PixlBit

The 3DS eShop can be a dangerous place. Littered with just as much shovelware as gems, it can be tough to know what you're getting into after a brief skimming of the media associated with a given title. In the case of Johnny Impossible, the association with publisher UFO should already be enough to make your spidey-sense tingle, but if you’re still on the fence given its Metroidvania gameplay, let me assure you, it’s no diamond in the rough.

Littered with poor design decisions, the three level game long overstays its welcome. With an absurd plotline about the evil Mr. Wang trying to destroy the world, Johnny Impossible offers little to cling to in order to grind through the intolerable gameplay.

Each of the three levels start off giving the titular hero 30 minutes to find his way through the facility he has infiltrated and reach the exit. However, despite this generous offering of time, players won’t likely be able to use all of it to progress through the maze-like rooms. Setting off any red flags in the level, whether it be a patrolling guard machine or oscillating cameras, will result in a 2 minute penalty.

Furthermore, a flying bot is sent out after you and you’re given 10 seconds to escape to another room to avoid capture and instant loss. In the spirit of the artificial 30 minute timer, the flying bot will be breathing down your neck in half the time and escape, once it appears, is futile.

Many of the rooms throughout the three levels take place in the dark. Night vision goggles allow you to see for a brief moment, so you’re constantly hitting a button to reveal the obstacles in the room as you progress. Having limited sight so frequently quickly becomes annoying and is only made more so by the ridiculous design of the night vision goggles.

Rooms that are stacked vertically together also pose a challenge. It’s frequently necessary to jump to the left or the right across the room boundary in order to land on a platform, but because you can’t tell this from the other room, it’s easy to jump and miss the mark, then subsequently fall back into the room you came from and down through the sights of one of the detection mechanisms.

If all of that wasn’t bad enough, the game forces you to manually save as you make your way through the levels, and it’s possible to save in a spot where you actually cannot win. In these instances, like it or not, you’ll be forced to start from the beginning of the game and trudge back through all of the other unsavory parts just to get back to where you left off. Clearing levels won’t even save the game, so it’s easy to forget, lose, and be forced to go back through the end of the previous level.

Beneath all of the frustration, there’s a decent game of exploration that allows players to scour the environment for passageways and equipment that allow traversal to previously barred areas. If Johnny Impossible would’ve focused on these elements and built the stealth elements around it, it would've been much more enjoyable.

Unfortunately Johnny Impossible offers absolutely no semblance of fun or reasonable challenge. Rote memorization and persistence conquer all problems offered to players, while the oppressive timer ensures that the most enjoyable part of the game is pushed to the backburner. Do yourself a favor – stay away from this Johnny and his Mr. Wang.