Kim and Ron receive a most unusual request: Dr. Drakken needs their help. To be more precise, the poor soul occupying Drakken's body needs their help. It turns out that the unlucky fellow - one Private Dobbs - was guarding a very powerful top-secret weapon, the Neutronalizer. Drakken needed Dobbs' security clearance (and body) to get at it. Enter the brain-switch machine, which ends up performing its main duty on Kim and Ron.
As old as the hills, the premise of two characters switching minds has been done many, many times before. You can set your watch by the plotting: two characters each gripe about how the other has it better, somehow they end up in each other's bodies, they see how tough it can be on the other side of the fence, they work together and in the end, they switch back. Fade to black and credits. "Mind Games" doesn't really bring anything new to the party. Also, this episode indulges a pet peeve I have with some of these episodes: Kim and Ron have somewhat distinct vocal traits, and I feel it would've been better for the VAs to adopt those traits, rather than (lazily) just switching their voices (shades of the otherwise terrific "Teen Titans" episode, "Switched").
And yet, I greatly enjoyed this episode. Why? Let me put it like this: "Mind Games" is a page with the same old story on it, but it's the stuff scribbled in the margins of the page that make it entertaining. Some examples: Mr. Dr. Possible's laid-back reaction to Kim and Ron's predicament, Ron adjusting to his new...physical environment, Kim making an unscheduled stop in the ladies' room and (best of all) the reaction shot of Shego when Drakken (in Dobbs' body) learns that his own body is missing.
Won't you play these "Mind Games"?
***/****
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