VGW: It’s not often that I can download a game, blow through its content a few times, and sit down to write a review — all in the space of a couple of hours. But that’s the beauty of Double Fine’s Happy Action Theater, and its weakness. There’s no shortage of whimsy and style, but the content is definitely on the thin side.
GameShark - Happy Action Theater is much more a toy than a “game”. You could also certainly look at it as a collaborative version of an early WarioWare, without the unifying elements of scorekeeping or increasing difficulty. At its heart, it’s a big, goofy, minigame collection that encourages people to make complete asses of themselves – and it’s a whole lot of shallow, shiny fun.
Double Fine's Happy Action Theater smashes the wall between exercising and fun without even trying.
Paul Acevedo: "Double Fine proved they had their heads wrapped around the Kinect pretty well with last year’s retail release, Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster. That game was perfect for parents and kids to play together, plus it sparkled with the trademark Double Fine charm. The studio’s sophomore Kinect release, Happy Action Theater, is a smaller-scale Xbox Live Arcade game. While HAT (as I’ll now shorten it because I love headware) largely lacks traditional structure or goals, it bursts at the seams with multiperson silliness."
