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The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn
Instead of the obligatory rant about how terrible licensed games, especially movie tie-ins have been historically, I will say that things have been slightly better in recent years. In fact, the Batman games have shown that licensed titles in the right hands can turn out pretty spectacular. With the adventures of Tintin finally getting the big screen treatment thanks to Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, the game adaptation has been handed to Ubisoft. During the 16bit era movie based games were rife and they were almost always platform affairs. Since the genre has fallen out of favour in recent years apart from amongst Indie developers, the last thing that I expected was for Tintin to star in one. While it might sound like a terrible idea on paper, it actually works. Of course, it helps immensely if you are a fan of Tintin and enjoy platform games otherwise you should not even bother. The bulk of the game is made up of side scrolling platform sections and surprisingly enough these reminded me of the classic Prince of Persia games. Based on the movie, which in turn is a mix of two Tintin books, you get to explore locations like Marlinspike Hall, The Karaboudjan (a ship,) Bagghar and Brittany. The platforming action is rather straightforward and level progression pretty linear. There are some hidden treasure chests scattered about for you t find and the occasional simple puzzle but overall things are very easy. This is clearly a game that is aimed at younger fans but the older ones will have fun too. Tintin faces adversary in the form of bad guys that roam the levels. While a few hits with his fists is enough to leave most of them in a comically dazed heap on the floor others are a bit smart and are equipped with weapons and armour In these cases you have to use the environment to your advantage. Tossing banana peels at armoured enemies will cause them to trip and smash into a wall while beach balls are great for pelting foes on higher platforms. Tossing a pot on your enemies head is particularly amusing, as he will flail wildly, often knocking out nearby enemies. You can even set enemies on fire or sneak up behind them for a painful looking takedown. Although Tintin can only take three hits you have unlimited lives and checkpoints are very generously spread apart. There are a few chase sequences where you are running into the screen and Snowy the dg can be used in certain vents to explore new areas but the whole experience is over way too soon. To add some variety to the platform sections, Ubisoft has included a few other levels that play out like mini-games. One sees you flying a propeller driven seaplane during a storm, through caves and canyons or in a dogfight against other planes. It is an interesting diversion but once again rather low on challenge. Next up are the driving sequences where you either have to steer or sit in a motorbike sidecar while launching slingshot projectiles at foes. There are even 3rd person perspective areas where you are placed in control of the dog and have to sniff out certain people by following their footprints. Perhaps the most disappointing levels are the swashbuckling flashback scenes where you play as a cutlass-wielding sea captain defending his boat from pirates. These levels are on rails and you just control his sword swinging or blocking. These sections almost play themselves as you press buttons hoping to connect foes with your sword. All of the side levels pale in comparison to the platform sections and do not extend the playtime by much either. I found myself watching the credits roll somewhere along the four hour mark. You can replay all the sections again outside the story mode as "challenges" if you wish. Visually the game looks good but not great. The art style is based on the CGI look of the movie and not the comic books so some characters, especially Tintin looks a bit strange up close. The 2d sections look the best surprisingly enough as the 3d sections reminded me a bit of PS2 era games. For some reason the cut-scenes seem to have a very low resolution which is bizarre as they are made from the game engine. The audio is quite superb with spot on voice acting. The banter between characters and even the way enemies' converse with each other when they do not know you are around is brilliant and really brings the game to life. Captain Haddocks "swearing" also sounds a lot better than it did in the movie. The soundtrack is very fitting with most of the songs being quite jaunty. While the story mode is regrettably short, completing it is not the end of the game. There is also a co-op mode that takes place in the addled thoughts of Captain Haddock after he takes a blow to the head. Here you can team up with another player to complete various surreal levels accessed from doors in Marlinspike. During levels, you collect treasure to unlock and buy new costumes while playing as characters like Tintin, Captain Haddock, Snowy, Thompson and Tomson and even Madame Castafiore. Each has their own unique skills like Tintin's grappling hook and Madame Castafiore's voice! If you do not have a partner, this mode can e played on your own by switching between characters with the touch of a button. These levels are a lot of fun and freed from the constraints of having to follow the movie plot the level designers have come up with a lot of wacky ideas. There is no 3d sections shoved in-between either but expect to see some rather bizarre things as the Captain battles his way back to consciousness. The amount of unlockables will see you replaying levels with new characters so that you can use their skills to reach previously inaccessible areas. Overall, I had a lot of fun playing through this game and I think that it is a pretty good movie adaptation. Many critics have panned this game for being too short and easy so I guess it is easy to become spoiled by all the triple-A blockbusters to the point where you are too jaded to enjoy a hidden gem like this one. This is a great game to sit down and play with your young ones as all alcohol references have been removed and the violence is very slapstick. Unless you cannot stand the character or hated the movie, there is no reason not to try this game. The 3D sections might be a bit hit or miss but the platforming sections more than make up for it. As a Tintin fan, it has even made me go dig out all the old books to r read again, which must be worth something!
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System Requirements
TAGS: Tintin, Captain Haddock, Snowy, The Unicorn, Marlinspike Hall
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