Napoleon Dynamite is out to prove he's got nothing to prove yet again in a video game based on his bizarre movie. A collection of minigames themed after the downright strange town Napoleon lives in, this game-to-movie adaptation enables fans to experience first hand many of the oddball deeds Napoleon often claims to have partaken in. Ninja training, wolverine hunting, and bustin' some sweet dance moves -- it's all here. It's astounding how many minigames were created based on quirks in the film, ranging from actions characters perform to one-line quotes describing some vague and ridiculous stunt.

Any Napoleon fan is sure to chuckle at the many references made to the film, but the story takes place outside of the film itself. It's difficult to distinguish when, though it seems to be that the game's events are held during the film, as some characters never even show up, such as Napoleon's grandmother and the side-pony-tailed "romantic interest" of the film. Extremely dull and cheesy narrative aside (which the movie also has in spades, to it is to be expected), Napoleon Dynamite seems to be a game that has two goals: to make fans laugh and to provide a variety of minigames.

The minigames are, as a whole, rather varied, and often comical in one aspect or another -- though occasionally this is because of how stupid they can be by principal. Most minigames allow for stylus control, but for the most part, it is easier to control them through standard means -- the few minigames which make stylus control mandatory do a well-enough job of utilizing it, though. Players will progress through the "story" by playing through the minigames one at a time. Unlockables (such as costumes for Napoleon) can be obtained by getting high scores and earning medals, which is some incentive for replaying them. As a whole, the minigames control smoothly and feel adequate -- others, however, feel quite unpolished, especially the ones that involve fighting.

The minigames have a tendency to drag on far longer than they should, as a minigame must be completed on three levels of difficulty before moving on to the next. This greatly hinders the pacing of the title -- after you beat a minigame twice in a row, it is entirely redundant to be forced to play it a third time. Even when you choose to play the minigames outside of story mode, three rounds are still required. While the minigames are mostly solid in concept and controls, they aren't specifically exciting. Perhaps this is purposeful, to follow the atmosphere of the movie, but there is little gusto to be found here, and most of the minigames come off as feeling kind of like flash-games one can play on the internet.

The entire game as a whole is rather lifeless. The music gets quite tiring after a while, and though the dance practice sessions attempt to mix things up a bit, there is certainly no "Canned Heat" caliber groove going on here. Those cheesy sound clips exclaiming "sweet!" "yesssss!" and "gosh!" are quite numerous and irritating, to boot. Menu screens are extremely plain and lackluster, and the entirety of the game is constructed to look like the art for the movie poster. Imagine the design of Yoshi's Story or Chocobo Tales -- now take out the imagination, bright colors, and creativity and insert ugly, lifeless photo faces, stiff animations, and suck all of the cheer out of it. I suppose this is, again, quite accurate to the source material, but it makes for a style that is interesting at best and downright distractingly ugly at others. Fans of the film will likely find this art style endearing as it matches the Napoleon Dynamite status quo perfectly, but most others will likely be put off by it.