The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge (2004) - Horror Video Game Impressions: 'Rotted Meat No.2'

With so many video games to play and so little time it was obvious that some would fall by the wayside and become abandoned by me. For the second in my 'Rotted Meat' series about games I have given up on, the game I have chosen this time around is 2004's The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge. I had heard at the time that while the game wasn't amazing, it was worth playing for the new musical numbers that appear within it. Would this be the case though?

The Synopsis:

Taking place a year after the events of The Nightmare Before Christmas; Jack Skellington has once again become disillusioned with Halloween. He decides to once again leave in order to find new inspiration, leaving Dr. Finkelstein in charge. This turns out to be a bad move; with Jack gone, Lock, Shock, and Barrell resurrect Oogie Boogie, who is very much in the mood for revenge. Contacted by Sally, Jack returns on Christmas Eve to find the town not only full of aggressive monsters, but also that it has been booby trapped by the inhabitants.

How the Game Felt:

The core feeling I have when thinking back to this game was how extremely dull it was. The game is a 3D action-adventure game that has you as Jack armed with a magical green whip. It takes place within a small series of open areas, with missions taking you back and forth from these locations. You eventually get the ability to change your costume, with the Pumpkin King and Santa Claus ones giving you different abilities. Boss fights usually take the form of musical numbers, with you required to input simple quick time actions to match whichever song is being played.

Reason for Abandoning the Game:

The lure of new music is what led me to this in the first place, but this proved to not be so amazing. From my memory, the music is repurposed from the film, albeit with different lyrics relevant to the situation being added. The new songs were ok but really nothing special, none of them remotely as good as the original songs. That isn't to say the music sounds bad, it sounds excellent, and includes at least one completely new song The main sin of Oogie's Revenge is just how tedious it is to play The back and forth across bland lifeless locations began to grate on me, while the simple gameplay was functional but again, nothing special at all. Even the thought of what I could be missing out on wasn't enough for me to be able to force my way through.