Hey!

One thing I think modern games miss out on is the wackiness factor. Growing up I think the Playstation(1) was the last console to just go gonzo with the amount of weird games. And thats what this game is, the glorious NES, Three Stooges. What a bizarre game! Its kind of like Mario Party.. its a bunch of minigames and a .. sort of board to travel on.


The plot is simple, the comedy trio are trying to save an orphanage. They need to make $$$ in 30 days, fast! Thats where the minigames come in, a bunch of odd jobs (literally) that I believe are based off some of their films ( I know the pie fight was one). Each job makes money a different way, and the real idea is to find the 'job' you are best at, and play that as much as possible to make money. Ah! But its not so simple, thanks to the weekly board! You control a hand that moves across a series of cards on the screen, and that is what your adventure is that day. There are jobs, random encounters, and penalties. The longer you play, the faster the hand gets. A mousetrap is one of the worst things to land on, as it takes a finger from your hand!! Yikes!!! Miss all your fingers and its game over! Savage!


Some of the random things you can do:

The boxing trophy - No, you don't control the guy in the ring, who seems to be pummeled by a giant.. hand? Your goal is to do the platformer running below, and get to the violin at the end---and then run back before the timer is over. The scene is 3d, so you have to dodge ladders and hydrants and such as you run. Its not too hard, but it only makes a fixed amount of money.

The oyster trophy - its an eating contest. Of course the fat guy is going to do it, because stereotypes. you play as Curly, who has to eat the crackers out of a (seemingly giant) bowl of soup. There are oysters in the soup, and they will pop up to try and steal the crackers. The game is actually over when you run out of crackers. Honestly, this is my worst game. Its because this was clearly meant for PC controls, and the spoon is big and slow, covering part of the screen. As the oysters eat the crackers, you are shown a funny image of Curly getting frustrated. And you will see it way too many times. Annoying.

Help Wanted: Doctors - This isn't too hard, and again its speed based. You follow a gurney cart without running into the patients. Just do the best you can to follow right behind it. I don't worry about the little crosses that are bonus money, they just tempt you to go off path. If you're fast and don't hit anyone, its decent money.

Help Wanted: Waiters - This was actually my favorite of the games. You control a stooge to duck with presses of the D pad, and pushing a button causes them to grab a pie, and throw it at the rich people on the other side. The goal is to throw all your pies and hopefully hit them for more money. If your stooges get hit several times, game over. The controls are what make this a chore. Ducking and throwing at the same time are OK, but not great, since you control all 3 stooges at the same time. The worst part is telling them to duck, which they usually do one at a time, and if 2 enemy pies are thrown at the same time, its actually really hard to not get one Stooge hit.

the $ sign - You get a random amount of money. There's no minigame. You just literally walk into a bag of money. The good, it could be high. The bad, it could be not much money at all. But its better than a mousetrap or something.

Trivia -- This is probably one of the worst things to pick, as its about things 95% of the population won't know. Its multiple choice, so maybe you can memorize them or get lucky. The questions are not just the films, but odd stuff about the Stooges lives (like who was married, or who didn't play Ukulele! Protip-- Larry!)

There is only about 9 or so random event/games, so there is not a lot to draw on here, and the repetitiveness sets in. One of the hardest parts is the controls, which some like the Waiters, are complicated and not explained.


Graphics: 7

Honestly, these can be pretty great and sometimes lame. Its by Beam Software, which did the great graphics for the NES Defender of the Crown, and both Stooges and Crown are PC ports. But there's cutscenes, especially prominent in the Oyster game and the Boxing Match which look amazing on the NES!
The characters can be big and animated, or small and defined, its done pretty well. The hitch is the people are good, but the backgrounds and details (like the table in the Oyster game) are sloppy.


Sound: 5

The worst part of sound is definitely the short, looping music. I'd rate this a 4, but there is a smattering of voice clips of the Stooges, and it helps. It also hurts, as you'll hear Curly's noises over the stupid crackers so many times. 6, its trying, but its still pretty meh. None of this is memorable at all.

Addictive: 5

Well, its OK. I mean at least you know 30 activities and you are done. I played this a couple of times all the way through to see the endings. Its just some stuff like the Trivia, its gonna be lackluster or not your cup of tea (like me and that stupid soup eating contest).


Story: 6

Simple. Evil forecloser bad, orphans good. The attempt to put some of the old timey Three Stooge films to video game are a unique idea. The fact your cashflow changes how you help them is pretty neat, since multiendings were not common in the NES days.

Depth: 4

A bunch of minigames. A weird board... thing. Its kind of Wario-ware esque, as some of the controls are simple, like moving a spoon to pick up oyster crackers. A bunch of different style games too. Some kind of fun, but none of them really that great.


Difficulty: 8

Those controls! Man, some of these games are just not fun. Even if you make it 30 days, you might not make much money. The luck of the game, or landing the hand on too many mousetraps, this can be over quick.


This was the Three Stooges, a game I'm not sure there was a market for, let alone needed to be ported. Likely due to the success of Defender of the Crown, this was brought over in a 'why not?' moment.