Barnyard (video game)
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''Barnyard'' is a party-oriented adventure game developed by
Blue Tongue Entertainment Blue Tongue Entertainment Pty, Ltd. was an Australian video game developer founded in 1995. It was acquired by THQ on 17 November 2004, and remained an internal development studio of THQ until its closure in August 2011. In addition to THQ, Bl ...
and published by
THQ THQ Inc. was an American video game company based in Agoura Hills, California. It was founded in April 1990 by Jack Friedman, originally in Calabasas, and became a public company the following year through a reverse merger takeover. Initi ...
; it is based on the movie of the same name. It was released on August 1, 2006 for GameCube, PlayStation 2,
Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, ...
, and Microsoft Windows. A Wii version was released on November 19, 2006. The Wii version was a
launch title This list includes terms used in video games and the video game industry, as well as slang used by players. 0–9 A ...
for the console in North America.


Gameplay

The game has several types of gameplay, from missions to a mini-game type system. Players play through a sequence of nine chapters as farm animals of their choosing. An extra farm animal maybe be unlocked from having Nickelodeon games at the time that were included in the 'Crossover' event. As players progress through the chapters in the game, they meet new characters, unlock new areas, get more in-game currency, etc. Players travel around the Barnyard and either explore the area(s) the game has to offer or follow the story and complete the missions by going to the barn animal that sent a text to players' phones. Players may find these characters by looking for, and following the quickest path to, the '!' on the map. As players continue through the chapters, the game increases in variety. There are many references to the ''Barnyard'' as well, including dialogue from the characters and certain in-game objects. As players reach the mid-part of the game, however, they lose the same playable character, Ben, that is lost in the movie. As players reach the end of the game, specifically Chapter 8, things only get worse as the leader of the Barnyard, Otis, runs off and players are put in charge. However, the tides suddenly turn as the player, the other animals, and Otis take one final stand against the final boss. Note that the number of missions available depends on the chapter being played.


Missions

Within the game there is a storyline which fits the movie to some extent but still goes along its own path. Characters die and are introduced as the game progresses as in the movie. Missions fit the storyline of the game and the movie and vary a lot. A lot of missions once completed become minigames which the player can play again. Missions can be started by simply talking to the located characters. Most of the in-game missions are done during the day and must be done by the time the timer runs out, but some of them are nighttime missions that need to be completed by morning (or before the timer runs out).


Mini-games

Mini-games most often become available after completing missions, but may also become available in the barn. Missions include golf, or jumping and kicking a pipe at other characters to stay alive. Throughout the game, the player may notice that the difficulty of some of the mini-games increases as the story progresses. There are also variations of mini-games from previous chapters. One example being 'Tease The Mailman' and 'Tease Mrs. Beady'. The player could also buy some of the mini-games from the Gopher Underground Shop as some of them are located in the Night Barn. During gameplay, the player is eventually informed of the 'Barnyard Champion' title throughout. At the end of all the mini-games the player's performance is graded (Final Score). The grades range from an 'F' to a Star. Getting Stars is the key to getting Barnyard Champion. The player needs to talk to a character mentioned in the game that provides information on the standings for Barnyard Champion. While climbing to the top of the leaderboard, the player receives a Gold Rush Token for every move up. Once the player reaches #1, a special text is received, indicating that the player is now the Barnyard Champion. After the player receives this text and enters the Night Barn, a special cutscene plays.


The Barn

During the day, the barn is a boring place where the player could acquire some resources for cooking, but at night, the barn becomes a lively place where the player could party, make Mocktails and play minigames. The barn is very customisable through the Gopher Underground Shop, a shop mentioned in an early Chapter 1 mission that is located just outside the main area. Upon reaching this point in the game, the player receives just enough Gopher Bucks for the only item available during the first visit. After this mission, all the other objects become unlocked except for the Neon Dance Floor. The player may then make additional purchases and do missions for the owner of the Gopher Underground Shop.


Collections

Within the game there are many forms of objects to collect: *Secrets: Notes hidden in trees and fences with tips for the game *Recipe Rocks: Provide recipes for the Kitchen at the back of the barn and the Mocktail bar (only available at night). Recipes can be guessed but require a lot of resources to do so as there are many recipes and ingredients. *Gold Rush Tokens: Can be collected and placed in coin dispensers so that the player can get Gopher Bucks for the Gopher Underground Shop. *Royal Jelly: A secret object. It can be obtained sometimes by getting every bit of honey out of all three beehives in the Walnut Woods area. Royal Jelly maybe be obtained if the usual yellow circle displayed on the top of the screen begins flashing red. Even then, the player may not get it because it is such a rare item. It can be eaten or sold at the Gopher Underground Shop.


Reception

''Barnyard'' received "mixed or average" reviews, according to
review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
.
GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
gave the PC, GameCube and PlayStation 2 versions a 7.1 out of 10, while they gave the Wii version a 7.2 out of 10 and the Game Boy Advance version a 5.9 out of 10.
IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
however, gave the PC version a 3 out of 10, while they gave the GameCube and Wii versions a 6.7 out of 10 and a 5.8 out of 10.


References


External links


IGN PS2 Review
* Wii Resource Center

{{Barnyard 2006 video games Game Boy Advance games GameCube games Party video games PlayStation 2 games Video games based on animated films Video games with gender-selectable protagonists Video games developed in Australia Windows games Open-world video games THQ games Single-player video games Adventure games Halfbrick Studios games Blue Tongue Entertainment games Video games scored by John Guscott Video games scored by Stephan Schütze Nickelodeon video games