Item - Masters of Mayhem

[Rating: 2/10]
[Recommended? NO]

The juvenile-targeted Kim Possible gamebooks achieved moderate commercial success in the school market upon release, and I believe the commercial tie-in quality is what propelled these books through creation to begin with. The I-remember-when-it-was-a-hit-on-TV series, deserving as it is of its cult classic status, nevertheless may not have warranted this book - a book which aims to do more than it possibly could in its short 80 pages. In theory, the book is as witty, fun-natured and brimming with personality as any decent episode of Kim Possible; the tone is adequately preserved, even though in practice the "game" components of this gamebook never come into play.

Akin to video game Spy Muppets: License to Croak, players are tasked with first selecting one of several villains before pursuing that target. The resulting read lacks a game system or much interactivity at all, which made me sort of wish the book was simply given a more straightforward treatment, and at the end of all my playthroughs I found the overall experience to be insubstantial and lacking in longevity. It's a shame, since - akin to the GBA game Kim Possible 3: Team Global - these books were aware of the series' cross-media potential... but lack the elevated sense of where the how would adapt the best to create a holistically viable finished product with lasting value. ^^

(Mysteriously disappears into the shadows.)

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