It is therefore on behalf of Uncle Disney, alias Buena Vista Interactive, that the Japanese studio has the task of resurrecting more than ten years after the myth of the spindly pumpkin king. For what result? Here we are immersed in Halloween Town, a deceptively dark and gently macabre universe, in which the skeletons hanging from the lampposts spend eternity reading a good book. It will also be an opportunity to meet Zero the canine who has not lost a crumb of his flair, even since his death, an undead child playing near the fountain, Doctor Finkelstein whose cranium can open up at will to allow him to literally rack his brains, as well as the mayor with two faces that he can interchange at will to adapt his look to the circumstances. Let's not forget the more or less well-stitched rag doll whose protruding eyes have flattered Jack's empty eye-sockets from the start.
The Pumpkin King
All this little world mingles with an exceptional musical atmosphere, since the software borrows a good half-dozen songs taken from the soundtrack of Master "Grand Finale" Danny, whose lyrics have in passing been reworked to stick to the scenario of the video game. For fans, know that you will find "This Is Halloween" during each fight, as well as the "Oogie Boogie's Song", "Kidnap The Sandy Claws" but also "What's This", or even a fantastically beautiful version of the " Sally's Song" in the Chapter 5 boss encounter. Imagine taking part in a battle against a fearsome gigantic spider with Sally's wail echoing Jack's words of support in the background. A real and superb dialogue sung and romanticized in the style of a pretty musical comedy, whose accuracy and poetry bring a fantastic contrast to the action that the player is performing: a duel certainly classic but friendly against the boss holding the cute rag doll captive. In its best moments, The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge puts us face to face with this very special alchemy that is the match between image and sound. An adequacy for which there is no particular magic formula, in some cases it is the contrasts that provoke new emotions, such as joyful music on a macabre scene, or a languorous melody to accompany an action stunt. This little digression to say that the soundtrack of The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge is probably the strong point of the game, if only for accompaniments of this caliber.
The Pumpkin Emperor
Jack is quite a pacifist, but the developers at Capcom, a studio familiar with action titles, gave him a particularly nice weapon in the person of Soul Rubber. The Soulstealer is a neon green slime whip that can retract and change shape slightly. This Soul Rubber is the keystone of Jack's progress, who will use it to violently strike his opponents, of course, but also to cling on, operate levers from a distance, or grab an enemy to hit another. If some variants are available like a swirling blow, we quickly find ourselves stupidly hammering the action button, the few enemies not offering any particular resistance, and the combat system is reduced to its simplest expression. Even though the weapon remains very nice to use in itself, and can possibly evoke at the beginning of the big action-oriented productions like God of War. But only at the beginning, huh. Jack will also later have two transformations, the first will make him the pumpkin king and allow him to spit fire, always useful for calcining flammable materials, and the second will make him a real Santa Claus, with the hood filled gifts whose surprise effect could be useful on a few occasions. Not fundamentally difficult, it can happen to be a little lost as to the next objective to accomplish since the levels are not arranged in a linear fashion. Do not panic, an index is permanently available in the game menu to avoid going around in circles.
The squash pope
It is largely the pleasure of discovering new music that will push the player to progress along a production that is struggling to settle in a category. As an action game, The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge appears repetitive, with its little varied bestiary and very weak attack possibilities. As an adventure game, it struggles to hide a somewhat disjointed construction, if Oogie will excuse me the expression. It is also better to avoid him from donning the hat of the platform game, because here we are close to disaster, with an imposed camera and completely anecdotal management of jumps. Jack may like to make up, he is not really comfortable in any costume, even if we could have received a weapon much less sympathetic than the Soul Rubber developed by the wildlings of Capcom. It therefore remains to evoke the boss sequences: by accumulating enough musical notes during the fight, a gauge fills up to trigger a 100% classic rhythm & game sequence, in which it is a question of pressing in rhythm on a series of touches to definitively submit the scoundrel.
