Robots

After the triumph that was Lemony Snicket developers Griptonite Studios dish up this rather uninspiring effort which manages to highlight all the pitfalls of producing a movie tie-in title. It does have it's highlights and soundtrack plus the inclusion of the concept art is well worth a look and listen although the eventual DVD release is probably a better place for these. Unfortunately the good is far outweighed by the negative aspects and bland game design at this level is completely unforgivable especially when you consider this is aimed at younger players. The problems continue with the endless repetition of gaming objectives and the rather frustrating level design. Sadly the whole experience is another wasted opportunity and while this appears to be the norm for movie tie-ins, gamers deserve a lot better.

Oh-oh – Filmumsetzungsalarm! Robots entspringt genau wie seine Brüder auf Konsole und PC zu 100% dem Handbuch »Wie schnitze ich auf die Schnelle und ohne große Mühen eine Film-Versoftung?«, das schon die Basis für die Shreks und Großen Haie dieser Welt war. Uninspiriertes Leveldesign, blasse und sterile Optik, massig spielerischer Leerlauf und eine generelle Ideenlosigkeit schläfern schon nach Minuten ein. Zusammen mit der ungenauen Steuerung und der wackelfreudigen Kollisionsabfrage bleibt ein Spiel, das außer blinden Verfechtern des Films wirklich keiner braucht. Griptonite, die sonst mit gelungenen Handheld-Adaptionen wie »Harry Potter und der Gefangene« von Askaban oder »Der Herr der Ringe: Die Rückkehr des Königs« glänzen, haben hier gründlich in den Schrotthaufen gegriffen.

I honestly hope that the film version of Robots isn't as dreadfully dull an adventure as the franchise's handheld exploits. The game, developed by the usually keen and competent Griptonite studio, is one of the blandest and most generic games released on the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS this year. The design is rather uncreative and redundant, with very little originality put forth in its presentation. The Nintendo DS version is what I'd like to call "GBA Plus," offering only the absolute basic of functionality to push the system's unique functions, and doesn't do much more than increase the number of titles available for the system.

I honestly hope that the film version of Robots isn't as dreadfully dull an adventure as the franchise's handheld exploits. The game, developed by the usually keen and competent Griptonite studio, is one of the blandest and most generic games released on the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS this year. The design is rather uncreative and redundant, with very little originality put forth in its presentation. The Nintendo DS version is what I'd like to call "GBA Plus," offering only the absolute basic of functionality to push the system's unique functions, and doesn't do much more than increase the number of titles available for the system.

The animation of the sprites is excellent. The characters look great and move around very smoothly. It's just too bad there isn't much for them to do. The music is good but it doesn't sound as though there are any samples from the movie. Perhaps the producers of the movie saw this game in development and wanted to distance themselves from it as much as possible - which is what I would advise you to do. Robots definitely has got a few screws loose.

Ce n'est pas sur GBA que Robots parviendra à se faire une réputation. Ca faisait longtemps qu'on n'avait pas vu un titre aussi pénible à jouer, aussi moche et bourré de défauts. Inutile de vous dire que vous serez bien inspiré de ne pas le laisser s'insinuer dans votre ludothèque GBA.