U.B Funkeys

My first encounter with what was apparently the most innovative toy of the decade so far was when I was hopelessly searching the internet, trying to find various birthday and Christmas presents. I was quite familiar with a creature called a Mood Beam (review coming soon!) so was not hesitant in finding out a little more about the company Radica's, next adventure, UB Funkeys.

My instant reaction when I saw the promo video was 'how cool, ...
...sadly suckered in by the obscenely cute aspect of technology, and these critters were certainly no different. They appeared to be so much more interesting that most interactive gifts on the market right now and the graphics for the product looked to be cartoon like but colourful and fun.

But, unfortunately, looks can be awfully deceiving.

However, before I get too bogged down in which aspects I did and didn't like about ... more

My first encounter with what was apparently the most innovative toy of the decade so far was when I was hopelessly searching the internet, trying to find various birthday and Christmas presents. I was quite familiar with a creature called a Mood Beam (review coming soon!) so was not hesitant in finding out a little more about the company Radica's, next adventure, UB Funkeys.

My instant reaction when I saw the promo video was 'how cool, I need to get some right away!'. I've always been sadly suckered in by the obscenely cute aspect of technology, and these critters were certainly no different. They appeared to be so much more interesting that most interactive gifts on the market right now and the graphics for the product looked to be cartoon like but colourful and fun.

But, unfortunately, looks can be awfully deceiving.

However, before I get too bogged down in which aspects I did and didn't like about the product, it's important that you guys know exactly what UB Funkeys are and what the company offers you upon your purchase.

WHO, WHAT AND WHERE?!
UB Funkeys are basically 6.5cm tall and approximately 4cm wide (from the biggest point) plastic collectibles in many different colours and designs who allow you to experience various computer games in many different zones, all within the boundaries of Funkey World. You simply plug the main Hub into your computer via the USB slot and away you go (well, it's not quite that simple but we'll get to that a little later on).

There are four zones available to you and are as followed:
1) Funkeys town - everyone is allowed there and is the central part of the game.
2) Laptua Station (green portal)
3) Kelpy Basin (blue portal)
4) Magma Gorge (red portal)

The biggest draw back here is that your Funkeys simply cannot go where they like. Instead, they have to stay in the confines of their own world. However, if you do have a Funkey creature that can access a different zone (e.g. Deuce can go to the gothic, fiery Magma Gorge) then you have to find the portal in Funkey Town in order to access these areas.

CHARACTERS
Currently speaking, there are 14 different Funkeys available, each in three different colours ranging from normal, rare to very rare:

1) Lotus - available in black, red and blue; these creatures are the most serene out of all of the Funkeys. They look like pandas which instantly made me go 'awww!' (yes, I can be a sad girly girl when I want to be!) and live in Funkeys town.

2) Deuce - available in red, blue and grey; they are a bit of a flash back to the 1950's with their love of cool, drive in like cafes complete with juke boxes, they are most at home in Magma Gorge.

3) Scratch - available in red, yellow and black; they are the DJ's of Funkey world and specialise in every type of music made! Apparently, they won many battles throughout the terrible Funkey Wars (more on that later) through the power of music!

4) Twinx - available in yellow, teal and white; they are by far the cutest of the Funkeys (sorry Lotus!). They are the celebrities of Funkey world, as noted with their cool star logos on their bodies and rather strangely in their eyes...

5) Boggle - available in green, brown and black; they are the kind of Funkeys that will eat anything and everything, with their extremely advanced digestive system! They are one of the more popular Funkeys in my opinion because of their unusual look and unique game (again, more on that a little later on!).

6) Vroom - available in blue, olive and black; they are the sports mad Funkeys!
Residing in Laptua Station, there is nothing more that the Vroom likes to do that perform wicked, dare devil stunts in their own, naturally cool way! Certainly one of the favourites amongst gamers.

7) Sprout - available in green, yellow and white; they fit more into the new age, economically friendly world with their flower power face and polite personality. To be honest, I think this Funkey is the one most likely to appeal to the older audiences as they might not be cool enough for a younger market but I like them.

8) Xener - available in green, red and grey; the space travellers of Funkey world are the ones that I think perhaps might be more appealing to a male audience as it's a lot to do with space travel and mechanical elements.

9) Bones - available in black, red and white; the first word that springs to mind is Emo which is perhaps a bit cruel! Yet, they do show a very good and distinctive side to the Funkeys collection; there are different characters for different personalities, even ones as grumpy as Bones!

10) Glub - available in orange, white and black; although they are meant to look like fish to me that look a bit like birds! They are the celebs of Funkey World along with the Twinx's but their specialities apparently involve singing rather than just looking good.

