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

"Twas a Mediocre Game That Killed the Beast"

What kind of guy would I be if I went into this review swinging an axe at poor Kong? Something called a casual observer. He's a giant ape who had to deal with the terrifying task of being one of the launch titles for the Xbox 360. That's a hard thing for anybody to deal with. But unfortunately for Kong, I didn't play this game at launch, so I don't feel so bad about picking apart every glitch-ridden level of this game. Little did I know what started out as a hunt for some quick gamer points would be a journey through a prehistoric land where everything hates you. You can imagine my surprise.

Peter Jackson's King Kong, as I said before, was one of the few launch titles for the Xbox 360. At the time, the graphics and game mechanics may have seemed new and fresh, but looking at them today makes you wonder how we've come so far in so little time. To say the least, the graphics are decent, but fall incredibly short of what the 360 is capable of. As the game is a first-person shooter, you spend a lot of time surveying your surroundings, so in order to fully be aware of your environment, you should have one that you can actually tell what your looking at. This brings me to another interesting point: Some of the levels are so dark that you can't tell where you are. This shouldn't keep you from being able to finish the game, but it's a large annoyance for people who like to... well, see.

The story is essentially the same as it's always been. You go to Skull Island only to find giant bugs, dinosaurs, and an ape with an obsession for the female member of your group. There's the filmmaker who only cares about his movie, the love interest, and some other guy thrown in for good measure. Keep in mind, I never bothered to watch the Peter Jackson version of this movie, so I'm assuming he stayed true to the original classic. The draw here is that you get to play as both Jack (in the first-person view) and the king himself (more of a broken bar brawl) which switches up randomly as the levels progress. I hate to say it, but the problems here are vast, so this is where it gets broken down. As Jack, you get to control an improperly sensitive FPS that has no cross-hairs, one gun at a time (with limited bullets), and no ability to jump. These may not seem like big issues, but when you spend half the game looking for spears and bones to use as weapons and torches for when your gun inevitably runs out of bullets, that doesn't make a fun game. As for Kong, most of his time is spent swinging from branches, breaking things, and fighting everything that moves. The Kong levels are a welcome change from the boring Jack segments, but they are so short you'll wonder why they even bothered with them.

I heard a lot of talk before the game's release of how the puzzles were there to really challenge the player into thinking. I was looking forward to this to break up the monotony, but I didn't realize every puzzle was exactly the same as the last one. The puzzles are as follows: You kill off any enemies nearby, find a spear or bone to light on fire and burn away blockading bushes, then find a piece to turn a crank and open a door. That's it. There are no pressure pads, Jack doesn't do crossword puzzles to save his life, nothing. Either they think all gamers are stupid, or their idea of puzzles end at this. Also, your "team" (which consists mostly of two unhelpful drones, one of which is Jack Black from the film) doesn't help you in any way except the occasional spat with a bug where they'll keep you alive momentarily. You can also switch weapons with them, but there's no point when they usually have the same weapon you have, a spear! And they always send Jack to do they dirty work, nice huh?

Fear not, though, because there is one single thing that may make you want to play through this game. If you've ever been to Universal Studios, or even seen one of their movies, you'll know how epic the production values can be. From the moment you start, the music and often breathtaking scenery will make you appreciate how they put something decent into this game. The whole time you play, it'll feel like you're on a ride at the park or in the theater watching the movie. You may say they did a phenomenal job on this portion of the game, but you probably won't after it starts to glitch and kills you by having you fall through solid ground. You'll die like this occasionally, but there were also instances where my team's eyes would disappear, and even half of their bodies until they were only legs. This was supposed to be a next-gen game, but I rarely saw a current-gen mess up that badly.

I wanted to like this game really badly, since I was only playing it for the achievements and had to deal with it anyway. After playing, however, I wanted to bash it really badly. I could have knocked this game back to the stone age, but I took the high road for this one, simply because they game did a pretty decent job mocking itself. Aside from some good production values, the graphics, controls, puzzles, and even voice acting will make you want to quit before the half way point. But it is an easy 1000 gamer points, so if you can deal with a few hours of monotony, I say go for it. It wasn't completely intolerable, and it's a good way to see the difference between this and a "good" first-person shooter. But for a launch title, it did make an effort, and that's more than a lot of us can say. Sorry King, but it looks like Elvis out shined you again.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 02/06/08

Game Release: Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie (US, 11/21/05)