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

"A huge, huge disappointment."

I was really looking forward to this game. It looked nice, polished, interesting, and fun. Then the second I put it in, it let me down. So, I decided to review it. Wasn't that kind of me.

Graphics:9/10
Very nice graphics. The animations were nice, I liked the foliage and water especially. King Kong was, needless to say, about as beautiful as a huge, hairy ape can get.

Sound: 8/10
The sound wasn't note-worthy, in my opinion, but it was fine. The great voice acting stood out too.

Gameplay: 3/10
To sum it up, there were really only three types of levels in this game:You fight bugs,you fight dinosaurs, and you fight as King Kong. Every one seems to contain the same fun, but boring level design, along with the same gameplay that gets old after about 10 levels. After that, you often think, "wait, wasn't I just doing this yesterday?"
Throwing a spear at a bug is fun for about twenty minutes, but then it gets old. Same with using the same three or four weapons over and over again. Also, battling the same five to eight different creatures, all in predictable places can get old, if it is ever entertaining in the first place. The game had nice level design, but then they proceeded to make this the most linear game ever. It wasn't open-ended at all. Period. If they made this game a little more open (there are, to my knowledge, absolutely no optional paths or anything of the kind), it would have prospered. But I almost felt as though I was on a track, being pushed in one path constantly.

Story: 7/10
The same king Kong story, fleshed out painfully, often distorting the original feel.

Well, that's it. I would highly recommend renting this game for five days. It would be great fun. After about six days, it gets painfully repetitive.
The game felt almost like a publicity stunt for the movie, it couldn't stand alone at all.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 08/14/06