"A pretty tame experience."

A few weeks back I rented and played through a console version of Where the Wild Things Are and really enjoyed it. When I saw the DS version was a shiny little 2D platformer, I just had to rent it as well. I've yet to see the movie (I know, what am I waiting for?) So I ended up skipping most of the cut scenes and text. I will say that the plot seemed to share some things with the console version but the ending felt so randomly different in this one. Not sure which the film actually uses...

To be fair the game has a very solid visual style. It's somewhat dark and moody but it looks very nice at the same time. The character animations, while limited are fun. Our hero leans in as he screams and each Wild Thing is used for different reasons and tend to have large animations.

The game is fairly simple as you go from point A to point B. It's broken up with puzzles that require a specific Wild Thing, mostly you need to ride Carol to cross spikes or use another to get to a higher ledge.

The levels are filled with 150 stars to collect, which sounds like a lot but they tend to eb bunched together. You'll need multiple trips through the levels to get them all since certain Wild Things are required for some.

The game only has 8 or so stages but each offers a boss fight. Bosses have a preset pattern and are rather simple to kill. You may get hit once or twice while watching what to do and only the rock throwing boss had me confused for a few seconds as nothing was happening that I could use. Combat boils down yelling at an enemy and then picking them up and throwing them. It's pretty simple and even then, with no real health bar it's pretty hard to die.

The game took less than 2 hours to beat so it's really hard for me to recommend dropping $30 on this. There are a few mini games to mess around with but I admit I didn't bother since it's just not my kind of thing. If your kid loved the movie then it might make a good gift but otherwise I think I'd pass on it because while it's good, it doesn't do anything all that special.

Final Score – 6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/30/09

Game Release: Where the Wild Things Are (US, 10/13/09)