"The third book of a classic trilogy unleashes itself to the Game-Cube."

Intro.

Lord of the Rings. What a great movie/book series. Now, you get to live the battles with the video game versions. Return of the King is obviously the third book/movie/game. The end of it is here.

Game-play: 8/10

There are 9 characters, each used in one of three character paths. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli take The Path of the King. Gandalf takes the Path of the Wizard. Frodo and Sam take The Path of the Hobbits. The other three characters are secret ones. All the action starts ONCE you turn on your Game-cube (if you don't have the game memory in your memory card). The EA Games logo appears. Then an opening in-game movie appears and you jump off your horse. Now you start fighting. Hordes of enemies swarm in all directions. You will not believe how many enemies appear on-screen! You have four different attack types: Speed attack, fierce attack, physical attack (push, kick, etc.), and kill attack. Kill attacks. They are just simple stab on the ground. When your enemy falls to the ground, use your kill attack to finish him off. You don't always have to use your kill attack to kill all of your enemies. Your speed attack is the quick, swift attack. This might be the attack that you will use most often. Fierce attacks are slow, but are the only armor piercing and shield crumbling type of attack. Physical attacks don't do damage at all. You can use it to knock down ladders and knock enemies off of ledges. Physical attacks also support some combos which I will explain later. Now there's a ranged attack. Shoot arrows, throw axes, shoot magic, or launch a dagger. Each are different for each character. Interaction with the environment is always important. Use Z to slide down a rope, launch a catapult, lift a spear and throw it, and activate switches and other things. Each character also has a special feature. The hobbits can become invisible for a short time. Gandalf can make a barrier around him. And Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli get increased power. At the end of each level, you get to buy stuff with experience points. When you spend them, it doesn't drain it away form you. You start at level 1 and you must get experience to gain a level and buy new combos. Let's say that you are at level 3. You can buy anything that's on the level 3 section and lower. Cool. Combos are just simple button pressing sequences. Combat moves just expands. Feeling lonely? Grab a friend and play CO-OP mode!

Graphics: 7/10

Pretty good landscapes and animation. Everything has great detail and expect to see a lot of stuff from the movie. Once the camera gets really close to a person, things start to look a bit weird, but it won't bother you.

Sound: 9/10

Such great sound. All of it came from the movie except some lines said by characters. The music came from the movie. The voices came from the movie. There are so many things that came from the movie. It's all good.

Control: 8/10

You really get the hang of it. Your fingers will just go up, then down, then up, then down. All the combos are really easy to use. The problem is that you really can't decide on which one you want to use. You just pick randomly.

Worth playing?

Of course it's worth playing. Co-op mode in a game like this is awesome! Why not? While your at it, watch the movie.

Overall: 8/10

Even though, this game is really great, expect it to get a little boring after a LONG while. Due to it's difficulty, it should take you a while. There are loads of extras along the way. Great game. Don't miss out on one of the kings of movie-to-game games.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/23/04