Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (gamezone)

- gamezone -

Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends is a popular show on the Cartoon Network. The premise is that all these abandoned imaginary friends need a good home, and Mrs. Foster has kindly opened up her residence. Mac is an 8-year-old boy who lives close by, and has an imaginary friend named Bloo. Technically, Bloo isn’t abandoned, but is allowed to stay at Mrs. Foster’s anyway. Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends GBA is based on the show.

Foster’s is basically a platform game, with other elements thrown in the mix that feature locational puzzles. There are also a few mini-games. The levels are mostly missions that require Mac and Bloo to collect items for quests for various characters in the game, and also are missions that involve finding their way to another part of the house. To unlock the mini-games, they must collect tickets found in every level.

While the levels are basically platform-based, they are well-done and fun to navigate. Bloo and Mac can slide down banisters and roll/crawl under furniture to reach certain areas. Jumping and sliding is designed well, and the movement feels free and smooth. Most of the time they will have to jump from platform to platform to travel either up or down, and collect certain items that have been requested by characters in the game. There are plenty of characters from the show in the game, and they will either direct Bloo and Mac to a quest, or help them along the way by lifting or moving items for them. Sometimes characters are placed as obstacles, and Bloo and Mac will need to figure out how to get past them.

The platforming is not very hard, but the platforms themselves are hard to detect at times. They are not clearly drawn and are often undistinguishable from the background objects. If the player dies, it’s back to the beginning of the level, but these restarts are unlimited, which is a good feature for young players. There are three save slots which will save progress automatically, but these saves are only at the beginning of each level, which is annoying as some of these levels are overly long.

There is a lot of dialogue in the game that has to be read. This game is on a young player’s level, but a high level of reading is required. The dialogue is funny and is very like the show, which is a witty and clever cartoon. Players need to be careful to talk to every character they see just standing around, as the game often won’t advance until these conversations are elicited. These conversations will tell the player what they need to accomplish. However, the players will have to remember what items they need to collect, as there isn’t a task list, at least not one that I could ever find in the game’s options or controls. Players can talk to Frankie if they see her, though, for task reminders.

Overall, this is a nice platform game that has enough different features to keep the levels interesting. The gameplay is interesting, but doesn’t have a whole lot of challenge or variety to it. It’s mostly a fetch-n-carry type of platform game. As it is easy to play, it’s a good choice for younger players, but older gamers won’t find much depth. Best for families with younger children.

Review Scoring Details for Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends

Gameplay: 7.0
The gameplay is your basic platform style with collectibles. However, while there isn’t anything that particularly stands out, the game design is solid and offers a good, interesting time for young players. Some heavy reading is required, though, and parents may need to help in this area.

Graphics: 8.0
It all looks exactly like the show!

Sound: 6.0
Nothing special here.

Difficulty: Easy
The difficulty is easy, but players can get lost in the sometimes very long levels. A task list would have been nice, too.

Concept: 6.0
Nothing new here, but it is presented well.

Overall: 7.0
Foster’s Home is a fun enough platform type of game, but it doesn’t really rise above the crowd in any significant manner. It is a good game for young players, but could have offered more actual gaming variety in the levels, than besides the different story elements in the levels. A decent game for families with young children.