N-Philes

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

Posted December 21st 2005 by Matt Crowl.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe for GBA is a game that –along with it's console and DS brethren – stands in the shadow of the recently released film. Since this version is on an older-gen handheld system, this isn't a game that tries to amaze or revolutionize film-to-game development. Like expected, this is a game that sticks to the basics and for the most part, does a decent job. It is a fairly short and simple quest that is best suited for young children whose interests run the gamut from mildly fascinated to mesmerized by the world of Narnia.

The adventure follows the Penvensie siblings: Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. After moving into a new home, the four explore the residence with a game of hide and seek. True to the C S Lewis tale, young Lucy finds a magical wardrobe that pulls her into the mysterious land of Narnia. In due course, the others kids are dragged into the wardrobe doorway, where they are taken on a quest to save the land and defeat the evil white witch. Game players who've seen the movie will be pleasantly surprised that the game takes this story premise and consistently follows it throughout.

Like the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter games on the GBA, Narnia is a straightforward isotopic adventure. The majority of your time is spent hacking away at reasonable waves of enemies. In general, the combat is workable, but rather simple and nothing too challenging. While combat is mostly a one-button-mashing-fest (occasionally, holding the A button to charge an attack), there are other options at your disposal. This comes in the form of "nobilities." Nobilities are special skills learned from creatures you've helped along the way, which range from lifting boulders to healing your party. This type of combat can be entertaining for novice or younger players, but the basic backbone of the combat (pressing one button) can be monotonous to the rest. Fortunately though, the fantasy setting does offer a fair variety of creatures to fight, which will again, entice young fans of the movie.

Of course, the game isn't all about beating up almost every animal you meet; there are some puzzles to tackle and an on-going struggle to stay warm in the frozen land of Narnia. The puzzles aren't all that difficult, because it mostly consists of the basic stuff such as digging through piles of snow or pushing around boulders. Struggling to stay warm, however, is an interesting twist, because if you're exposed to the cold for too long, you'll begin to lose health. To warm up, you'll need to do things like cozying up to a fire or drinking some tea. Bolt from the blue Rather than "Bolt from the blue...," how about: Keeping warm this isn't really a chore either, because there is an ample supply of things to help you keep warm. If the game was a little more complex, I think this twist could draw fans more into the world.

This handheld romp through the land of Narnia spans 17 chapters, most lasting only a couple of minutes. As a whole, gameplay length is about five hours. During each chapter, you're automatically assigned to play as one of the four siblings. Unfortunately, when the whole Penvensie crew is together, you can't swap characters. All they do is simply help you beat up baddies and follow you around- or at least they are supposed to. On numerous occasions I found allies (and some enemies) who run into walls, become stuck, and then proceed to perform some type of odd twitchy-dance. Either this is a new form of psychological warfare or the AI is flawed...my money's on the latter.

Unlike the AI, the graphics and sound are pretty good. The 3D-ish isotopic graphics are colorful and detailed, but nothing spectacular considering the framerate is somewhat slow. While a bit fuzzy, the characters are nicely animated. Sound wise, the sound effects are solid and fitting, but infrequently scratchy. The music is probably the best part of the whole package. It is of good quality and fitting with the theme of Narnia.

This game gets an N-Philes score of C-.

Considering the short length of the game, Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe for the GBA is hard to recommend for seasoned or older players. Nevertheless, young gamers who are fans of the movie should enjoy this journey through Narnia.

Posted in: Reviews

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