The gameplay resembles what slightly older gamers have come to know as Zelda II.There’s an overworld in which you walk (overhead camera. Think Pokémon) from destination to destination across the Land of Ooo. Along the way, you’ll come across monster encounters,black ghost-shaped sprites that wander around the overworld. Touching these monster encounters, as well as any village, staircase, or forest icons on the overworld, enters you into a flat, side-scrolling perspective. In this mode you’re able to fight monsters and talk to NPCs.

Fighting handles with Finn making quick, short-ranged strikes and Jake throwing slower, longer ranged punches. There are a variety of other attacks that Jake can learn by finding them within chests inside of dungeons that are also useful in overcoming obstacles. Being a talking dog that can shape shift his body like Mr. Fantastic, Jake can learn to smash a giant fist on the ground, crushing enemies as well as destroying rock barriers. He can also turn into an umbrella when Finn’s in the air, elongating the distance he jumps while slowing his descent. Eventually, Jake can also learn (well, I say learn, but it’s more about him being inspired to become less lazy) to form himself into a wheel with Finn inside and glide across bodies of water, ramming into any enemy unfortunate enough to be in their path. The downside is that since defeating enemies offers no rewards besides the occasional item drop, you may prefer to just jump over your foes and make your way to the next area without conflict, effectively taking some of the challenge out of the game.

When it comes to boss battles, most of them can be quite easy if not entertaining. Bears with chainsaws tied to their backs, a hundred penguins (Gunter!), and vampire half-demon Marceline herself make appearances as bosses. They all have very predictable patterns (except the Gunters, who waddle and slide around randomly) and can be defeated with enough patience and timing, but when it comes to the last two boss fights at the end the difficulty ramps up as you have to spend your time equally between dodging projectiles and double tapping your healing items on the touch screen. Speaking of that, this game definitely loses points for making it difficult for me to choose my items in the heat of battle. Having to stretch my thumb precisely over which item I want to use and then needing to double tap it can be highly frustrating sometimes.

In the overworld, Jake can also employ his body shaping abilities to cross bridge gaps and lakes as well as crush barriers and rise to mountaintops. These are restricted until one of the NPCs convinces Jake to stop being lazy, which acts as a way for the game to restrict access to areas until you complete certain objectives.

Any game worth its salt these days includes a way to level up your character. It’s not an RPG mechanic, though, because you can easily level up all your attributes in a single playthrough. Leveling up your Hearts and Attack stats, two of the three attributes Finn possesses, will lend you more hardiness in combat, while leveling up Speed gets Finn and Jake to their destinations a lot quicker. If I had to give a piece of advice, though, I’d say to stick with leveling up Hearts and Attack  all the way before you even think of dropping anything into Speed.

Another interesting mechanic is the item-combining system. When you kill an enemy, they sometimes drop items that you can pick up and store in BMO’s STUFF inventory. These items come in three flavors: Buff, Food, and Condiment.

Buffs are items, usually references to the show (Billy Sword, Businessman Briefcase, etc.), that can give Finn special abilities or enhance his own. Food heals Finn with varying degrees of potency. Condiments, though, really mix a few things up. Items like Ketchup, Sea Salt, Bug Milk, and Jam can be dragged and dropped on top of food in order to either increase their healing properties or give Finn different abilities while healing him. I discovered that adding salt onto a milkshake will let Finn shoot Ice Shurikens, another reference to the show. A big problem, though, is that you could possibly play the entire game without ever knowing you could combine condiments and food. A single, small and irrelevant text bubble will mention this aspect of the game and it’s hard to miss if you don’t talk to the right character.

As for the music, I am completely in love with this game’s theme song. If you took the original ukelele-driven theme song of the show, sprinkled extra awesome on top of it, mixed in some chiptunes, and topped it with some god damned rock and roll, you’ll have the awesomeness that is this theme song. I’ll frequently find myself leaving my 3DS open in my guardshack at my day job blasting the main menu for my personal enjoyment (unfortunately, I work alone. I can’t share it with anyone!). The rest of the music is entirely chiptuned and thoroughly enjoyable. Each environment has it’s own special melody that speaks to the atmosphere. The music is simply a masterpiece.

This game features a rather boastful amount of talent for it’s art and animation department. Paul Robertson, Joakim Sandberg, and Shiho Tsutsuji joined their incredible forces to create an overall beautiful and fluid design. Animations are smooth and quick, owing their polish to Paul Robertson. It’s a very colorful game and simply enjoyable to just look at. Everything really feels like an episode of Adventure Time.

Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why’d you steal our garbage?!! Is a great game for those of us who want to reminisce back on the glory days of handheld gaming as well as a fantastic entry for younger gamers. It has a few flaws here and there, mainly in its length and lack of difficulty, but none of them are a deal breaker in the least bit. Adventure, exploration, and humor are a trademark of both the show and this game. I’d definitely recommend playing it, even if it means you have to buy and entirely new Nintendo 3DS.

8.3/10

Frank Margarella has his own crappy personal blogs here and here. You can follow him on twitter @Fuhjem.