The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

"It began with the forging of the great rings... (this game is one of them)"

Introduction
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers for GBA? I was wondering how they would make a hack and slash on the GBA aside from press B, B, B, B, super attack! A! Well, maybe thats how the game really does play, but it sure is a whole lot of fun. Pretty good graphics, nice sound and music, solid controls, and a high replay value is whats kept this cartridge in my Game Boy Advance for so long. But I'm droning on here... on with my review!

Visuals: 8/10
The graphics here aren't bad at all. Once the on switch is switched to ''On'' the game begins, and even the introduction is detailed, just stating the companies names and such. I can't remember a game where graphics in an INTRODUCTION were so smooth. Then, the main title shows up. After I started a game, the visuals really began to impress me. They showed me a clip from the movie! On a GBA! Up 'til then, I didn't know that the GBA was capable of that, although the scene was somewhat grainy. Sadly, I can only report a few other instances where they showed another clip from the movie. And then the real game loaded. At first, I was disappointed, as the character's face was all blank, but then I realized that the character models weren't all that bad, so I gave in. The environments were pretty good, and the only other things that kept me from giving the visuals higher is that the character models for the enemies weren't all that great. Oh well, here's hoping Return of the King fixes that.

Sounds: 9/10
Great. I loved the music, totally reminded me of the movies, and I loved all the sound effects. But first with the sounds. I love the variety. Killing the crebain (black crows) makes a perfect sound of a bird crowing, although I've never seen nor heard a bird die, so I can't tell you whether or not that's accurate. The weapons, whether it be knife, sword, bow, or axe, hitting the enemies sounds accurate, as do the war cries of the enemy as they charge you to take you down. Heck, even dying makes some weird sound effect thats pretty funny. But then we get to music. The music isn't as loud as I want it, which is why its docked down, but its still great, Lord of the Rings music, that memorable and certainly isn't annoying. From the ''giddy'' music in lighthearted areas, to the dark foreboding Lord of the Rings theme song in battles and other times, the music didn't fail to impress me. One other thing that disappointed me, which I didn't dock points for, I was curious if the GBA could do voices. It showed the movie clip, I wanted to see if EA could push the GBA to its limit and instead of reading text at some parts, add in a few voices.

Gameplay: 9/10
Yeah, its a hack and slasher. Which means mash buttons over and over again until the bad guy dies. Sounds lame huh? It should be. But it isn't. Not in this game. I can't really understand why it isn't, but I never got tired of finding a bad guy, running up to him, mashing the B button over and over until he died. Or, if there was a group of them, using one of my special skills with the A button, such as the Link-esque sword spin, or my Overdraw attack with Legolas. The skills add another dimension to the gameplay. Finding out which skills are actually useful, and which skills aren't, and distributing your skill points (gained every level, makes skill more effective) to have a super character. One complaint about the skills, however. Some of the cooler skills (such as summons) are pretty useless unless a large amount of skill points are invested into the skill, and even then the magic cost is very high. But on to another aspect of gameplay. The attribute points. Every time your character gains a level (your experience is conveniently shown in a little bar at the bottom) you receive 5 skill points, and where you place them are up to you, choosing from 5 categories, sure, 1 into each every level works, but a superpowered attack character or a high defensive may work too, which adds to the strategy aspect of the game. Another complaint however. You rarely are allowed to fight alongside CPU's. I would have loved to have some AI controlled people on my side through most of the game. The other characters just seem to disappear, leaving me to do all the dirty work. At least there's co-op...

Story: 8/10
This game is based on a story. The story was good. If anyone read the books (or watched the movies) then you can tell that the story's good. Of course, this game doesn't have a REAL storyline, just puts you into major battles of the story's locales, so I couldn't give it a lot of credit. Another I had to mark down for, Frodo and Eowyn didn't really have that much combat as they're thrust into in this game. Eowyn has her own branching storyline, and 1/2 of the way into his, Frodo moves off into his own, which is still littered with combat.

Replayability: 9/10
Despite being a hack and slasher, this game never seems to get old. 5 characters to use, with 2-3 extra storylines and different levels to go through? That enough keeps you glued to the GBA for 30+ hours. Of course, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gandalf basically have the same storyline (Gandalf's has an interesting twist, however) you'll still enjoy using their unique skills. Aragorn weilding two swords, spinning, healing, throwing swords through crowds. Legolas with his arrow skills, shooting through more than one enemy, firing multiple arrows, meditating to heal himself, slashing out with knives, Gandalf's magic, Frodo and the one ring, and Eowyn's skills. It's all there. Its as if EA took some of the skills from Blizzard's Diablo series and put it on the GBA, and I love Diablo, so a Diablo (with familiar characters and areas) on the GBA is just great. And you MUST play co op in this game. It's really fun with someone by your side, helping you take down wave after wave of the orcs, goblins, wargs, and Uruk-Hai. Simply a blast. And with three different areas to go through, its just plain fun.

Best Feature: One of the best button mashers to date.

Worst Feature: Some useless skills.

Rent or Buy:
A definite buy, especially if you have a link cable and can play with a friend who has this game. Its just fun, and that's all that really matters in a game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/08/03, Updated 01/08/03