Naughty Bear: The Cuddly Strategy-Horror Game
Posted on August 15, 2018 in Game Review
How many times have parents around the world heard their children complain about their teddy bear scaring them, well with Naughty Bear, those misconceptions about teddy bears being unable to hurt people is thrown out the window. Naughty Bear takes a look behind the scenes of what goes on while our toys wait for us to adopt them. This also has an adult theme, besides the violence, behind the game.
Naughty Bear is a teddy bear that lives on an island called Perfection. While he is there, he is surrounded by other teddy bears, and the more he looks around, the more he notices that the other bears hate him and are actively trying to kill him. So what is a bear to do when surrounded by all this animosity? Why, he attacks first that’s what he does.
There are seven different chapters in the game, and in each chapter, you have to play as Naughty Bear and figure out his story. Naughty Bear is available on the XBox360 and has a child-like quality to it despite the adult themes involved. The game opens up in Naughty Bear’s home with a birthday party for another bear starting up close by. The narrator is just like the ones you would expect from Great Britain, one that interacts with the main character as well as the audience.
Each chapter reveals more and more of the story as to why the other bears don’t like Naughty Bear, as well as gives the player a chance to enact revenge against the other bears who purposefully go out of their way to make sure Naughty Bear never participates in any of their activities. Many players report that being able to play this type of game is therapeutic when having to deal with stressful days at work, or with just everyday life. However, there are a lot more people who report frustration with the game having no driving plot behind it.
On a scale of one to five, with one being the worst and five being the best, Naughty Bear rates, according to Amazon, with an average rating of three. And the ratings are pretty much even across the board, with only one or two ratings to separate each rating. The difference between a five-star rating and a one-star rating is only a margin of two, so this game really does seem to be a “love it or hate it” type of game.
After seeing a few gameplays, this writer has to agree that there doesn’t seem to be much beyond the game besides just killing other bears and going on a rampage. While everyone knows that in real life people just don’t go around killing those who make them angry, in the world of Naughty Bear, that is exactly what happens. Whenever the other bears refuse to incorporate Naughty Bear into their activities, he goes on a murdering rampage. And that’s not the only thing that this writer has noticed going on in the game. The kill actions are repetitive, and while it is narrated by an Englishman, the words are also repetitive. Invariably, something happens, Naughty Bear wants to be involved, and when he’s not, he goes on a murdering rampage with the same weapons and moves.
And it’s not just the storyline that frustrates many people. There is also the fact that the camera gets caught on walls and corners, the controls are clunky at best. There are no options for setting traps to capture and kill the other bears for later, nor is there anything that gives the player a more substantial puzzle to figure out, even though the creators assure everyone that there are more substantial storylines behind the gameplay, unlike games without any storylines, like Sims or Clash Royale.
All in all, Naughty Bear seems to be the best game for adults who just want something mindless to play. A game that really doesn’t take much thought behind it to play. However, for the money that is being requested to purchase the game, it doesn’t seem like a good buy on the part of the gamer. Instead of buying, rent the game first to see if you would like this style of game. That way, you aren’t making a purchase you will later regret.