King Kong Review

Anannya Sen’s Review

Could this be a first? A movie adaptation which is actually good? King Kong takes a giant leap where others have failed before.

With the movie due out soon it came as no surprise when we got the mobile version of King Kong to review. Now usually I loathe movie tie ins as apart from Serenity the games have usually been very very poor (Robots springs to mind), however this game firmly breaks the mould.

What is different about the game is that the producers have actually cared to make the game really playable, full of different objectives and also tie in to the movie plot at the same time and that??s no mean feat.

What grabs you first is the loading graphics of King Kong himself, beautifully rendered onto my phone. In fact the graphics are pretty damn good throughout. The main character is well drawn and really well animated as you get a great sense of simian movement the way I am sure the film is going to be. The human characters are pretty small and therefore have little detail but this only serves to enhance the aspect of playing as one of the largest screen characters in history. The backgrounds are well rendered with decent colour and atmosphere, the jungles look lush, the temples look suitably eerie and New York looks like a 1930s New York. The jumping around as both Kong and Jack (though mainly Kong) gives the game a great appeal.

The sound is not bad. Not amazing mind you but with such good graphics it would have to be top notch to compete. There is a decent tune when you load the game and during parts of the game itself. Also there are sound effects when you are roaring, fighting and dying which adds a nice flavour to the game. There are mini tunes when you die and decide to continue and occasionally the main tune from loading loops back in. Definitely the weakest aspect of the game, but as long as the roar is there that??s no slight on the part of the producers.

The controls are long. When I first looked and saw 4 pages of controls I thought it was going to be a fiasco. But they are repeated in between levels as you need them and they are not that hard to pick up. The characters are controlled by the D or key pad and movement is left, right, and diagonal jumps upwards and pressing down drops you downwards. Kong can run along vines and buildings as well which is really cool. Also there are attacking moves, basically the main button or 5 will perform an attack with Kong. Press it repeatedly for some combos. You can build up your rage meter as well by pressing down and pressing 0 roars to try and scare dinos. There??s also a special rage move, but you??ll figure that out. With Jack, much different as you need to get a blower to fight properly, press 0 to take aim and move the aim using left and right, then press 5 to fire. The blower fires in a parabolic arc so you can hit most enemies wherever they are on the screen. See what I mean, a LOT of controls but it??s pretty bold of the producers to put so many controls in there and as I said before you do pick them up quickly.

The playability is excellent. There are story elements throughout the game which you can skip if you so decide. What makes the game so good is the variety. You get to play as Kong or Alex and have different objectives as both. As Kong you have to jump, climb, attack dinosaurs, avoid rocks and get to the girl in time. There are lots of varying things to do in each level. And as Alex you have to figure out puzzles (not too hard) and avoid traps and natives so something completely different to the levels where you play as Kong. This keeps you interested in playing and it??s so much fun to play as Kong that the game keeps you very entertained.

The lastability is good as well. The game follows the plot of the film and as such is pretty long. I played for a solid 30 minutes and got to the New York levels so I??m guessing there was still plenty to go. Maybe Peter Jackson had a hand in the game as well as it??s long and seems to have a bit of everything. The game autosaves your progress and you can continue at any time. Even better, you can choose to play any level you have already played so you can get to play your favourite levels again and again.

I think this is a first in that King Kong is a movie phone game tie in which is really well made and seems to have a bit of everything. The game has broken the mould in its genre and let??s hope the actual movie can live up to the quality of the game.