Genre: Action
Publisher: THQ
Developer: Altron
Release Date: September 16, 2006

Danny Phantom: Urban Jungle is clearly made for people who watch the cartoon show on Nickelodeon while reciting the theme song. If you own Danny Phantom lunchboxes, action figures, or you happen to know that the TV show is in its third (and possibly final) season, then this is the game for which you've probably been waiting. As a title made for kids, it's fun to play in short stints, although the repetitive action and boring levels will only provide a few hours of worthwhile play.

The story of Danny Phantom: Urban Jungle very loosely follows the "Urban Jungle" episode of Danny Phantom, systematically pitting the titular main character against several villains in his rogues' gallery. In the game, Danny Phantom must save Amity Park from a ghostly invasion while keeping his best friends Sam Manson and Tucker Foley safe from harm. This requires Danny to battle several old and new foes, from the formidable plant-fiend Undergrowth to the comical Box Ghost, haunter of cardboard containers. Along the way, Danny Phantom gains fire- and ice-powered ghost rays, allowing him to fight Undergrowth's infestation of Amity Park.

Danny Phantom: Urban Jungle is clearly modeled after titles like Gradius and R-Type II, although the combat shows little ingenuity or originality in comparison to other side-scrolling shooters. In Urban Jungle, Danny Phantom flies through several levels, dodging and shooting down waves of enemy ghosts, collecting power-ups, and eventually confronting a boss character at the end of the level. The Ghost Zone levels with the Specter Speeder break up the monotony, switching from horizontal side-scrolling levels to a full 3-D shoot-'em-up level. It's easier to die in the Ghost Zone than anywhere else, due to a larger number of obstacles and tougher enemies. Despite being strangely out of place with the rest of the title, the Specter Speeder levels are easily the best part of Urban Jungle. Even the Ghost Zone's boss battle is reminiscent of the loved/hated Gummi Ship levels in Kingdom Hearts II, just nowhere near as much fun.

Regrettably, most of the minor enemies in Urban Jungle are largely similar. From start to finish, you'll shoot down hundreds of flying purple blobs (which I can only assume are ghosts), followed by other ghostly blobs in different colors. Some ghosts take more shots to kill than others, but this lone trait seems to be the only other thing that distinguishes one ghoul from the next. Danny Phantom is given a couple of different ways to absorb and dodge enemy fire; his polarity can be changed from red to blue, allowing him to absorb the properly colored ectoplasmic gunfire instead of taking damage. Taking enemy fire this way will also allow Danny to recharge his ghost meter, which powers his secondary weapons and special attacks.

You'll be able to pick and choose what ghost powers Danny will use before each level in Urban Jungle, from ice-charged ghost rays to high-tech ghost-hunting equipment, like the famed Fenton Thermos. Unfortunately, the game is so easy that anyone can play through Urban Jungle in its entirety without even using special attacks, rendering awesome ghost powers like Danny's "Ghostly Wail" useless.

Also, it looks like not even Danny Phantom can escape the "Pokemon Syndrome," since you'll need to use the ghost-catching weapons to collect one type of every ghost. Gotta catch 'em all, right? This is harder than it seems, however, since some of the enemy ghosts are so nondescript that you'll actually have trouble telling one blue ghost-blob apart from a purple-colored ghost blob. Once you've collected all of the different ghosts, you will in turn unlock several opponents in Urban Jungle's "Boss Battle" mode. This lets you fight characters not seen in the main story mode, such as Danny's half-ghost arch-nemesis Vlad Plasmius. Beating each of the extra bosses lets you use all of Danny Phantom's ghost powers from the very beginning of the story mode, possibly making the game even easier than before. None of these boss fights are very difficult, though, so the real challenge is being patient enough to look for that one semi-orange ghost you missed in World 4.

Urban Jungle especially suffers from the monotonous and simple gameplay. Holding down the "A" button is enough to get through most of the levels, and the power-ups that can be collected in each area make Danny Phantom ridiculously overpowered, especially in the first few worlds. Danny's ghost ray can be modified with three different power-ups: homing shots, piercing shots, and the laser beam. You can also charge up your shots to unleash a Dragonball-esque ray of ectoplasmic energy, which really comes in handy during boss battles, but drastically lessens the difficulty of the various levels.

Even the DS touch-screen is essentially useless in Urban Jungle, since most players won't even need to use it. Switching between the four kinds of ghost rays can be done with a push of the "X" button, the "R" trigger shifts Danny Phantom's polarity, and secondary ghost powers are selectable via the "L" trigger. It's likely that the only time you'll ever touch the bottom screen is to refill Danny's life meter, a process that annoyingly requires you to stop shooting down enemies and use the DS pen to tap the bottom screen. All of the heart and ghost power icons that you collect during a level are stored in a cache on the bottom DS screen, both of which can be tapped at any time to increase the corresponding meters. Obviously, you're provided more than enough life and ghost energy to make it through the game without dying once. When needed, you'll most likely just tap the bottom DS screen with your thumbs, which actually allows you to recharge Danny's life and ghost-power meters without having to stop steering or shooting your way through a level.

Danny Phantom: Urban Jungle's graphics are a minor drawback; all of the 3D weapon effects look especially good, but the backgrounds are a blocky, static mess. Thanks to the slipshod graphical detail, even the enemies are hard to tell apart in later levels, which can be a real pain when you're trying to complete the Ghost Gallery. Although the title wouldn't suffer from a fresh coat of graphical paint, the style of the "Danny Phantom" TV show is nevertheless accurately mimicked in the game's overall design.

Danny Phantom: Urban Jungle remains faithful to the "Danny Phantom" series, which is the game's real saving grace. Despite the mind-numbingly simple gameplay and non-existent difficulty, fans of the show will enjoy blasting ghosts and specters for the three to five hours it takes to complete the title. There's a lot of room for improvement, but THQ and Altron failed to really take advantage of the Nintendo DS' touch-screen. Everything the DS pen can be used for is delegated to other buttons, ultimately making this just a pretty version of its Game Boy Advance counterpart. Urban Jungle should still be a hit with its target audience, so younger gamers will undoubtedly have fun "going ghost" with Danny Phantom.

Score: 6.0/10