on new Christmas stuff on Temu)

The Grinch is secretly happy as Santa after all

Things I liked!

• Play together! | Perfect to play alone starting 8 years old but cooperatively can be much younger. One of the two players can play as the cute dog Max. Enemies can’t hurt Max and respawns when you fail a jump, The Grinch however needs to be more careful and should be played as an adult or older kid. Without a doubt he Grinch: Christmas Adventures is a perfect game to buy for younger gamers. Gameplay is straightforward enough to be understand and checkpoints are all over the place. This isn’t a difficult 2D platformer but aimed for a casual challenge, so don’t expect a Limbo or Ori and the Blind Forest experience.

• Does that puzzle piece need to be there? | What’s really nice about this game is that you can find puzzle pieces in the 18 different levels. Gifts can also be found everywhere but have no added value. With the puzzle pieces you can make a real puzzle which unlocks extra moves or The Grinch’s Christmas costume. Taking the puzzle pieces and putting them in place is a bit laborious but a nice addition. Especially for the youngest!
  
  
• The sound and visuals put you in the Christmas spirit! | I have to admit, The Grinch: Christmas Adventures has a nice visual style. Without being really impressive or convincingly better than other platformers. It has its own unique style which I could appreciate. Especially the sound is a plus, it regularly brought me to a sophisticated Christmas atmosphere. Which is actually against The Grinch’s wishes … but we hide that nicely. Developer Casual Brothers cleverly stayed true to the source material and made The Grinch beautifully in the style of the movie.

The Grinch learned easily how to fly a jetpack. No way that could backfire!

Neither good nor bad

• Deconnection with the story and gameplay | The book of The Grinch is central to the experience. Regularly, it is a kind of audiobook that tells the fun story of our green friend. That magical story is cool to listen to, especially for newcomers. I do find it particularly unfortunate that what is told regularly does not match what you see on screen. It’s stupid to hear that The Grinch is going through all sorts of things but that on your screen he’s just standing there. So was it so hard to make the cutscenes match what the book tells?

Experience that! I was playing Super Mario Bros. Wonder, I go into a tube and come out as The Grinch!

Things I disliked!

• Grinch, you suck at stealth | Unfortunately The Grinch is not Sam Fisher or Solid Snake. The 2D platform gameplay is frequently interrupted with stealth sections. In these 3D sections, The Grinch finds himself inside houses and must steal the presents, hopefully many Xbox Series X or S consoles, without Whos (people) or Gingerbread people (I don’t know why either) catching him. What occurs in these pieces is purely ridiculous, The Grinch can hide under tables or cabinets, entering the hiding spots takes a long time. It actually feels longer than waiting to open your presents on Christmas night. People, or in this game Gingerbread people (again, why?) are 2cm from The Grinch, literally in their line of sight but don’t realize he is hiding. Max, the little dog just lies down with them. Personally, I would think, where did this dog come from! And give him endless hugs, but nope. Completely retarded are the residents. Annoying camera control makes the entire thing even worse. Such a pity.. there are also many of them so there is no avoiding them.

• No compliment. You become a Grinch while playing. | After a few levels, I really started to feel like a Grinch. Not about the subject Christmas but the general gameplay. I really started to hate it. So many things are repeated to infinity. It feels like a relief to be able to write about it. I also wonder if nothing more original could have been found than spider enemies. Something you find in so many other platformers. Surely the universe of The Grinch has more potential? Anyway, new enemies are slowly introduced but then are just reskins of existing ones.

How long did I play the review before publishing? 4 hours and 20 minutes
How long to beat the story? 8 hours
How many Achievements did I earn before publishing? 375 Gamerscore
How long to achieve 1000G | 8 hours
You’ll love this game if you like these | PAW Patrol, DreamWorks Dragons: Legends of The Nine Realms