Cartoons are fun. So are parties. Put the two together and you should have a sure-fire first-class ticket to Funsville. Oh no. Not in Nickelodeon Party Blast's case.

You choose from one of eight Nickelodeon characters, including SpongeBob SquarePants, Jimmy Neutron and Tommy and Angelica Pickles from Rugrats fame. And guess what? From here on in, it's a slippery slope to tedium and disappointment.

To start with, the graphics look like those of a last-gen console. Little detail and poor animation rest inside unimaginative backdrops that still manage to suffer from slowdown, as though the developer had imported the Bullet Time feature from Max Payne.

Then there's the camera. On some levels the viewpoint is so far removed from the action that it's difficult to tell who your character is or what the hell they are actually doing - not that it makes all that much difference considering the poor, cumbersome controls and the seeming randomness of the objectives.

The five game types are criminally short on variety and are a general mess to play. The Food Fight stage in particular is an example of a simple, decent idea executed extremely poorly. The purpose is to cover your opponents in food and other assorted goo in order to win the level. But considering you can't aim in any logical fashion, it's not worth a sausage, if you'll forgive us our terrible joke.

There's no reason why party games should be rubbish, and titles like Whacked! stand testament to the fact they can be done well. Just because a title is aimed squarely at children does not mean they should have to put up with such a significant drop in quality; and this game sells itself entirely on its licence, with only the briefest of afterthoughts given to playability. If you care about the game players of tomorrow then don't buy them this game - it may put them off for life.

1. Nickelodeon characters

1. Sub-standard graphics
2. Bad sound
3. No gameplay
4. Nil points for variety

Power
A great game if you want to make the Sega Mega Drive look like a contemporary platform.

Style
No humour, terrible sound and fails to recreate any of that Nickelodeon atmosphere.

Immersion
The flawed game mechanics soon lead to intense frustration, which soon leads to the "off" button.

Lifespan
Sorry to break it to you folks, but this game will flatline after about ten minutes of play.

Summary
Umm, do they get any worse than this? As Peggy Mitchell would say to her son Phil - "Just leave it!"