N-Philes

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

Posted December 22nd 2005 by John Ondrey.

Like Dick Clark at New Year's Rockin' Eve, a video game follow-up to a blockbuster movie is pretty much a guaranteed appearance. The problem is, with few exceptions, most of these games fall incredibly short of the expectations generated from their film. So the question is, does Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe for GameCube live up to its film brethren? Yes and no. The wonderful music and co-operative gameplay is a plus, but overall, many of the game's mechanics are lackluster and unpolished.

Narnia, an action game at heart with occasional puzzle sequences, was developed by Traveler's Tales and published by Buena Vista Games. It is based off Disney and Walden Media's production of the original story written by CS Lewis in 1950. The story follows four sibling children as they travel through a mysterious wardrobe that inexplicably leads them into a new world called Narnia. The children learn it is their destiny to free the land from The Witch, an almost impossible task without the help of Aslan, The Lion.

Gameplay

A majority of the game has you controlling all four children in each of the 15 levels. Similar to The Lord of the Rings games by Electronic Arts, you hack and slash through hoards of enemies while earning new combo moves and special skills to aid you on your quest. However, different from the Rings games, with a simple press of the R button, Narnia lets you change who you control, and switching on the fly is essential for completion of the game.

Each child has unique abilities that must be exploited to solve puzzles and defeat enemies. For example, being small and light has its advantages as Lucy can crawl through small places and make her way across thin ice. Edmund attacks well with a wooden stick (that can also be set on fire to solve puzzles), and climb small structures such as lamp poles. Susan can throw projectiles at distant enemies and particular targets. Peter is the strongest and is predominantly used as a fighter.

On top of these unique maneuvers, pressing Y next to your brother or sister allows you to team up with him or her, allowing you to perform additional moves. For example, when Susan teams up with Lucy, she literally drags the small girl by the hand and can throw Lucy along the ground to knock over structures that are otherwise impassable.

On paper, Narnia may sound like a clear-cut winner, but in reality, it's a paper cut.

Earning new combos and skills is not only a pain, it's almost unnecessary. You earn a new skill either by buying one using coins you collect along your quest, or by simply battling. When the latter happens, a message will flash on the screen telling you that you've just unlocked a new ability. This is fantastic, except that the player has no idea what the ability is or how exactly to use it. The only way to figure this out is by pausing the game (which takes you completely out of the action), going into the inventory menu screen, and trying to decipher which upgrade is new to your list. By now you've wasted a good amount of time and you hardly care what new upgrade you now possess, but that's OK, because most of these upgrades are unnecessary anyway.

Aside from health and attack upgrades that allow you to take and deal more damage, you can get away with spending your coins on only one or two skills. This is because the game is easy, and mashing the B button with Peter will more than likely get you out of any situation. For example, on some instances an ogre will appear. It is only at these times when the Ogre Bane combo becomes useful, as it will murder the big fellows instantly. But again, you could get away without using a combo move like Ogre Bane. It will just take you longer to button-mash ogres to death.

Sadly, puzzles are very basic and hardly any thought has to be put into solving them since the game basically outlines what must be done. For example, early in the game you must cross a flowing river, and the only direction the children can go is through a small hole. It's obvious you must guide Lucy through the opening, as she's the only one who can fit through it. Eventually you'll knock over logs that Peter uses (you'll know you must use Peter because none of the other characters can do anything with the logs) to logroll across the river, allowing him to knock over a tree to create a safe path across the river. Lame.

Graphics and Presentation

Narnia is not a pretty game. Since the game must constantly withstand numerous onscreen characters and enemies (and hats off to Traveler's Tales because the game's framerate is fairly consistent), it's somewhat understandable why they lack detail and look ugly - especially up-close. It's obvious ogres are supposed to be ugly, but Lucy shouldn't look like one.

The different lands of Narnia look decent at times, but aside from snow areas early in the game, almost nothing stands out. The textures are basic, and lighting effects are almost nonexistent. Combine this with the ho-hum gameplay, and this leaves the player with an uninspired experience.

As with the graphics, the game's presentation is a letdown as well. Narnia is not a polished game. Seconds after you boot it up, you'll know why. The music is glitchy and skips on the title screen, levels end abruptly, and you'll hardly know the storyline if you've never read the book or seen the film as the intermission cutscenes from the movie hardly go into much detail.

Sound

Thanks to composer Mark Griskey, the music in Narnia is great. The game's score is ripped straight from the movie. Many times while playing, the orchestral melodies save the unexciting action onscreen, keeping you tense even when you really shouldn't be. This is a sign of good music. It's too bad the sound effects couldn't keep up as they are extremely repetitive, predictable, and downright boring.

This game gets an N-Philes score of C.

Sadly, Narnia is your typical blockbuster-movie-turned-into-game, which means it doesn't stand out. On paper, Narnia could have been so much more, but the predictable and often annoying gameplay mechanics, combined with unpolished presentations and weak sound effects take away from the overall experience. Cooperative play and wonderful music heighten the experience some, but not enough to save this game from being anything more than the 10-year-old dress shirt in the back of your wardrobe — out of style and should be avoided. Unless you're a huge fan of the movie or book (or in desperate need to play a cooperative game), Narnia isn't even worth a rental. You'll have more fun watching Mr. Clark this New Year's Eve.

Posted in: Reviews

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