11) Stitch - available in green, brown and white; they are possibly the most battered of all of the Funkeys, cohabitating in grave yards and keeping one another for company. They look very much like those Teddy Scares that you can get which are in fact, quite creepy...

12) Fallout - available in orange, green and white; they are the mad scientists of the Funkey world and even wear a gas mask to prove it! Again, another cool character to add a different dimension to the gaming experience of Funkeys.

13) Wasabi - available in black, blue and white; if you want stealth and skills in one creature then these are your type of people! I like the fact that their character is both calming and vicious as it's a nice juxtaposition.

14) Tiki - available in purple, yellow and grey; they are apparently vegans who all of the other Funkeys evolved from! Perhaps a weird concept and perhaps are a bit too similar to Stitch and Boggle, none the less they make up the collection with their warrior like tendencies.

STORYLINE
Although upon the first couple of times you play with your Funkeys, there is in fact a story behind everything other than just playing the games and winning money. When you first load the game, Mayor Sayso (yep, that is his name) a chap dressed in blue with an overly long grey beard explains to you exactly what happened in Funkey World and specifically Terrapinia that requires you, the gamer, to help.

From the evolution of the Tiki to the creation of the portals to transport you from world to world, the portals were designed in order to offer freedom to the Funkeys as powered by the Crystal Gems. All was great in Funkey town until the Great Disaster (duh duh duh!).

Explosions racked Funkeys town, destroying the Crystal Gems and splitting them into tiny pieces as the portals were apparently open at the time, this meant that the explosions spread to many other parts of the world. Dr. Tinker - who was responsible for helping to make the portals in the first place - was lost in the explosion, never to be found again...

Since then, as you will discover whilst wondering around Funkey town, a lot of the portals are still out of action with the recovery process being very slow at best. However, worst was still to come when the villain of the piece, Master Lox, started locking doors and portals, restricting even further when the Funkeys can go.

As you travel throughout the game, you will win shards of Crystals that will help to defeat Master Lox and his evil Henchmen who pop up randomly to steal you hard earned money (trust me, that gets annoying!).

The idea is basically to save the city and gems to defeat the Henchmen and Master Lox which is certainly easier said than done. A lot of the time, you feel a loss of direction throughout the game as if you are mainly playing the games for the sake of it in order to add to your Crib.

WELCOME TO MY CRIB!
The Crib is one of the more entertaining aspects of the game in my opinion. By playing games and earning money, you can save up before going to the heart of Funkey town and visiting the ten shops available to you, ranging from bean bag and bed stores to lighting and electrical. You can also visit shops in the various Funkey areas throughout the game where each individual character has its game placed there.

The crib itself is easily accessed via the house icon at the bottom on the screen. Once clicking on this, you can go to your Crib and decorate it with the various goodies you have collected as well as earning more money by entering the games room. The games room is where any of your Funkeys can play any game they wish even if it isn't specifically theirs but in order to do this, you need to have gotten a high enough score originally whilst playing the game and then have access to it from the comfort of your crib!

THE GAMES
I know I've been harping on for the most part of the review about the games but there are many you can play as a whole or with each individual character. Some of them have time limits and others don't but are rather just a case of going through each individual level. You earn money through playing each game, whether it be 10 coins or 50 so it is vital to keep playing them so that you can develop you Crib and also perhaps win some of the Crystal shards. If you do well enough with some games, eventually, you win trophies (to be stored in the third room of your Crib) or even entertainment systems like Arcade machines as an added piece of furniture for your Crib.

The games are as followed:

Funk-Jongg: This can be played by any character and can be found in the park. The aim of this game is to pair up two match tiles, each with a different Funkey face on it.

Museum Mask Mayhem - Again, another one that any Funkey can access which is very similar to Funk-Jongg but instead of matching two tiles up, you match up two or more adjacent matching masks.

Heart Hoopla (Lotus) - By shooting at three or more matching heart colours, you get rid of them as they keep moving on down. The dynamite can be used here but I find this game to be a little tedious and difficult to play as it's not easy to get the arrow to point in the right direction because it's so big and not your average mouse cursor.

Record Rampage (Deuce) - Shoot the flying disks in order to earn more points and to move up to the next level. This one is very, very addictive but also fast paced which I like.

Mix Master Scratch - As the disks fall, make sure that you press the correct button on the keyboard (either x, c, the space bar, n or m) when they fall upon the red line but don't do it a second before or after because you will lose your points.

Twinx Dream - Very similar to space invaders but instead shoot the rainbows, suns and clouds but minding the raindrops to loose your lives.

Get Outta My Stew! (Boogle) - The object of this game is to shoot the spiders before they get into the stew or, failing that, destroy the webs before Boogle gets too sad and his gage fills with the colour of anger, red!

