J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings Volume 1

"A great lord of the rings game? Not here"

The Book and the Award-winning film Lord of the Rings were my favorite's as well as a few of the games. When i found out about this game on SNES i decided to buy it for my old SNES and see what’s up with this game. Little did i know i was in for a Disappointment

Graphics 7/10
The Graphics were surprisingly good. They did a good job on some like the forests were lush, the plains were...well...plainly, and some of the towns. Unfortunately they just pretty much used the same ones over and over again with little difference. Take example of the caves. They only use Probley 6 ''sections'' per cave. Making it confusing, dull and easy to get lost in(more on this later in the review)

The Character sprites were OKAY but as with the graphics they just used the same sprite over and over again. For example the hobbits: they just the same hobbit sprite just given different colored cloaks and frodo not having a hood.

Music/Sound 8/10
I loved the music and it really sets the tone and mood in parts of the game. Like the music in hobbitown and some of the forests. And the music in places like Barrow downs were creepy. However there are not many soundtracks in the game, so the songs just repeat themselves over and over. Although to some its not that irritating while to others it can get annoying after a while.

The sound effects were okay just a few grunts and sword slashes and an enemy dying. Nothing special here. Maybe could have used improvement

Control 3/10
This is the part where the game goes downhill from here.
You Control Frodo and all you have is one basic attack and one basic defend thing but even the defense doesn’t always work. Other then that the control isn’t that bad...with frodo anyway. Later in the game the other fellowship members will join your party but there are somehow idiots. even though u might be able to control them with the R button They just seem to wonder off in other directions and Sometimes there are so stupid they just wont attack any enemies which can lead to getting themselves killed. But you can bring back them back to life right? Wrong! There dead for good should they die and you need them later in the game.You must then either start over from the beginning or use a very-long password system to continue (if you been keeping track) with a whole bunch of different numbers and letters that are four lines long.

Gameplay 2/10
If the infamous control doesn’t get you, some of the gameplay will. You slash an orc, wolf or whatever, defend then repeat. Dull is it? And as i said before your party members aint really helpful. And your spend most of the time wondering how the heck am i to get to here or there. Because the caves are TITANIC MAZES. Unfortunately you must explore these maze-like caves to get these items like those gateway gems (I don’t recall being these in the book??) and amulets to advance later in the game.Then theres gold; yes there is gold in this game but there really isnt much you can do with it since theres only one weapon's smith and the weapons they offer in the game you can just find them in caves and the Field’s

In Conclusion the game isnt really worth it as it doesn't always follow the book and the gameplay is Challenging. This was one of the very few games i had to cheat to beat it.

Replay: N/A
And go though all that frustration again?

Buy or rent?
Nether. Unless your planning to use a game genie or your just a good lord of the rings fan.

Overall score: 4/10

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 09/22/03