The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

"A fun action game for GameCube"

Lord of the rings has a great selection when it comes to movies and games. Being able to play the games makes it feel as if you are there where the movie takes place. Having that effect to the game makes it really spectacular. If you have seen the movie then you will know that most of the game takes place at parts of the movie and parts that didn’t happen as if it would be a side mission you didn’t see in the movie. You start out playing as the well known Gandalf the white. Its really unique because when you start this game it shows parts from the second movie moving to the third movie and from that the game just starts out of the video its really ingenious.

Graphics 9
EA games really went out of the way for this game. The graphics are really superb in their own way. It seems that the graphics are like a low detail until something blows up and it’s just amazing. There are a lot of explosions and debris for everyone. Of course you know that the detail they put into the movie, I think you should know to expect some incredible work in the game too. Each character from the movie they have is greatly detailed. The monsters are some of the best since there are so many you fight they have really great detail, almost the same as in the movie.

Story 10
The story follows the same as the movie does. You are still fighting Sauron’s army to make sure he doesn’t get a hold of the ring. Frodo is still trying to get the ring to Mount Doom to rid of it forever. While he is doing that, Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, and Gandalf are trying to recover people to help the battle of Middle-earth. After the battle of Helms deep Sauron was expected to send out thousands of troops to take out the only hope of all the free people in earth. It is your job to make sure man prevail to exist. Make sure that Frodo gets that ring to Mount Doom, and make sure Aragorn can return to the throne for the race of man.

Game Play 10
The best feature in this game, what is better than being able to take the role of your favorite character in a movie and control them on a game. Nothing! Your choices of character’s are as follows: the 3 hobbits, Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, and Gandalf. Each certain character has their adventure in this game. With the Hobbits you get to have the fun of trying to get the ring to Mount Doom and run into a bit of trouble along the way. The fellowship gets to find more people to help with the fight of Middle-earth, along with Gandalf. The controls in this game have good and bad parts to them. Such as when you are running in a certain level you can get stuck and ruin it all for you. But the better feature of the controls is fighting enemies. When you learn your techniques and master them you can ruin a whole herd of enemies with the single swipe of whatever weapon you may have.

Sound 9
The soundtrack in this game is just as good as the movies. Completely wonderful, the work they put into this games music is astounding. The musical instruments go well with whatever may be happening in your escapade. The voice acting is perfect because they had the original actors come in and do the voices. Monsters and followers have their voices and grunts to show true emotion to battle. They really got detailed when it came to the battles. The explosions are really loud, the swords hitting the shields, armor clanging. You name it they got it. A very well put together soundtrack to top it off.

Graphics 9
Story 10
Game Play 10
Sound 9

Overall Rating 10
This is by far one of the best action games that came out in 2003. If you have the money I highly suggest that you go out and buy this game. Another thing is that you have multiplayer in this game, so invite a friend to come over and aid you through your escapade. Not only can they help you but you can also play this game online, so it is worth every dime. So we all know that your lunch money will be saved up this week to go out and buy it. Enjoy it well because I know I sure did.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/30/04