Wait ... this is a retail game? And you have to pay $50 for it? Unfortunately, in spite of a few good ideas,Naughty Bear is too sloppily executed, and too shallow to recommend -- especially as a "full" retail experience.
Naughty Bear definitely makes a good first impression. I found A2M's cute-gone-wrong approach to design a refreshing change of pace from the testosterone-filled shooters we're inundated with. (It also helps that I'm a huge fan of Conker's Bad Fur Day.) The curiously blood-thirsty narrator sets the right tone for the game, and somehow makes Naughty's outrageously violent outbursts seem completely justified.
The following tutorial teaches the key mechanics: use the environment to your advantage, and try to scare bears instead of murdering them. Murdering a bear only gets you points once -- but scaring them repeatedly maximizes your multiplier. In attempting a high score, you'll have to utilize every trick available to you: setting up bear traps, sabotaging phone lines, destroying escape vehicles, hiding in closets, etc.
The tutorial says there are hundreds of ways of getting points, but it soon becomes clear that the "hundreds" ways of getting points are, in execution, closer to a dozen. Sure, a sticky mine is different from a bear trap, but functionally, they serve the same purpose. The variety of melee weapons offer little more than cosmetic change -- and with combat discouraged in the game, you'll quickly stop resorting to that option. Sabotage works the exact same way, no matter what you tinker with -- whether it's a phone, a car, a disco turntable, a toilet -- it serves the same function: to distract a bear long enough for you to sneak up behind him.
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