Publisher: 505 Games
Developer: Artificial Mind and Movement
MSRP: $49.99
by: Katrina Pawlowski
Naughty Bear is a just misunderstood bear. He tries to do nice things or mind his own business, but he can’t seem to catch a break. The solution? Punish the fiends that don’t invite him to parties, campaign for his demise, create zombies to attack him, etc.
Each level has a theme. One is a birthday party that Naughty Bear wasn’t invited to, so his optional objectives are to trash presents and punish the birthday boy/girl bear. The second has a teddy bear election where the candidate promises to kill off naughty bear, so your optional objective is to trash campaign ribbons.
Your ultimate goal in each area is to eradicate, sabotage, or terrorize the other bears to the best of your ability. Each act of violence warrants some bonus to Naughty Bear’s score - scaring other bears, sabotaging and stylish murders earn the most reward. Sometimes you’re asked to not harm a single bear in challenge mode - so you spend more time setting traps and sabotaging items to “get back at them” or risk failing the mission by punching someone. Other times, you just go for an all-out assault and take the bears out head on. There are also varying themes in the game; military, political, zombies, robots, etc. Kind of an intriguing way to justify bringing violence to cute cuddly little teddies.
With Naughty Bear the little-kid themes are endearing. The “blood” is just bear stuffing, and the language is mild - though the acts of vandalism and violence make this an adult game for sure. A bit of redundancy got a little old, but also made each level nice to play in between other games, or when you have those moments of “well what can I do for 20 minutes” when you don’t want to get involved in anything important.
After getting to the end of a level, you’re also given a scoreboard that shows off your friends top scores. This, as well as the medals to unlock later levels, gives the game a bit of a fun challenge. Beat out your friends scores, unlock the entire game, and rock the house. I have to admit I really started enjoying Naughty Bear after I stopped trying to plow through it.
Score: 