The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
Must... Resist... Urge... To Make... Lame... "Out of the closet" joke...
Published: November 23, 2005
Hey guys, licensed games suck! We cram the fact down your throats nearly every time we do a news story on 'em. Interestingly, though, the trend is moving away from all games based on huge movies being pure shite to them just being, well, mediocre. Yes, it's a step in the right direction, but it may be where most games end their progression into playable territory.
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is certainly playable. At times, it's downright fun, and yet there's still a sense that the games are too constrained by what's happening in the movies to make them particularly memorable.
All the ingredients for a great game are here; the fancy graphics, the movie's voice cast, the gameplay variety, the ripped-from-film action scenes, and yet it all feels too generic for its own good. Worst of all, I'm not entirely sure that the game could have been any better.
The game, as all big licensed games do, follows the plot of the film rather neatly. Developer Traveller's Tales deviated from things a bit to thicken up the gameplay moments, and throws in a healthy amount of clips from the movie, some of which transition directly into gameplay, which is a nice touch, so if you've read C.S. Lewis' pint-sized Lord of the Rings adventures, you'll know what's going on here.
If you haven't, you'll quickly get caught up as the game swoops through the events leading up to the four children escaping from war-torn London to live with Professor Kirke, a family friend, in the countryside and the eventual run-in with the titular wardrobe that acts as a portal to the land of Narnia. As it turns out, the foursome -- Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy - are all integral to a prophecy that says four humans (Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve, if you prefer) will eventually overthrow the White Queen ruling the land and return Aslan, a lion, to his throne.
The movie's big hook comes from the ample talent of Lord of the Rings special effects studio Weta Workshop, who helped Peter Jackson whip up all those nifty special effects and costumes to bring Tolkien's work to life. Tolkien and Lewis belonged to the same literary circles, so there was a fair amount of shared themes in the book, and it shows in the creature designs for both the big-screen and video game iterations of Narnia.
The game borrows heavily from the material, usually building upon sets and re-using the likenesses of the actors from the film, as well as attaching plenty of key scenes to the filler sections of gameplay. The dynamic of the four children is the crux of the game's interactive, and to this end Traveller's Tales made sure to give each one their own strength; Peter's best at melee combat, Susan's adept at hucking snowballs and flinging arrows at targets, Edmund can, uh, shimmy up poles and such and Lucy can fit into tight spaces and magically appear at a nearby exit.
The siblings can also team up for dual attacks that are far more powerful or allow progress through an otherwise impossible barrier; Edmund and Lucy can join forces to spin their way through barriers, Susan can huck Lucy at things and Susan can scale Peter to send shots at enemies without fear of being mowed down (as she often is) by the approaching mob.
An effort was made to introduce nearly all of these abilities at least once in a given level, but as the game (and movie) reach the final climax and things are moved more towards combat than anything else, the game's AI starts to show some serious holes. When you need support, it never happens, leading to multiple restarts and fits of screaming, and when you don't need it, suddenly the kids are right in tow.
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is certainly playable. At times, it's downright fun, and yet there's still a sense that the games are too constrained by what's happening in the movies to make them particularly memorable.
All the ingredients for a great game are here; the fancy graphics, the movie's voice cast, the gameplay variety, the ripped-from-film action scenes, and yet it all feels too generic for its own good. Worst of all, I'm not entirely sure that the game could have been any better.
The game, as all big licensed games do, follows the plot of the film rather neatly. Developer Traveller's Tales deviated from things a bit to thicken up the gameplay moments, and throws in a healthy amount of clips from the movie, some of which transition directly into gameplay, which is a nice touch, so if you've read C.S. Lewis' pint-sized Lord of the Rings adventures, you'll know what's going on here.
If you haven't, you'll quickly get caught up as the game swoops through the events leading up to the four children escaping from war-torn London to live with Professor Kirke, a family friend, in the countryside and the eventual run-in with the titular wardrobe that acts as a portal to the land of Narnia. As it turns out, the foursome -- Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy - are all integral to a prophecy that says four humans (Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve, if you prefer) will eventually overthrow the White Queen ruling the land and return Aslan, a lion, to his throne.
The movie's big hook comes from the ample talent of Lord of the Rings special effects studio Weta Workshop, who helped Peter Jackson whip up all those nifty special effects and costumes to bring Tolkien's work to life. Tolkien and Lewis belonged to the same literary circles, so there was a fair amount of shared themes in the book, and it shows in the creature designs for both the big-screen and video game iterations of Narnia.
The game borrows heavily from the material, usually building upon sets and re-using the likenesses of the actors from the film, as well as attaching plenty of key scenes to the filler sections of gameplay. The dynamic of the four children is the crux of the game's interactive, and to this end Traveller's Tales made sure to give each one their own strength; Peter's best at melee combat, Susan's adept at hucking snowballs and flinging arrows at targets, Edmund can, uh, shimmy up poles and such and Lucy can fit into tight spaces and magically appear at a nearby exit.
The siblings can also team up for dual attacks that are far more powerful or allow progress through an otherwise impossible barrier; Edmund and Lucy can join forces to spin their way through barriers, Susan can huck Lucy at things and Susan can scale Peter to send shots at enemies without fear of being mowed down (as she often is) by the approaching mob.
An effort was made to introduce nearly all of these abilities at least once in a given level, but as the game (and movie) reach the final climax and things are moved more towards combat than anything else, the game's AI starts to show some serious holes. When you need support, it never happens, leading to multiple restarts and fits of screaming, and when you don't need it, suddenly the kids are right in tow.