Super Vroom-Ball - By aiming your Vroom Ball at the holes with the most points, you win more money by doing so.

Blossom Boogie (Sprout) - Swap the flowers so that more than three or four flowers are matching but remember to swap pieces that are next to each other only.

Invasion! (Xener) - Basically, just space invaders.

Bones Fishin Hole - using the arrow keys, catch as many fish as you can before the time runs out.

Fish-Bowling (Glub) - Using your Glub in a bubble, follow the basic rules of bowling to knock over the pins, to score points and most importantly, earn money.

Stitch Stalker - Walk through the grave yard with as much stealth as humanly possible so that you don't get noticed by the ghoul who you are following or the ghosts...

Fusion Folly (Fallout) - Volleyball set in a rather nasty nuclear site. Ewww!

Shuriken Master (Wasabi) - Get from number 501 to 0 using as little amount of Shurikens as possible. Played via the mouse.

Bounce & Break (Tiki) - Bounce off the walls to break them down, using your shield for defence when necessary.

As you can see from the games above, some of them are fairly original but many are not. Things like the Museum Mask Mayhem against Blossom Boogie and Twinx Dream against Invasion might be too similar for most people and possibly not making it worth while to buy all of the individual Funkeys.

THE WEBSITE
The Funkeys website is an essential part of the gaming experience. The main reason to venture onto it is because of the ability to share Crib ideas with your friends but in order to do this, you must save your crib and a name before going to Funkey Station and heading into the world wide web. Usually once loading the game, your character is stood right outside the Funkey Station in Funkey town so it's not that hard to find.

Coming soon is also a Funkey forum where you can chat to other Funkey collectors and share experiences. On the site you can download wallpapers and icons of all of the Funkey characters and even make your own Funkey!

The FAQ on the website is very helpful and perhaps essential for most users during the installation process...

INSTALLATION AND STARTING UP
Before you can get too excited about which Funkey you can buy, you need a Starter Kit in order to get the ball rolling. In the starter kit is the essential UB Funkey Hub which you definitely need in order to slot your Funkeys in and start the gaming process. It is complete with a USB cable which is attached as well as a very helpful manual and installation help page as well as the disk.

The warning on the installation sheet is that if you have the new Windows Vista, you will more than likely not need to go onto the website and download a separate piece of software, called the Driver Patch, so that you can start to play with your Funkeys.

Although I had to go onto the website and download the Driver Patch because I uploaded my Funkeys onto my laptop with Windows Vista, the Installation process from the disk was fairly pain free with all of the instructions working well with the manual. However, when it came to trying to download the Drivers Patch I found that I had to do it two times because the first time the right set of instructions didn't appear on screen and I accidentally closed the window that I needed (oppps!).

WHAT YOU NEED
In order to begin playing Funkeys, you need the all important Starter Kit. You really can't play without one because of the USB cable being connected to the UB Hub which is white and about 12cms tall and 9cms wide at the widest point. It looks like a generic Funkey and at the back of its head is a gap with little metal circles on it. They are there so that when you want to slot of Funkey in, or indeed change one, it's very quick and effective, and the change of character pops up on the screen almost immediately after installing it.

I would recommend that you have a good, strong, durable mouse and mouse mat as some of the games do require a lot of clicking. If you play it on your laptop like I do, you will find that it will be much easier with the mouse rather than the curser pad on your keyboard. The keyboard in itself is quite essential throughout the game too so it is recommended that you keep that clean and in order so that you can play at your best.

Obviously, to access more zones you will need more Funkeys. This in itself is where one of the biggest disappointments came in for me; I simply didn't realise just how restricted getting about would be. So, if it's a hobby you think is worth the time and effort, it's a good idea to save your pennies!

Oh and it goes without saying that you need a computer, right?

EASE OF USE
All in all, once you get past the installation process, you should find that the UB Funkeys game is very easy to operate and simple to find you way around. The menu which is the opening page after clicking on the UB Hub icon has several different options, including login details, the option to continue with your game, a repetition of the storyline as well as access to the website and to enter the Crib area.

Whilst actually in Funkey World, moving about is very simple; all you need to do is click the left hand button on your mouse to tell your Funkey where to go and hey presto, it moves at its own sweet pace (yes, sometimes it can be a little slow! Bless). To enter the shops, you simply click the front of them and to play the games, you walk onto the platform and stand in the centre circle. The instructions to each game are available from the very first time you play the game as well as if you press the ? button, just in case you forget what to do.

GRAPHICS, THE DIALOGUE AND MUSIC
The graphics I think are one of the games most satisfying elements and perfect for the age group Radica aimed for (and even slightly older players!). I like the cute, bubble like cartoons and all of the writing and dialogue is very easy to understand and quite entertaining to read or listen to. I think because none of it lasts too long, it is also a plus so that the younger gamers who will play this won't get too bored too quickly.

