Movie games: Must they bite?
For every summer blockbuster, there is usually a quickly produced video game to go with it. But aren’t these games supposed to suck? Let’s find out.
Hellboy: The Science of Evil
Console: Xbox 360
Company: Konami
Genre: Fighting
Grade: 1 Globe
There once was a game for the Atari 2600 called “E.T.” which was so mindless, so awful, that it nearly sunk the video game industry. Well, after playing Hellboy, you probably wouldn’t race to buy shares of stock in game publishers. As a matter of fact, you might just swear off electricity, grow a beard and try to live off the land. Yeah. It’s that bad.
First of all, it’s boring. Macroeconomics boring. It’s a fighting game with no storyline to speak of, repeating enemy types and bland graphics. The play mechanics run about as deep as a kiddie pool. Do you like pushing the same button over and over? Then you’re in luck! This game is so simple, your greatest challenge won’t be the bad guys, but the glitchy camera.
It’s not all doom and gloom, however. The developers did snag Ron Perlman to reprise his role as the titular antihero. Unfortunately, Ron must have had the world’s worst hangover because he has about four words of dialogue and two of the four are nonsensical grunts. Maybe he was shocked into silence after playing the game for a few minutes. You will be too if you drop $60 on this.
Wall-E
Console: Nintendo DS
Company: THQ
Genre: Adventure/Puzzle
Grade: 3 Glolbes
Every system got their own “Wall-E” game, but the DS version stands apart with a unique and interesting design. The game follows the basic structure of the movie, plopping the spiritual successor to Johnny Five in familiar locales and having the player explore and figure out a way to the next location. You do this by moving around and manipulating objects. It plays like a 3-D adventure game but it’s really a puzzler; an interesting mix. Several of the challenges will definitely give you that “a-ha!” moment.
The graphics are a bit underwhelming, even for a DS title. Also, they try to mix it up with the occasional flying levels. These are, how can this be put mildly, really sucky. Still, there is a lot of fun to be had here.