The Spiderwick Chronicles Review

Anannya Sen’s Review

The mobile adaption of the film

It seems that every single film that is released these days has a mobile version of the game and I wonder how long this will last. My question is whether the studios make any money from these games as in our experience they have never tended to be of the highest caliber.

Unfortunately, the Spiderwick chronicles in no way bucks this trend as it seems a rather hasty adaptation to me. Although I must confess to never having seen the film, the game doesn't really seem to make full use of the K800i's capabilities.

The main sprites are large and cartoony and also a little bit blocky in places, however overall the graphics look a little cramped. The characters all look different, and supposedly like their on screen counterparts, right down to the big ears, but they are very 2D and not detailed enough to make anyone sit up and take notice. This is really a paint by numbers sort of look.

The sound fares a little bit better with plenty of different tunes depending on the atmmosphere as well as what is happening in the game. There are no sound effects to speak of though, so you just get the tunes. In a game like this, although they are nice, they don't add a whole lot to the playing experience.

Controls are pretty simple, you can use the stick or pad to move. Pressing the main button or 5 will perform actions, such as pick things up, and use whatever item you have selected. You can select items from the backpack menu which is left (6) from the main menu. You get to the main menu by pressing the left soft key.

Apart from the backpack option, pressing up will allow you to look around and pressing right will remind you of what quest you are on. There are plenty of items to find and these are stored in a magical chest and you only carry 4 on you at all times. This can involve quite a bit of moving around and swapping so that for each part of the game you have the right items. At least that's what I did. To swap you have to remove one of the four spots in your backpack by pressing left or right to highlight it, then press down to bring it into your backpack. Then press right or left to highlight the item in the chest you want to bring to your backpack, and press up. Sounds convoluted because it is. Why the developers couldn't just allow you to switch items is beyond me.

What's also a little beyond me is that when switching items and scenes you often have to re-equip weapons that were already equipped in the first place. Moving onto the adaptation part, for those of you who don't know, some kids find a book telling them about a magical world which they begin to see. If you think it sounds like Narnai, then it sure plays like it. I guess there is a lot of backstory to tell, and the developers here have decided to tell all of it.

The game itself is not that hard, you move around exploring the house and the forests, picking up items on the way and using these in specific situations. But there is a LOT of text in between telling the story of the film. I got a little bored so began to skip it regularly to get to the gameplay and am now probably missing out on the whole history of Spiderwick. While this means I get straight to the fun stuff, this isn't that much fun either. You can brandish weapons against the goblins but if you just keep pressing the main button you will have them beaten in no time. Button mashing gets you everywhere. Then there are levels where you have to sneak around in the shadows so the creatures don't see you. This would have been good too, if the forest paths weren't so narrow.

Finally you have to collect items which are often not actually visible in the room. So instead you wander around the house until your action button says "pick up" instead of searching / attack. If you do this, you will get the item, but you can't see it in the room normally. Not that this matters too much as the right menu option (option 6) gives you a rundown on what you are supposed to get and where to get it. Talk about a bit of a letdown, I was hoping to have to figure it out for myself (e.g. look for food in the kitchen area) rather than having it all written on a plate.

Maybe I'm being overly harsh on the game. After all, it's not a bad game, just not great and seems to be the latest one in the long factory line of movie adaptations. It's like having the money to buy an Aston Martin but actually getting a Focus. Solid and reliable but nothing out of the ordinary. Worth a look if you are a young kid who's a fan of the film / books.