Fear Factor Unleashed for Game Boy Advance would be more interesting if it included clowns

destructoid.com:

The early days of reality television were embarrassing for all of us. Actually, no, reality television is still embarrassing for us. Every time I visit my parents, where they still have cable, there’s some show about detailing cars or antiquing that is on TV. Fear Factor was something special, though. I don’t mean that in a good way.

Fear Factor was a game show that was advertised as a show about people overcoming fear to both humiliate themselves and win money. I’m pretty sure people just tuned in to watch the contestants eat bugs, which was almost invariably what they did in the middle of the three events. But there are so many times you can air people cringing as they eat insects before even the least discerning audience gets bored, so the series only ran from 2001-2006. I say “only” because there are reality shows based around cooking that are still running today.

During this time, there was a Game Boy Advance game released in 2004 called Fear Factor Unleashed. Upon discovering this, my first question was, “how?” followed closely by “why?” Now that I’ve played it, I have the answer to the first question, but I’m not sure there will ever be an adequate explanation for the second. It’s probably just money.

Fear Factor Unleashed follows the show’s formula of having six contestants compete in three challenges to see who survives to the end. There are twelve mini-games that get shuffled into the mix. Most of these involve being tied up or eating bugs, which are both things I am already very experienced in, so that’s possibly why this game was such a cinch for me.

The conformity to the show’s structure is one of the most aggravating aspects of the game. This is mostly because it tries to show each of the AI-controlled