King Kong The Official Game Of The Movie (Game Boy Advance) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

To clear up the confusion, this is the only game available based on Peter Jackson's movie for the GameBoy Advance and while some sites are calling it '8th Wonder of the World' both the box and in-game title screen reads 'The Official Game of the Movie'. Now that we've cleared that up we can get on with the review and let me start off by saying what a huge fan I am of the 1933 original both in terms of special effects and storytelling. Obviously with Peter Jackson on board for this 're-telling' there's an air of anticipation that it may be the film we're all talking about this Christmas. The release itself is still around a month away and this GBA version is just one of an all formats roll out heading up to the big screen outing. We'll review the DS version when it hits the shelves early December but for now what have Ubi Soft come up with for the Advance version?

Gameplay

King Kong begins very promising indeed with the ability to play all three human characters. That is until the female lead is snatched away by Kong leaving you with two men one of whom insists on whipping out his camera and filming absolutely everything. Outside of this both men process very different skills causing you to swap between them as you trek through the jungle and while one is rather handy with weapons the other has the ability to move large objects. One thing they both have in common though is the ability to collect and combine objects to produce more useful items, so adding vines to logs will give you a raft and flintheads to sticks some rather useful spears. All of this obviously takes exploration and you can be wandering around for a considerable amount of time with your only point to interest shooting the odd bat or snake.

One thing you will quickly realize it that the whole game is a great deal more linear than it first appears and while you can travel around the sizeable island for quite some time it's not until you activate one of the many 'hot-spot' will you be allowed to progress through the story. It's at these points where you'll occasionally change game format from playing a king of three quarter overhead, as a human, to side-on, as Kong. This generally involves beating up prehistoric creatures or just about anything, which gets in the way, which cab be almost everything once you reach Manhattan. Unfortunately that really is it and once you've played though there's little incentive to go back with no even a mini-game or bonus items in sight. Finally a word of warning regarding saving your game and I must point out that this is not automatic but rather hidden in the menu systems so find it and save your game often. I'm sure I don't have to explain to anyone who's encountered this genre before how easy time gets away with you and the frustration a simple mistake can cause.

Controls

Given that you not only control Kong but also the three main human characters things can be a little daunting at first and this is even before you indulge in the various map and inventory screens. Fortunately there's more than enough pop-up's to aid your progress although it is occasionally difficult to see who requires first aid if you lose concentration for any length of time.

Graphics

The visuals don't push the GBA's hardware at all and this could easily of appeared on the aging GameBoy Color system with only some of the transparency effects absent. There are still some nice touches though and the comic book style cut screens are wonderful but this does little to help the overall appearance of the game.

Sound

The soundtrack is actually very good and best described as a kind of big budget jungle beat although it doesn't appear to change an awful lot throughout the game. The sound effects are also pretty good and there's even some small voice samples which may have been sourced from the original cast although it is unlikely.

Final comments

If you've caught any of the trade ad's you'll be well aware of the level of positive press the console versions of King Kong is getting with some reviewers going as far as to suggest that this is the best movie tie-in ever. Whether that is true or not remains to be seen but unfortunately the GBA version is just about what we've come to expect from movie franchise. Nothing original whilst including enough images and references from the movie so at least you come away feeling that the developers have read the script. If we were to really pinpoint what's wrong with the GBA version though it's the fact that it's completely un-original and technology wise only slightly beyond what the GameBoy Colour was capable of. If you only have a GBA then this really is down to personal taste but if you are lucky enough to own a DS stay tuned as we'll be giving that the once over in early December. Let's hope that version is worth the wait.

Pro: The Soundtrack
Con: Nothing Original, Average Visuals.
Final score: 4.3

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