Little boys just love gross stuff. It was that way when I was little, as Garbage Pail Kids trading cards were the hottest things around the playground (I never got into them, personally, but they were popular). I guess this generation’s gross toy is The Trash Pack, a collection of little miniature figures made to look like garbage monsters. And now you can play with them on your 3DS and DS (3DS version reviewed here).

The Trash Pack has four mini-games. Two are somewhat playable, two are not. The two decent games include one where you move a garbage truck left and right on the bottom of the screen collecting falling trash. Miss too many and it’s Game Over. The other playable game has you controlling one of the Trash Pack characters as you run and jump to collect cans, but avoid other bouncing pieces of trash. Get hit too many times and it’s Game Over.

The other two mini-games are just awful. In one, you hold down a button to build up a meter and fling Trash Pack monsters from a garbage can lid into cranes. But it’s hard to tell how it works. In the other game, you’re supposed to fling Trash Pack characters into targets with the stylus, but it just doesn’t work at all. By playing games you can unlock over a hundred characters to view.

Kid Factor:

The Trash Pack is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Comic Mischief. Some of the garbage monsters are pretty gross, with what looks like drool or barf coming out of their mouths. If you’re OK with your kids playing with the toys, they’ll be OK playing the game, too. But with only four mini-games, and only two being mildly entertaining at best, your money is probably better spent buying the actual toys and tossing this game in the garbage where it belongs.

Tags: Game Reviews