Pinobee: Wings of Adventure takes full advantage of Game Boy Advance's 32-bit color graphics. From Pinobee's fluid animation to the detailed environments he explores, it's obvious that a lot of spit and polish has been applied to this Pak. Pinobee screenshots may lead you to believe that this is a standard action platform game, but that is far from an accurate description. Pinobee can walk along the ground or shimmy up walls, but his main means of locomotion is dashing through the air. As he makes it deeper in his quest, Pinobee gains the ability to dash farther and farther through the air. Soon enough, he's spending more time hovering and dashing through the sky than on the ground. This unique play control system gives Pinobee a fresh feel.
Amazon.com Review
Pinobee: Wings of Adventure's cute-as-a-button story line, in which a famous honeybee inventor creates a Pinocchio-like robot bee but gets kidnapped before he can install the heart, makes it stand out among other 2-D side-scrolling adventure games, but its gameplay never feels particularly innovative or surprising. As mentioned, the heartless Pinobee must rescue his doddering inventor, Grampa Bee, through several stages of insect mayhem. He can jump, cling to walls, and has a "dash" ability that lets him briefly shoot forward through the air. The gameplay involves killing enemies, collecting power-ups and flowers for energy, dashing about, and navigating puzzles and traps. Pinobee has an energy meter that counts down as he moves around. Flowers replenish the meter, but if it reaches zero he becomes sluggish. Occasionally he'll run into a fairy that grants him new dash powers and a cricket that advances the story. There's also a diary you can read between levels that gives you a synopsis of Pinobee's search for his Grampa.
While the game itself features a lot of inventive takes on the 2-D adventure genre, they are, at best, merely recycled from other games. The diary is mostly useless, due to limp writing, which is probably itself the fault of a poor translation from the original Japanese text. But Pinobee's cute and inoffensive nature makes it perfect for kids. Also, Pinobee has the advantage of being one of the only nonsequel launch games for the Game Boy Advance. Out of all the 2-D side scrollers you'll find at launch time--and there are quite a few of them--this is the only one you haven't played before. --Andrew S. Bub
Pros: Interesting new ideas for the genre Great for kids Nice graphics Cons: Bad writing Somewhat tired gameplay
Amazon.com Product Description
Genius robotics engineer Grandpa Bee was almost finished creating Pinobee--a robotic bee designed to protect the world--when he was suddenly kidnapped. Now, as Pinobee, you face an incredible quest to rescue your creator and prove what you're made of. As a newly constructed robot bee, you've got all the makings for greatness: a sharp stinger, a jetpack on your back, and a nose for adventure. Walk, climb, jump, bounce, and attack your enemies by stinging them or blowing them to pieces from your flying dash.
You will explore nine fantastic 3-D worlds filled with obstacles, traps, secret areas, and collectible objects to help you on your quest. Get powered up to enhance your flying capacity, protect yourself from harm, increase your energy, or even stop the enemies from getting stronger. The game features multiple story lines and eight different endings. You can also trade items and power-ups with friends via the Game Boy Advance Game Link cable.
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