Review: Wild Grinders – “Grindbox 1080: Start and Grindbox 1080: Game Over”

 

Grindbox 1080: Start

Spoilers Below

The show starts with the gang barreling into the room to play their brand new video game. Like most video games nowadays the experience is underwhelming and the Grinders long for something more exciting. Fortunately for them, Goggles has already whipped up a gaming system called the Grindbox 1080 that really immerses the player into the game using a motion sensor interface.

After the system is plugged into a nuclear reactor it’s time to play! Stubford comes home and demands to play the game due to the fact that the system is plugged into his father’s reactor. A brief bit of button mashing leads to Stubford being sucked inside of the system and a ninja attack on him. Rob can’t let his friend stay in trouble, no matter how annoying they are, so he and Spitball hop into the game to save him. They defeat a slew of ninjas with relative ease using “anime speed lines” and their boards. Then Rob tells the crew that the only way out is to defeat the evil boss, which just so happens to be Rob’s sister, Denise. Denise unleashes a group of FroYo monsters that would make Clayface himself cringe as we head to commercial.  Side note: There’s also a giant two-headed squirrel that was morphed by excess radiation and it’s destroying the city. I’m sure we’ll see more of this B-plot in the next episode.

 

Grindbox 1080: Game Over

We return from commercial to Denise telling Rob that she’ll see them at the end of the game, if they can make it that far, then she turns the monsters on them. Rob does some pretty nifty tricks to acquire his skateboard then he and Stubford begin their escape. JackKnife grabs a giant spork and heads into the game to help the only way he knows how: eating. We then see Rob and Stubford travel a few levels until they encounter a new boss. Goggles morphs into the game, looking like he dove in straight out of Rocket Power. Rob transforms into a mech suit kinda like Bravoman and bests all that are in his way. Once they reach the last level the battle with Denise begins. At that point, the real Denise enters the room that the rest of the Grinders are watching all the action on the TV. She’s upset that the boys have ruined her “Me Spa’ day but she can’t stand to see her brother get beaten by anyone but herself so she zaps into the game to try to defend him. Sadly, she is quickly taken hostage by the game Denise. This gives Rob just enough opportunity to beat the game and save his sister.

The show, though based for a Y7 audience, is actually a fairly entertaining series. The art is a bit boxy and the dialogue is kinda childish and frankly annoying, but the show follows the story line perfectly, which is something we don’t really see out of roughly half of the animated shows recently. I can see why the kids love Dyrdek and his crew as this may actually be the first “kids” show I’ve enjoyed since Fairly OddParents.