Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie

"A good movie based game?"

King Kong was one of the most talked about movies last year. The game also launched with the Xbox 360 and was perhaps one of the most stunning games graphic wise. I'm sadly reviewing the PS2 version of King Kong. If you have a 360 I will just say that that is the way to go because those graphics are mind blowing while the other consoles got a ho-hum looking game.

The story of King Kong is simple. Film maker goes to uncharted island. Woman gets kidnapped by a giant gorilla. The story should be known by now to everyone but I won't go further, since someone is sure to not have seen any of the movies. The story is simple but to be honest a lot of what made the movie good is missing here. The characters don't feel as real and the relationship between Kong and Ann feels neglected.

Graphic wise the game is alright. Things look nice, don't get me wrong but if you've seen the 360 version in action you'll now why I was let down. Characters look good and are nicely detailed. The only problem I had was when playing as Kong. He looks rough and just not very interesting. Load times are decent and the stages look nice, except the Kong stages feel kind of rushed.

Sound wise the game is nice as well. Voice acting seems to be the actors from the movie which is always a huge plus in my book. Sound effects are nice. Creatures sound cool, steps are nice, and boards crack. It all sounds good. The music is freaking amazing. For some reason I keep getting games with amazing music. I really loved the song that plays during the final stage, very fitting.

I also found control to be nicely handled. The first person bits are very easy to control, no problems, although I had more troubles when I played the 360 demo. I didn't like how Kong controlled though. The controls just felt thrown together and kind of random. Far from intuitive.

King Kong is pretty much your average first person shooter. It's rather linear but offers some puzzles. However, those puzzles are rather simple once you get past the first 5 levels. There are 40 sections in the game. Most are around 5 minutes long so the game isn't the longest around.

The game also lacks weapon variety. I think you get four guns, a stick and ugh... I guess that's it. It really isn't the deepest game around. What I find interesting is that the team behind Beyond Good & Evil worked on this game and you can tell. While it may be linear and the puzzles weak and it may lack the weapon variety. It makes it up in spades with the locations. The levels are perfectly crafted, bringing the game to life. More so than any other game I've played in a while. That alone makes the game worth a rental.

The entire game isn't just a first person shooter. There are some third people sections that you get to play as Kong. It feels slightly disjointed and broken. While I liked the idea behind them, it just felt rushed I guess. You just run, jump, climb and then fight giant enemies. It's cool at first but after the first few of them I became bored of it because it all felt the same and the locations were as good. The first person stages have the same problem of feeling like more of the same but again, the locations come off as almost magical.

Replay value is actually kind of high. You get a score at the end of each level and the % of the game that you've completed unlocks secret stuff like artwork and even a secret ending. You'll just need to beat the game twice to get enough points to unlock everything. The game is a little over 5 hours long so it doesn't take too long to unlock everything.

While a part of me wants to recommend King Kong as a buy, it's more of a rent. I will personally buy the 360 version when it drops to under $20. I think it would be worth it then. If your only choices are the PS2 and Xbox, then just rent the game because the 360 version really makes the entire package shine.

Story - 5/10
Graphics - 7/10
Sound - 9/10
Control - 8/10
Game Play - 7/10
Replay Value - 5/10

Final Score - 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/31/06