Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is the movie game for the just released, hilarious animated 3D feature film. You play as Flint Lockwood (or his monkey pal Steve in co-op) during the crisis when his invention of turning food into water breaks and starts creating undesirable effects.

What's Hot
The visuals are close to that of the movie. Since there is a focus on using food in creative ways to shape everyday landscapes, the high-definition visuals are nothing but a help to bring that world to life. The environments are compelling from the drab, gray docks with steaks raining from the sky to the soft autumn hills leading up to the Jello castle all bring a quirky appeal as you romp around collection Hydrons that are used to upgrade your gadgets used to battle the rogue food. The 8-bit looking cut scenes are a nod to the parents playing the game to round out a quirky style like the inventor you play as.



Co-op mode has its share of up and downs but the effect is mostly positive. Having a friend play the game right next to you is more entertaining than wandering the streets alone armed with a fork and a few other food-related weapons. The levels are fairly linear but allow for some budgeted exploration as you try and find all the nooks and crannies.

What's Not
The purpose of each level is to solve a problem one of your friends has related to the food problem. No point during any level will you feel a sense of urgency or pressing matter because the leisurely pace Cloudy plods along. You more or less complete each mission because it is there without much care or thought. The structure of the missions into separate acts is misleading as the same environment settings are reused to give the illusion of providing more. They are eye catching at first but the cleverness wears thin when you feel like you are redoing a level with slightly different features. The upgrade system feels worthless because the gadgets don't change all that much to seem new. These problems accumulate into Cloudy feeling repetitive. The same idea is applied like a cookie cutter across the board and the only thing that changes are the sprinkles on top… I mean, the environment.

Final Word
Cloudy isn't a horrible or even bad movie game, it just feels limited and sorely lacking the same imagination that made the movie so wonderful. To the parents that are buying this game for their kids, you'll be happy to know the game doesn't have technical problems or glitches and you can hop in the action and play right along with a co-op mode.