Growing up as a kid I remember the show Arthur, I didn't watch it alot but I do remember it being a very realistic cartoon, dealing with topics like 9/11 and such. The characters were also very well fleshed out and developed out. So with all of this said and done, how do you think this can translate into a Game Boy Color game? Well you're about to see.

Story - 5/10
The story of this game is actually quite simple, not that we were expecting anything as groundbreaking as saving the world from skyscraper titans or becoming a master thief, but let's dive in! Our hero Arthur wants to go to the new theme park wonderland (Sorry lewis carroll!) but he is given a pamphlet with 16 empty stars. In order to fill them all in he's have to complete 8 mini-games across his neighborhood. Now before you start asking, Toddy, there's 16 stars to fill in but there's only 8 mini-games! Well we'll dive into that later. For now let's have a wonderful day with Arthur! (Or so we hope...)

Gameplay -
Arthur's absolutely fun day is from what you expect reading all the above, a mini-game collection. You take control of arthur, wandering around the neighborhood finding whatever there is to do. Upon starting the game immediately drops you off into Arthur's neighborhood in the form of a map screen, you use the d-pad to move and the A button to select things. So how are the mini-games? Well they range from very boring to extremely easy. Here are a couple to name a few.

Scuba diving - Arthur must go undersea diving for quite possibly the most questionable items ever known to man, including but not limited to, cookies, teapots, Tvs, rings, and holy grails. Need I say more?

Hockey - Arthur decides to head to the arcade to play hockey with his best friend buster (I'm supposed I haven't brung up the other characters yet) but the problem is that he's incredibly cheap, 9 points and you're done. I actually found a glitch where buster can cost you a win. If I were you, I'd just stick to Chuck E. Cheese hockey..

Library - Alan's day has assigned you with stacking library books, one problem, guess how much time you get? two minutes! I understand that this is a kid's game and and all, but I beat this in 30 seconds! More of this will be discussed in the difficulty section.

Berry farm - Wanda wants you to pluck 10 strawberries from her berry farm. This all sounds fine and dandy as candy until you find out a couple of things. One, Arthur is EXTREMELY slow! It takes about a minute just to get one berry. Second, there is an annoying rabbit who will follow you whatever direction you're going and eat your strawberries! Luckily if you keep moving to the right you can actually glitch it out of proportions and get him out of the screen! He will still make that annoying thumping noise but It is very worth it.

So this is how you earn stars in the game, Now you guys were wondering. How do you get the other 8? You actually have to replay all of them once! It is all rewarding in the end. Anyways, that is pretty much the gameplay.

Graphics -
To be honest. It is difficult to critique a game that game out for the Game Boy Color in 2000, about one year before the thing went defunct. But how are the graphics? I'm going to be real here, they are fine, but not the best. For one, the game does have a lot of bright colors which is about what you'd expect from a licensed game based off a kid's show. Second, all of you favorite characters are here! Arthur, buster, francine, binky, brain, muffy, and a couple of others that just got sidelined to the password screen. There are actually a couple of mini-games with cool looking animation! For instance, in the scuba game, Arthur's swimming sprite looks pretty fluid, from the front to the sides, The developers of this game really got the look of the show right. Another instance are the racing and skateboarding games, both are played from a top down view, and they look fine as well, I still don't know though if the racing game is going on a straight road or downhill though...The world will never know.

Sound -
In terms of audio, that is actually where the game goes down hill. There is no sign of the Arthur theme in the title screen or map, Remember? 'Everyday when you're walking down the street! I say Hey! What a wonderful kind of day!" Half of the mini-games themselves do not have any music at all, with the exception of..."Shivers" The scuba level, the first time I booted this level up I nearly wanted to turn my game boy color off! It has that empty eerie feel as you go down the sea searching for the questionable items I brung up. As for the sound effects, they're just simplistic bleeps and bloops and bangs and booms, but when you get the ball stuck in the hockey mini-game like I addressed earlier, the puck makes a really loud screeching noise which sounds you're game boy advance crashed (Yes that has happened to me before) With all of this said and done, the game just feels kind of...Empty.

Addictiveness -
How likely am I play to play Arthur again? Gorsh, well I don't know! there isn't really any much to the game besides the game besides 8 mini-games, 8 replays, and one second world for all of your troubles. The game does use a password which is pretty much a Complete game code so you don't have to waste 40 minutes of you life. If I did have to pick some fun games in here, It would be the hockey, the racing, and flapjacks.

Depth -
As I addressed above, there isn't a whole lot to the game besides just playing mini-games and going to wonderland at the end. So in terms of the length of the game, There are 8 mini-games, all which take around 1-2 minutes to complete, you also have to complete them 2 times to get those 8 extra stars at the bottom of your pamphlet. And after ALL of that, you finally get to wonderland! What is your prize? 4 more mini-games! And those include...

Skeeball -
Self explanatory, You just throw the ball through the lane hoping it falls into one of the many holes to earn points. Pssh, even Chuck E Cheese was much easier then this.

Bumper cars -
Once again, you just ride around ramming all of your friends. No strategy involved, there is also an extremely bumping sound whenever you bump them.

Water guns -
I actually have no idea how to play this thing. It seems like you just mash buttons and hope for your thing to get to the top first. Again, no strategy, just button mash like it's a fighting game.

Hammer -
Exactly like you would see in the amusement parks, You tap the A button as hard as you can and hope that the thing gets to the top.

So that's all there is to the game, no "Congratulations! You win!" screen or anything like that. There is a password though to skip right here and not have to go through a second playthrough of the game! Yipee!

Difficulty -
The game ranges from very boring to very easy real fast, most of the mini-games last about 1-2 minutes and they are all very simplistic, Paperboy? Just wait for the right time to press A and deliver the paper to the house. Flapjacks? Wait for the right time to flip them with A, then put them on the plate. I understand that this game is for kids and whatnot, but could've there been at least ONE bit of challenge? Like I said, they give you two minutes to stack all of the books in the library. They should've gone out of their way and called this "Arthur's absolutely easy day!" or game, whatever works.

Overall - 4.5/10
Not that I was expecting anything groundbreaking from a licensed game based game based of a kid's cartoon, but there should've been a LOT more then what we got here. The game is too easy, too short, and too simplistic for it's target audience. Another thing is that there is no actual end! Just the wonderland and all the games there. If you want a game for the Game boy color with fun, replay value, and challenge, then I suggest you just buy Super mario bros DX. I gave this game a 4.5/10 for all of the cited reasons. Anyways, this has been Toddy, and see you later guys!