Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

"Not a sweet game..."

Visiting a chocolate factory would be one of the greatest dreams of every kid, mostly if you got some freebies at the end. Well, this game is based on the movie with the same name, which just recently appeared in the theaters everywhere.

The story is mainly about a kid called Charlie, who got a special golden ticket in a candy bar he bought. Then, he and another 4 kids (who also got their own golden tickets) were awarded a visit to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, to see the mysteries unfold in front of them. Only one of them will be grant an even bigger surprise, which one will it be? You'll have to play the game or watch the movie to know it!

Concerning the music, it appears to have been taken from the movie itself, with slight adaptations to fit this console. If you liked the movie you will surely like the musics in here, but... since they are always playing in an endless loop, eventually they become old easily.

About the graphics, they are good but still above the top games for this console (like Golden Sun or Kingdom Hearts, among many others), as they appear to have been made for a game boy color unit and then just improved a bit in order to be released. They really fit the same environment created by the movie, but they are slightly above the other games referred above.

When you first start playing the game, with a first level which is mainly just an introduction and tutorial to the game, and in which you have to retrieve a 10 dollar bill to buy some chocolate. Later in the game you will have to face more puzzles, which are mainly composed of activating a specific switch or taking a character X to point Y in order to perform a certain operation. This takes some monotony from the game, but makes it slightly boring sometimes, as you already know what you are expecting from the rest of that level on the first few minutes of play in it.

As you perform some in-game operations (like collecting the letters in "WONKA" or getting all the items in one level) you will unlock images in a gallery from the movie and new mini-games for you to play. Those seem not to appear during the story mode, but some of them are really funny and you will probably enjoy them a lot.

Also, there are some levels in the story mode which are just a small mini-game, but you will only find less than 5 of them across the game, and they can be replayed whenever you feel like it without any restrictions.

"Did you liked the movie?" is the question around here. If you did, probably you will also enjoy this game. If you didn't, stay away from this.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/20/05