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I just want to point out that playing through Thunderbirds was an almost physically painful experience. The fact that I didn’t see the movie it’s based on, or that I wasn’t a big fan of the puppet-based show that spawned it aside, Thunderbirds on Gameboy Advance is a complete mess by any standings.

Saffire, the games developer, is also responsible for the lackluster Around the World in 80 Days that came out a couple months ago, which is pretty obvious, since the game uses the same engine that 80 Days did and, in doing so, looks pretty shoddy. Just like in 80 Days, Thunderbirds features rendered characters that look very grainy but, in contrast, animate smoothly.

Thunderbirds takes some liberties from Lost Vikings, in that the co-operative gameplay idea is pretty much ripped right from Vikings. Alan has the ability to jump and push crates, Tin-Tin can jump, and move things with her mind, and Fermat can roll through vents and hack computers. The character aTbilities are almost as stereotyped as the personalities they’re coming from. In an attempt to use the gameplay that Thunderbirds implements, the developers have created a line of like-minded puzzles that take little to no brainpower to figure out and/or execute.

If the bland, repetitive platforming levels don’t melt your face from your skull, then the flying missions surely will. The design used in the (thankfully few) flying missions is just plain lazy. The collision detection is among the worst you’ll have the displeasure of experiencing on your GBA, and the gameplay of these missions is just bad.

Thankfully though, those of you foolish enough to venture deep enough into Thunderbirds to actually beat it, won’t have to suffer for very long. The game can be finished in one sitting within a couple short hours. This is probably the most forgiving aspect of the entire game. I really wish there was more to say about Thunderbirds, but the game is in such shortage of gameplay and content that it's hard to stretch out my review to more than a handful of paragraphs. You have no real reason to spend money on this game, so I plead to you: don’t.