Madagascar Escape 2 Africa (Nintendo DS) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

Madagascar has been a considerable hit for Dreamworks and not only is this the second movie to be released featuring a group of hapless New York Zoo inhabitants, but there's also a spin-off series featuring the notorious penguins. CGI movies are everywhere now and this year will be no exception, especially given that we are only months away from the third outing for the one that started it all: Toy Story. The first Madagascar game was released in the very early days of the DS and anyone who's been with the console for a while will recall that it was very similar to the GBA version with a few mini-games thrown in to satisfy the new 'stylus driven' gamer. It's all changed a lot since then but has it been for the better?

Gameplay

In this second outing for Madagascar you control all of the movie's main characters. During the game you'll be able to play as Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Gloria the Hippo and Melman the Giraffe, not forgetting The Penguins. This plays out like one of the original Crash Bandicoot games with the camera slightly behind your character and your objective being to reach the end of the level intact. This involves battling it out with all manner of enemies, collecting coins and rescuing monkeys. The various characters all have different attacks but they all play more or less the same. The only real difference is in some of the Gloria levels where you float down a stream filled with explosive barrels. It's never explained just why this river, in the middle of Africa, is so dangerous but it does make for an exciting challenge.

In addition to the main game there are also two other modes that can be selected from the main menu. The first of these is Mort Pinball, which is a Jungle themed pinball game with terrible physics and therefore very unfair gameplay, which will drive you to distraction. The other involves the Penguins and plays out like a kind of The Lost Vikings puzzler, with each of the four possessing very different skills and the objective being to get all of them to the end. This does require a bit of thought on the gamers part and is a highlight of what is quite a weak package.

Controls

Given that the majority of the gameplay is squarely on the arcade side of things, the control layout has been kept very simple. It's all very responsive but you'll be able to get through the game by simply running, jumping and attacking, all of which demand little in the way of skill or judgment on your part.

Graphics

Using the movie as a source the developers have managed to produce some pleasing environments for the various characters to run around in. The characters themselves are also well constructed and have been expertly animated to give them all very different personalities. In addition there are a lot of stills that push the story along nicely (yes, there is a story) and will no doubt delight fans of the movie.

Sound

The sound is incredible and the developers are clearly pleased with the results, as a 'sound board' is one of the first unlockables available. This includes the usual sound effects and some very memorable 'jungle themed' music but also a huge amount of voice work which is expertly done and adds a lot of charm and entertainment to the package. This also means no reading for the younger gamer.

Dual screen

As with the last outing for Madagascar, the touch-screen elements feel tagged on and you'll be forced to use your stylus in a bunch of mini-games that simply involve selecting arrows or following rhythms. These are hardly groundbreaking and you'd have thought that after some five years the developers could have come up with something a little more engaging.

Final comments

If you've ever played a movie tie-in before (and how could you possibly avoid them) then you'll find that this is simply more of the same and not the best example we've seen either. Put simply Escape 2 Africa is only recommended for the younger fans of the movie. The gameplay is bland and repetitive and the mini-games are basic at best. It's a shame really as the production values are very high and the downloadable demo is a great addition, it's just a shame that the game itself suffers from a severe lack of gameplay value.

Pro: Great Sound and Graphics, Downloadable Demo
Con: Linear, Repetitive Gameplay, Poor Mini-Games
Final score: 6.1

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