King Kong

Action and adventure on the Xbox 360 with the biggest monkey of them all.

Successful videogame monkeys are few and far between. We’ve got Donkey Kong, George from Rampage, and, if we lower our standards a bit, the monkeys from Super Monkey Ball and Ape Escape. But now none other than King Kong is joining the ranks, because a game has unsurprisingly followed in the wake of Peter Jackson’s latest behemoth blockbuster. This time, Jackson has personally selected who got to make a game based on his movie, and the lucky winner, Michel Ancel of Beyond Good & Evil and Rayman fame, has crafted a beautiful adventure for the Xbox 360.

The end result is a game that follows the movie so closely that it hasn’t got much room for gameplay variation. It’s an exquisitely crafted, well-narrated piece of work, but it does get slightly repetitious. Your adventure begins as you assume the role of Jack, the scriptwriter on director Carl Denham’s forthcoming movie. You set out at sea towards the infamous Skull Island, and find it after several weeks of searching. The weather is harsh, and the island doesn’t exactly appear hospitable, with its many razor-sharp reefs that threaten to rip you apart if the waves carry you in the wrong direction.

King Kong is a mixture of FPS and Third Person Ape ‘em up. Throughout the game, you switch between tiny man Jack and huge monkey Kong. Jack’s adventure takes place at breakneck pace, and you must constantly remain vigilant towards the many dangers of Skull Island.

Beside a populace of at least one gigantic monkey, the island happens to be the home of several prehistoric monsters, ranging from enormous dinosaurs to gigantic locusts and pterodactyls. It’s a constant battle of evasion and ammunition hunting, whereas the Kong segments are more like old school beat ‘em up games, where you must run on walls, swing around and generally beat the crap out of dinosaurs.

Controlling Jack is pretty straightforward FPS fare, but the third person Kong controls are quite different, and sadly a bit more awkward as well. You will often switch between the two modes of play, but the Kong part seems a bit forced, and not as much part of the gameplay. And no matter how cool-looking the latter is, the game only comes into its right when you’re playing as Jack. He gets to be a stranger, exploring the unknown island armed only with spears and sometimes weaponry thrown onto the island from airplanes for some reason, and this is easily the most exciting part of the game.

Graphically, King Kong is marvellously executed on the X360. It has great textures, and Kong himself far surpasses his PC counterpart. You can easily see that much work has gone into making this particular version of the game shine, and that’s a good thing indeed. The sound is well done too, and the original actors from the movie have done the voice work. Jack Black is good as the mad director, and Naomi Watts is convincing as Ann, the aspiring actress with whom King Kong falls in love.

The Xbox 360 version of King Kong is easily the nicest-looking of the many versions available. It is still possible to acquire a ridiculously demanding PC version through digital distribution, but the version you’ll find in shops is not on par with the Xbox 360 version.

King Kong is more of an interactive filmic adventure than an actual game. But in spite of the odd struggle with the controls, this is a good adventure through and through, and that’s what makes the game worth playing. The game itself is actually somewhat shallow in nature, but its strength lies in the way it gives you the opportunity to actively take part in the biggest story ever told about Man’s second-best friend - the giant ape. Michel Ancel, the creator of both Rayman and Beyond Good & Evil, can now pride himself in having made another engrossing title, albeit one that focuses a bit too much on atmosphere over gameplay.

This review comes courtesy of our friends at www.boomtown.net .The home of harcore PC, Xbox, PS2, GameCube and handheld gaming news, previews, features and reviews.