Ratatouille

"A stale, short-lasting taste"

Releasing the game version of popular animation movies seems to have become an excuse to create a handful of sub-par kids games lately. In very rare instances though, these little games turn out quite good or decent. Such is the case with Ratatouille, a movie about a friendly rat who ends up in Paris, where he gets to put his culinary skills to good use. On the big screen, the simple screenplay was brilliantly put together with gorgeous visuals and music to create a delightful movie, something that is a bit harder to reproduce in a game. Given the limits licenses force upon the developers however, Ratatouille is a fairly good gaming experience, though nowhere as tasteful as the movie.

It's hard to come up with game ideas for something like Ratatouille, but the developers found a working concept for it. The game follows Remy's travel to Paris, going from the peaceful farmhouse, through a raging river and into dirty sewers to finally arrive at Gusteau's, where he'll get to pay a little visit to the restaurant's kitchen. Obviously the storyline differs from that of the movie in order to keep the game going with some common sense, but the plot is the same and most dialogues are quite amusing. Ratatouille is essentially a 3D platformer, with some mini-games thrown in.

Some unique ideas that come from controlling a rat, like crawling along thin ropes, going through small holes or climbing ledges almost upside down, could make for a pretty interesting platformer, but unfortunately the limits imposed by the movie keeps the game from ever going out of pre-set boundaries. Since the movie takes place in only two or three locations, the game does too, and that's a shame. Soon enough, I grew tired of always going through the same sewers, the same kitchen, the same back alley. More location variety would have helped, but instead the developers had to do with what they had, although a few places were added, like the market and some food-filled dream worlds.

In the same order of ideas, Ratatouille the game stays very close to the movie script's chronology, so you'll be going from a place to the other, performing a task that has to do with the storyline. The game never strays from the mission-based levels, so although the levels have plenty to explore, the game never really lets you have the freedom to look around until the very end, as you'll be too busy concentrating on the missions to start wandering around too far from the goals. In fact, there are countless collectibles to be found around the game's open levels, but the design of the levels is so unappealing, crowded and confusing that it doesn't make it very compelling to explore.

It's a good thing the game isn't just free-roaming though, as it doesn't just leave you in the middle of a large world with no clue as to where to go. The levels are for the most part very action-packed and offer many hints as to where to head next. It's just too bad the game follows a formula that is fun at first, but becomes very repetitive half-way through. You'll always go through a section of straightforward platforming, then be given some tasks as to retrieve items or such from a large open level, then play through a series of simplistic mini-games, then either slide down a pipe or run away from the chef. Then the game will have you go through that again, but with different platforming, different tasks, different mini-games, but always through the same levels.

What starts from a fun platformer thus quickly becomes tedious. Even the mini-games, which are extremely easy, ranging from pointing at the screen with the Wiimote to pressing the right buttons, repeat themselves enough times to get dull. The platforming segments definitely are the best, but the camera is so hard to move around that it makes it less enjoyable. Other control issues hinder the gameplay, like how you constantly have to press the B button for several different actions, while some other buttons aren't used at all. I've never seen anything worse than having to press A+B to jump from a pole to the other. Little grips like these occasionally get in the way, but fortunately not through the whole game.

Where the game stops being fun is four hours into it, at the credits screen. Indeed, it's a very short game, but with indefinite replay value. You'll be able to buy several cheats, movie clips, artworks, and other things from Gusteau's shop, with points earned from completing levels and finding collectibles. Unlocking all the game has to offer might take a life, as you don't get much points at all and most unlockables cost a handful of them. This means you'd have to replay through the levels several times and collect the thousands of collectibles, which I guarantee you, takes hours most of us do not dispose of. This could be a good way of keeping the kids busy, though.

The game doesn't look quite as good as the movie, but the graphics are about what you'd expect, offering great environments, character models and animations. Surprisingly, it's the FMVs that look the worse, too blurry and not as bright as the game itself, far from what the movie looks like. The music and voice-acting are very close to the movie, which were already top-notch.

In the end, Ratatouille is a good game to pay homage to the movie, but as a stand alone platformer, it's rather weak. The whole package is very generic and monotonous, despite a few clever concepts. I must admit a few parts had me bored or annoyed, but some other parts are better than others. I've played too many platformers to consider this game more than decent, but it's definitely one that could be worthy for kids, and one that isn't butchered for something based on a movie. Ratatouille is like a stale dish; you've had it before, but it doesn't taste too bad.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/17/08, Updated 01/18/08

Game Release: Ratatouille (US, 06/26/07)