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The Soul Robber is a rubbery green creature that Dr. Finkelstein created. When Jack came to the doctor for advice on making a new, more exciting Halloween, Finkelstein gave him the Soul Robber, which immediately latched onto Jack's wrist and demonstrated its shapeshifting by snatching a nearby Jack-O-Lantern.

When the gameplay begins, the Soul Robber is Jack's only method of combating Oogie's monsters. When monsters are close by, the Soul Robber trails around Jack's hand like a rope or ribbon. When Jack lashes out, it can strike enemies in the form of a rope-dart, a scythe, or a mace. Lashing it out at nearby collectibles will add them to the inventory, and it can also grab opponents or noncollectible items and slam them into the ground or throw them.

On the flip side, Oogie's Revenge does a great job bringing back the characters, the storyline, and the whimsical nature of the movie.

The character designs are re-created with detailed flare. From Jack himself to the smallest of side characters, everybody's got that weirdly twisted aesthetic going on. The environments are similarly detailed, though decent textures, lighting, and other such effects are in short supply. Still, from a pure art design perspective, the game gets that Tim Burton-esque, angular architectural design down pat.

Plus, there is an entirely decent variety of environments to play through. Unfortunately, things like jacked-up camera angles and periodically obnoxious frame rates do detract, somewhat. Watching Oogie's Revenge unfold can be an entertaining experience. Playing it, however, is the polar opposite of entertaining. On the audio side, the voice acting here is top-notch. There isn't a bad voice acting spot in the whole game--except when it comes to editing. For some reason, the developers thought it would be a good idea to have Jack shriek out the words "soul robber!

Multiply that by the copious number of enemies and by how long the game is, and you're going to hear those two words so many times that you'll want to claw out your own ears. The rest of the audio suffers from similar repetition. The sound effects are well implemented, and the soundtrack has plenty of original musical numbers that are quite good--the first couple of times you hear them, anyway.

Several of the songs pop up again and again and again, and even during certain fights, the songs will just start looping, delivering the same lyrics multiple times.

Again, the songs themselves are excellent, but they're stretched a little too thin. It's really too bad about how Oogie's Revenge turned out, because were it not for the part where you actually have to play it, fans of the film could have had a conceivably great time with it, as so much attention has been paid to the details of the movie's universe. Between the musical numbers, the detailed character and environmental designs, and the quality voice acting, it all adds up to create a great sequel--that is, a great sequel if it were some kind of animated film, and not a game.

The fact of the matter is that very little of Oogie's Revenge plays that well, and the few parts that do aren't enough of a factor to make the game itself recommendable.

If you loved The Nightmare Before Christmas , there might be a rental's worth of enjoyment to be found in Oogie's Revenge. If you're anything but a diehard fan, though, then you're better off spending your time elsewhere.

In the game, you'll assume the role of Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, who must help reclaim the town from the mischievous Oogie Boogie and his henchmen. Every parent's worst nightmare: A child's Christmas list contains a toy that is impossible to find in the weeks leading up to Dec. As people go crazy this year trying to help Santa find a Hatchimal to put under the tree, we thought we'd look back at some memorable, impossible-to-find toys from Christmas past.

Cabbage Patch Kids. In , Cabbage Patch Kids were released for sale in the United States, causing a tremendous demand. Mobs of parents eager to get their hands on the doll raced through stores -- often pushing and shoving.

Some retailers tried crowd control by issuing "purchase tickets" to the first several hundred customers, leaving many empty-handed after standing in line for several hours. PR Newswire. Teddy Ruxpin. In , the in-demand toy was Teddy Ruxpin, an animatronic talking bear.

The animal's mouth and eyes moved while "reading" stories that were played on a cassette deck built into its back. AP Photo. Tickle Me Elmo. Tickle Me Elmo, the plush toy based on the popular "Sesame Street" character, was first introduced in the United States in , and was impossible to find during the Christmas shopping season that year.

The toy chuckled when squeezed. The must-have can't-get Christmas gadget of was the Wii video game console. The system was the first to abandon the traditional hand-held controller, opting for motion control.