You know what the best part about being a 90's kid was? All the amazing cartoons! From Dexter's laboratory to catdog to powerpuff girls to doug. Can you feel all the nostalgia flowing inside of me? But there was a certain cartoon that caught my attention, Pinky and the brain, It revolves around two lab rats, Pinky who is dumb but lighthearted, and on the other side of the spectrum there is brain, who is evil and never sleeps on the job. The two embark on crazy adventures all while trying to take over the world. How does this translate into a video game? Will the plan succeed? or is it back to drawing board for these two?

Story -
One night Pinky and brain are watching TV. Pinky asks why don't they spend more then one night trying to take over the world, instead spend the whole week! A news forecaster then announces next week is the launch of the new weather space station, It will monitor weather all over the world, It does this along with three stations on the ground in various parts of the world, Brain plans to alter the computers from the three weather stations by introducing erratic data. It sounds really complicated, but It is not. But while asleep, two evil mice clones known as rufus and doofus get their nabby hands on their blueprints! (Or the Master-plan as the game calls it) The race is now on to get them back and show these nincompoops who the real evil genius is!

Gameplay -
Pinky and the brain the masterplan is your standard platform action game, though with a few twists. Not every level in the game is just "Get from the beginning to the end of the level without dying: there is diversity to be had! Some levels have you driving submarines under the sea, riding a tank through the desert, or getting to the top of a burn building. Now how does the game? You control our two titular heroes through some places a mouse has never gone before, these worlds include the acme laboratory, inside of a whale's mouth, the amazon jungle, and a hot top volcano! (No offense diddy kong!) You use the D-pad to move, The A button to Jump, The B button to use any weapons, The L button to switch characters, And the R button to run. Throughout each level there are many items to collect and suprises to be found, These items are including but not limited to, Pieces of paper in which 99 collected by the end of the stage will grant you access to a bonus stage to earn extra lives, The letters P I N K Y, and B R A I N, in which collecting all five of one will also grant you access to a bonus game. There are also BB guns to defeat enemies from long distance, and green cheese will grant your characters superpowers. In pinky's case he will grow into a big hulk letting him smash through large obstacles, and in brain's case he will be able to use his head as a balloon ala earthworm jim to reach areas once inaccessible. I will say that the switching and the letters do remind me of donkey kong country in a way. Also this game is a one hit wonder, meaning pinky and brain can take one hit before being knocked out, if Pinky gets killed, brain is left, but if brain gets killed, you lose a life, luckily there are star doors scattered throughout the worlds which revive fallen players, the annoying part is someone dying in a hard section and having to backtrack to the door. Lastly, there are a couple of clever bosses throughout such as simon says rhythm game with a monkey, and the final fight with the bad guys.

Graphics -
This game was released in 2002, and if that tells you anything, It tells you that this was an extremely early Game Boy Advance title! But how does the game look? It looks pretty great actually! All the worlds you'll be exploring have lots of color and lots of things going on, such as the long vines you'll be swinging in the jungle, or the rocks you'll be jumping in the volcano. How do pinky and brain look? Well you tell me, but they look exactly like they do on the TV show, they're white, pinky is tall, brain is short and his head is quite large.The HUD Is pretty self explanatory, It displays your lives, your PINKY and BRAIN letters, and how many papers you have collected. I haven't brang up the enemies have I? Well they look cartoony, you'll be battling rats, robots, armadillos, and a couple of others that I don't remember but they are there.

Sound -
In terms of audio, here is also where the developers succeeded. The sound in this game is very cartoony and contributes well to the show. Even though the theme song is replaced by a generic techno beat in the menu, It still sounds like the show. There are a couple of problems I have found with the sound though, It can get a bit repetitive as you get from point A to Point b. In terms of the sound effects, they are all cartoony fare, you have your bonks, splats, booms, boings, whams, dings, and a couple of others taken from hanna-barbera cartoons. (Did I just say that?) The game actually does have a sound test mode which lets you listen to all the songs and sound effects, which is useful if you just want to chill out.

Addictiveness -
How fun is this game? Well you tell me! Haha, well if you are a fan platformers (Mario, sonic, klonoa, megaman) then I would suggest you play the harder levels of the game, They are pretty faster and action paced then say...Level one.

Depth -
Now with all the positive energy given here, it's time to tone it down a notch. The game is actually pretty short and will take about an hour to beat in one sitting. The game offers over 5 worlds with about 3 levels each, and they can all be beaten in about 2-3 minutes. The game also does offer a password system to return to any of your favorite levels, like pretty much every Game Boy Advance game at the time. There is also some sort of multiplayer mode but I can't talk about that because I don't have alot of Gba's or copies of this game!

Difficulty -
Now in terms of the difficulty, this is also where the game tones it down a notch. The game is actually pretty easy for it's target audience, but a couple of things can be contributed to this, First, the game is really generous with lives much like donkey kong, even though the extra life cap is at only 9, you'll still have more then enough to beat the final boss with no sweat. Second, the game like I said has star doors which help revive fallen players, the problem is if you're in a hassle to bring pinky or brain back from the dead and you're not near any doors in sight, you have to backtrack all the way to the door and get it done! It feels really annoying although the game sometimes leaves them at the END of a hard segment. (I mean after you get through it.)

Overall - 7.9/10
While this game doesn't bring anything really new to the table, It is still a worthy choice for platformers who have had enough of Mario sonic or klonoa. I do think that this game was only in europe so vizzed or any other emulators are your only way of getting to play this platforming gem. (Okay maybe I overexagerrated at the end there..)