Completion Time: 4h:46m:00s
Rating: 5/10

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Oh D-D-D-Dear

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Last month we were blessed with yet another unique bounty theme on the site: Games for Kids. And with this game another couple of GameCube titles from my collection that I was able to take a swing at. The first of these: Piglet's Big Game. I have quite a number of Disney games in my collection, but I don't often delve into these as they're for kids and don't have a lot to offer the average player I don't think. Plus a lot of the time, these get me in the mood for Kingdom Hearts, and then I play it for a bit before realizing that I like it less every time I play. But that's aside from the point. Let's talk Piglet! He's got a Big Game, or so I've heard.

What you're greeted with everytime you start the game

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Piglet's Devious Plan

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So what's going on in this Winnie the Pooh game, you might ask? Well, the general gist of things is that poor little Piglet feels that he's useless in the eyes of his friends. So, he comes up with a manipulative scheme to invade the dreams of the denizens of the Hundred Acre Woods, and solve their obscure problems so that he can be seen as a hero when they all wake up. It's an interesting take for a game like this to take, and it's really hammered home at the end of each level segment, where you can hear the characters mumbling in their sleep about how great Piglet is under pressure. That seems a little... evil to me?

Let's see what secrets Piglet can steal today

At any rate, Piglet makes his way through the nightmares that the other animals are having, and they start out pretty simple and on theme, but slowly become more and more abstract and odd. Pooh having a world of sweets makes sense, he's always hungry. Owl being in a haunted library and museum also fits his intelligent and wise demeanor. And then for Eeyore, you venture into a twisting mansion with strange painting, sculptures, and knights running around all while the halls stretch and contort around you. Just what is his problem anyways?

Welcome to Eeyore's House of Horrors!

As stated earlier, you solve puzzles in order to help everyone with their problems. While running around and doing these mundane actions like move a block from one square outline to the other, you need to beat the hell out of the environment to give you cookies. These cookies you can use as currency at numerous kiosks in order for Piglet to learn "scary-face" super powers that he can use when combating the heffalumps and woozles that wander around the various dreamscapes. These confrontations act as a battle of bravery, where Piglet scares the enemies while contorting his face or spinning around. You accomplish this by pressing buttons as they appear in order. Simple as.

I thought I'd be done with just tapping buttons after my stints with Mario DDR and Polar Express, but they keep reeling me back in...

It's worth noting that while this is very simple gameplay for what is ostensibly a child's game, it's super strange and the construction of it doesn't strike me as a Disney game even, let alone a game featuring Winnie the Pooh. There's a certain level of bravery on the part of the creative team I think to be able to come up with some like this to fit with such a childlike franchise. That's aside the point, though. Back to the task at hand: once you figure out everyone else's fake problems, they all wake up to realize the world is flooding and the dreams have come to life. It's finally time for Piglet to show himself to be truly courageous. You run around and save the residents of the Hundred Acre Woods from the flood, defeat a couple of bad guys, and scream at vague shadow. Finally, Piglet can be revered as a true hero!

Piglet's arch-nemesis: some big blob guy

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Completing the Game

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What needs to be collected? Cookies. I don't know why, that's just what the game asks of you. It makes sense in the first world with Pooh bear, because the entire stage is made of sweets and Pooh is always hungry. But when you get to Owl's creepy library and Tigger's demented carnival of seasons, you have to wonder why you're still running around grabbing sweets. Does Piglet like sweets? What's the connection? The game doesn't know, and doesn't really care.

Time to pay up, pig!

As stated before, collecting enough of these cookies allows you to exchange them for super-powered screams that Piglet can use against his enemies, but that's pretty much it. As far as I can tell, collecting all of the cookies in each stage doesn't get you anything aside from the game telling you that you've accomplished that goal in every level. At the very least, I'm glad they kept stock of it. There are some other games I've played that ask for completion for collectables and don't even bother to chart them, yet I wish the game wanted to give me anything for running around and beating the hell out of everything in sight for hours on end. This game isn't good, and I wasn't really under the impression that it would be. Even still, the bizarreness of it all kept my interest and focus more than I had anticipated, and I once again cannot stress enough that this is a licensed Winnie the Pooh game.

This is another entry in a series where I go through and complete every GameCube game, as it is the largest part of my video game collection. GameCube Games: 14/652