Phineas and Ferb: Day of Doofenshmirtz

Earlier this year, Sony announced the intent to shut down the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita digital storefronts, leaving countless digital games forever lost, only to reverse this decision later. It was during this brief period where we panic-bought a number of PS3 and PS Vita titles, during which we discovered that a game based on Phineas and Ferb had been released for the Vita, Phineas and Ferb: Day of Doofenshmirtz, which we did not know about previously. Since the game only received a digital release in the US, I opted to purchase a European physical copy to take advantage of the system being region-free. Some time after the PS Vita store was announced to not be shut down, I decided to play the game to see what it was like. While it is generally decent, my feeling are mixed on how well it works as a Phineas and Ferb game.

Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe

As we were catching up with every episode of Phineas and Ferb, we learned about a new film, Candance Against the Universe, and anticipated it even more once we finally finished the series. We didn’t keep up with all of the pre-release material, but we did watch a Comic-Con@Home panel about the film, which gave some great insight into the development and included the opening musical number as a preview. We would then later cave in and get a Disney+ subscription to access the film, which we then watched twice on its release day. While I thought the build-up was worth it, I wasn’t sure exactly how to feel about the seeming influence from Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh’s other project, Milo Murphy’s Law.

Phineas and Ferb: Quest for Cool Stuff (360)

Following the release of a video game based on Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2^nd Dimension, another one followed two years later titled Phineas and Ferb: Quest for Cool Stuff. Unlike Across the 2^nd Dimension, however, while the game was available across all then-current Nintendo platforms (DS, 3DS, Wii, Wii U), it would also be made available for Xbox 360 rather than PS3, allowing Xbox players access to their own Phineas and Ferb console experience. As I am not a heavy Xbox player, I opted for the Xbox 360 version anyway when hunting down this game simply to have an excuse to use the system, and was fortunate enough to grab a physical copy from a used game store whose inventory was disappearing amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. While short, Quest for Cool Stuff is executed well enough that its story feels like it could easily fit into the show’s 104 days.

Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension (PS3)

Note: The following review contains spoilers for the Phineas and Ferb game and movie Across the 2nd Dimension.

We have talked about High Impact Games before on this blog; made up of former Insomniac Games and Naughty Dog employees, their first three offerings were based in Ratchet & Clank (Size Matters, Secret AgentClank) and Jak and Daxter (The Lost Frontier), though their Ratchet & Clank games would later be officially confirmed as non-canon as of Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus. Following Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier and coinciding with the premiere of Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2^nd Dimension, a video game adaptation by High Impact Games known as Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2^nd Dimension was developed for a number of platforms, including PlayStation 3. Though I acquired this game shortly before watching the movie it was based on, I decided to hold off until after watching the movie in order to avoid spoiling myself on the movie. Now that I have played it, I can say it was enjoyable and worth waiting until after the movie to play it, though I did have some small annoyances with it.

Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension

Since its first official airing on Disney Channel in 2008, Phineas and Ferb has become one of Disney’s biggest animated television series, with 222 episodes across four seasons released over eight years. The franchise also proved popular enough to spawn a few video games and several albums collecting the show’s music, among other merchandise, along with a full-length TV movie, Across the 2nd Dimension, and an upcoming Disney+ movie, Candace Against the Universe. Since we had only recently gotten into Phineas and Ferb, we made it a point to watch Across the 2nd Dimension while catching up with the show. Aside from the necessity of watching it to make a later episode watchable, the movie is fortunately worth the investment.

Phineas and Ferb Ride Again

About a year after the release of Phineas and Ferb on DS, Disney Interactive Studios released a direct sequel, Phineas and Ferb Ride Again, developed by the same studio, Altron. Reviews were generally more positive and, nearly ten years later, it’s apparent that Altron had managed to improve the formula set by the previous game within such a short development window. However, there are still a few issues that were hard to gloss over.

Phineas and Ferb (Game)

To coincide with the second Season of Phineas and Ferb, Disney Interactive Studios released Phineas and Ferb, developed by Japanese developer Altron, in early 2009 for the Nintendo DS. While show creators Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh knew next to nothing about the game until it released, it launched to decent reviews. Years later, as part of our journey with Phineas and Ferb, we decided to check out some of the tie-in video games, including this one. There is some enjoyment in this game 11 years later, though some of its issues are very apparent.