As the story goes, a mad scientist named Professor Utonium created three girls with superpowers. Buttercup, Bubbles, and Blossom can fly, have super strength, and are practically invincible. On the surface, they’re small girls with big eyes. In reality, the Powerpuff Girls are incredible superheroes.
Avid animated television fans know that the original Cartoon Network series ran from 1998 to 2005. This year, the Powerpuff Girls show was rebooted on the same network. The modern edition features the same characters with improved graphics and entirely new stories. Poki’s collection of Powerpuff Girls games includes titles based on the 2016 reboot and the show’s original run.
As a fan of action games and first-person shooters, I didn’t expect to fall in love with the Powerpuff Girls. With titles like Fuzzy Lumpkins Kidnap and Attack of the Puppybots, I figured these games would be geared towards a younger audience. I didn’t think Pillow Fight or Girl Power would appeal to me. But, I was wrong. The Powerpuff Girls games on Poki that I played were great. In Girl Power, you bust out your best martial arts moves to conquer deadly supervillains. The Trail of Skulls is littered with explosives that you must diffuse or avoid. Pillow Fight plays like Bomberman on steroids. The lesson here is simple: don’t judge a book by its cover!
Another delightful (and violent) game in the collection is Zom-B-Gone. In this demented journey, you dive deep into a seedy world filled zombie animals and monsters. A more lighthearted adventure, Trail Blazer, pits the trio against their nemesis, Mojo Jojo. The graphics in many of these adventures are an homage to the original television series. All of the heroines and villains resemble their TV counterparts. The animations and sounds are authentic, which provides a gaming experience that makes dedicated fans feel right at home. Even though I didn’t watch the original Cartoon Network series, after playing these games, I feel like I know exactly what it was all about.
From a development perspective, the Powerpuff Girls games vary in production quality. It is fairly easy to tell which games are backed by a big studio, such as Cartoon Network’s in-house production team. However, every title in the Poki collection is worth playing. Not every game requires licensed characters from multiple shows. But when they do, like in Snow Brawl 3, we can enjoy playing with characters from Adventure Time, Ben 10, and The Amazing World of Gumball.
If you’re looking for a strictly Powerpuff experience, it’s here. As an outsider, I didn’t think I would have as much fun as I did. Now, I’ve been drawn into the world of Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup. Townsville, USA needs to be saved, and only the Powerpuff Girls can do it. Fly, dare to face harrowing supervillains, and celebrate with the unbreakable trio!
