Developer: Doki Denki
Publisher: Buena Vista Games
Release Date: 11-01-2000
Twice in a row I have tried to make a comeback on this blog only to be thwarted by my own incompetence. I wrote two very good partial articles for two different games that I was very happy with. However, I always forget to save these things, so they were both tragically erased. Both instances were quite discouraging, so I took a while to get back around to writing again. Thankfully I have recovered enough to feel like dusting off the old laptop and getting back to work. I picked a quickie though so if it does get erased, I won’t have trouble writing about it again. Hey, it’s #2 in Noah’s insignificant N64 game challenge. Thankfully this one is much better than the Jeremy McGrath game I played.
Actually, Tigger’s Honey Hunt is a bit of a hidden gem. That might be overstating things slightly, but there’s just something satisfying about a well-designed 2D platformer, even one obviously made for kids. It’s even more surprising considering Disney went with an almost unknown developer to make it. Disney has a very long and interesting history in the video game market stretching all the way back to the Atari 2600 days. They have worked with some of the biggest developers around, but they have just as many games made by less famous companies. Doki Denki only made five console games and all but their Smurfs game were based on Disney properties. It was a fairly prolific arrangement for a year or so, but none of their games really became big hits and they went out of business in 2003. The Disney machine kept chugging away of course and their video games will probably never cease. Has anyone done a series where they played all the Disney games? That would be a good project.
So as I previously stated, Tigger’s Honey Hunt is a 2D platformer almost completely based on collecting items. There are plenty of enemies to be found, but losing lives only sends you back to the last checkpoint so they don’t pose much of a challenge in themselves. The main challenge in the game comes from finding honey pots. Pooh wants to have enough honey for his party, so Tigger goes out to collect like 700 of them. Each level has a certain limit you have to meet with 100 total scattered throughout. You do get extra percentage points if you collect all 100 and find a missing item in each level, but I can’t tell you what happens at 100%. I finished with about 60% complete and the party at the end seemed fun enough. Since this is a Disney game they probably throw in some fireworks or balloons. The loved doing that.
I was very impressed by the level design in this game. There were plenty of hidden rooms and hard-to-reach ledges with even more honey pots. In fact, the only items in the game were honey pots, Roo pictures that I still don’t know the purpose of, and a special item to find for a specific character. It’s strange to play a platform game without the usual extra lives and energy restorers. It’s all very streamlined which works well in context. This is a Disney game made for kids after all. Still, finding all the needed honey pots provides a decent challenge without ever getting too frustrating.
Tigger’s Honey Hunt isn’t a great game by any stretch of the imagination, but I enjoyed the hour or so I spent with it. The short length is probably the biggest knock against it. Two hours might be a bit more justifiable on Playstation, but Nintendo 64 games tended to be more expensive. Even today the N64 version is worth almost twice as much as the Playstation version although we’re talking 15 dollars versus 40 or 50. Still, it’s a quality kids game for Nintendo 64 and it’s good enough to make it into my green section at #55. Not bad for a licensed game that nobody’s ever heard of.
Nintendo 64 Quality Percentage 1/2 or 50%
Nintendo 64 Rankings
1. Tigger’s Honey Hunt
2. Jeremy McGrath’s Supercross 2000
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