Let it be said that the premise for “Cecil Jenkins’ Notebook Adventures” is an interesting one.
A platformer that takes place on the pages of a notebook, memories of the Genesis classic “Comix Zone” quickly comes to mind.
If only this game had an ounce of the polish “Comix Zone” had.
Marred by horrible control and boring level design, “Notebook Adventures” is as bland as the paper its journey takes place on. A by the numbers game that brings nothing new to the table, not even its uber cheap price of 80 microsoft points is enough to warrant a purchase.
For a game like this to have any chance at success, the control has to be solid. Throughout the game, all you’re essentially doing is running, jumping and climbing. When you can’t do that, even on the game’s first level, there’s a huge problem. It’s not that the obstacles, such as spikes should be too difficult to avoid, it’s just that the control is so poor that even the smallest obstacle is hard to navigate around.
Too hard.
The same thing goes for climbing ropes in between hazards. Unlike other games of this genre, simply jumping into them doesn’t initiate the climbing feature, making every jump in the game a crap shoot.
The end result is one that is frustrating and ultimately not worth your time or measly 80 Microsoft points. Download a cheap “Rockband” song instead.
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports.
Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders.
His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023.
Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief.
Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale.
Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.
Let it be said that the premise for “Cecil Jenkins’ Notebook Adventures” is an interesting one.
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