The music it has to be said is a bit creepy in places; every time you enter one of the special games rooms for each individual character, it is more like a circus which some people may think makes the game sound a bit cheap.

None the less, there are very few graphic glitches or sound defects at all with this product.

PRICE AND AVAILABILITY
The price of Funkeys varies greatly from website to website or shop to shop. Over the past few months, Play.com have had a fantastic offer where instead of paying £4.99 each for a Funkey, you can get 3 for £9.99! I took advantage of this offer but unfortunately don't think I'll be able to get the Sprout that I've ordered and am still waiting for the Tiki to be released. Many of them, such as Boogle and Vroom, sold out instantly.

The Starter Kit on Play.com when I bought mine at the very beginning of January cost £6.99 and included the two characters, Lotus and Deuce. The other Starter Kit containing Twinx and Scratch cost £8.99 but there was very little difference between the two sets other than which figurines you got. Usually, the Starter Kits cost £19.99 so either way it was a bargain but on this website they have since gone back up to £9.99 for the Lotus and Deuce Starter Kit and £17.99 for the other one.

In the Woolworths store and on Firebox.com, the Funkeys individually are about £4.99 and the Starter Kits are £19.99. On Prezzybox.com, the Starter Kits are £19.95.

When you go on Firebox though, you can see that there are many new Funkeys available, including Flurry and Sol. They are a part of the new Funkey Island tribe sets which have already made it onto the American market and which promise to do so over here definitely by the end of the year.

PACKAGING
The blister packaging, as on all products, is highly annoying. However, once you get past that, the cardboard inside is really colourful and informs the buyer a little more about what Funkeys are all about as well as the vast number of Funkeys available. When mine came through the post, the entire product was in a good condition because of the sturdy packaging which is always a good thing.

WHO IS IT FOR?
Although the product is aimed at maturing children from the age of 8 years onwards, I really wouldn't let this put any potential buyers off. I am ten years over the recommended age and still find it enjoyable and worryingly addictive! Due to the vast array of colourful - and not so colourful - characters, I wouldn't say there is a specific gender that would benefit from playing with the Funkeys more than the other. Also, because of the different zones, it makes it compatible and fun for anyone, especially the traditionally popular battles between good and evil.

OVERALL
Whilst there is a lot that I do like about Funkeys, there are also some negatives that probably do need addressing by Radica and some that I think as a potential buyer is essential for you to know.

On the plus side, the gaming aspect is quite addictive. I've found myself playing at ridiculous times because it is so weird and wonderful! I think that although some of the games are very easy (mainly because the product is aimed at an audience of 8+) they are still fun to play and not too taxing, especially after a dull or annoying day at the hovel. I love how many different characters you can collect too.

Yet, that is also one of the games many drawbacks; in order to make it really worth your while, you'd need to collect at least one from each character, whether it be the normal, rare or very rare kind, in order to access every zone and place within Funkey World. I don't think that is expressed clearly enough before buying though as it doesn't really tell you just how restricted it can all be. Although they might only be £4.99 each, when you consider that there are 14 varieties to collect - and with many more on the way - it could soon turn into rather an expensive hobby.

One other issue that I have comes to the thought of storing the Funkeys. I'm surprised that so far, Radica haven't brought out a special storage box to keep all of your Funkeys in. As the characters have the magnetic connection underneath their feet, I wouldn't really want to chance keeping them out in the open too much just in case they got too dusty or anything spilt on them. So, at least for now, my Funkeys will just have to stop in the rather fetching Play.com brown bag that they came in!

I was expecting it to be a little more interative that it was like you can't talk to your fellow Funkeys who are walking about the places and the Arcades cabinet I won for my Crib doesn't allow you to play anything but is merely there for aesthetic appeal.

WOULD I RECOMMEND UB FUNKEYS?
Yes. Despite the many drawbacks that there are, and there are undeniably some faults, I still think that they are very fun and quite innocent. It makes a change to see cute video games characters as opposed to violent ones (with the exception to Wasabi, of course).

However, if it is something you are interested in, please make sure you have enough money to keep putting into your child's - or even your own - gaming experience or it won't be half as fun as it could be.

QUICK STATS
Age: 8+
Price: Anywhere for £7.99 for a Starter Kit to £19.99
What you get in your Starter Kit: UB Funkeys Hub, two Funkey characters (you cannot choose), manual and a CD Installation disk.
Which systems it works on: Windows Vista/XP/2000
How much space will I need on my computer?: 1GB free on the hard drive on a 256 MB RAM and 32 MB video card. A CD drive is essential and Adobe Flash 9 is included with the Starter Kit.
Company: Radica/Mattel. 

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