Xbox 360

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian is surprisingly self-aware (and I don't mean the few times where the fourth wall is broken). It knows it's a licensed game, and doesn't try to be more than a light, entertaining little collection of gameplay moments. Because of this, and because it actually uses the Smithsonian as a proper set piece, the game actually ends up being fun. Not exhilarating, not mind-blowing, but surprisingly solid. Good job, Pipeworks, you made a game that's educational, simple, and, best of all, never outstays its welcome.

Night At the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian would have been easily recommendable if it were a downloadable game with a decent pricetag. As it stands, it’s merely a solid rental unless you’re an absolute fanatic for all things Ben Stiller.

La Nuit au Musée 2 est une adaptation timide en manque de punch et de variété. Si la réalisation ne déçoit pas, sans pour autant impressionner, c'est surtout la pauvreté du gameplay qui nuit à la progression. Trop assisté, le joueur vit presque un film interactif plutôt qu'un véritable jeu vidéo. On appréciera toutefois de rencontrer les personnages du film dont le charisme et la personnalité ont été bien conservés.

Night at the Museum is one of the few movie tie-ins to be more entertaining than the film it’s based upon, but it’s short length, lack of difficulty, and nonexistent replayability will keep it from spinning in your 360 for very long.

I'm all for games that are well built and don't overstay their welcome but the length of this game is horribly short. Battle for the Smithsonian is paced too quickly and would have benefited from slowing down by offering more clever puzzles. Battle of the Smithsonian should be remembered for actually making learning in a video game fun, if not for being a decent kiddy game.

Despite all of this however, there’s no doubt that Night at the Museum 2 will satisfy the needs of the younger fans of the two films. It’s a competently-built game that sticks close to the plot of the film. It has dinosaurs, giant squids, cowboys, and aeroplanes and, most importantly, a farting monkey in a space suit. Given the usual crap that’s wheeled out to please the kids each time a new movie is launched, Night at the Museum 2 is a breath of fresh air. It’s by no means brilliant and it’s far too short, but it still manages to provide some interesting and amusing ideas that set it above the rest of the movie tie-in crowd.

"Night at the Museum: Batte at the Smithsonian" é uma razoável adaptação de filme, que ao menos consegue manter o clima do produto original visto nos cinemas. Com boa variedade de eventos e poderes do herói dublado por Ben Stiller, a aventura é movimentada e adequada para um público mais jovem, ainda que a falta de extras e sua curta duração deixem a desejar.

The biggest gripe about Battle of the Smithsonian – aside from the fact it’s simply a straightforward marketing tie-in to help rake in extra cash alongside the film – is that it just doesn’t offer much length or substance for the $40 you’re being asked to spend on it. The main adventure is really short – likely to account for the perception of kids having minute attention spans. Even if you spend the extra time to seek out all the bonus items to collect, we’re talking about a total runthrough of a few hours at best. Otherwise, the presentation is amusing and appropriate for kids, and the light difficulty and simple-to-grasp gameplay concepts are fitting. A little more length and depth, and this one might almost be worth a recommendation.

There are collectables to gather and trophies to earn for your display case, but there's very little reason to return to Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian once you're done, which means that you've just relived the film in about the same amount of time it takes to watch, but at four times the cost. It's too bad that the game offers so little value for its price (it would have worked far better as a less expensive downloadable product), because it features some nice ideas that should have been taken even further.

So you’re left with a game that provides surprisingly enjoyable family-friendly fun, but one that doesn’t last longer than four hours (five if you’re a child) and misses opportunity after opportunity. If Night at the Museum 2 lasted closer to eight hours, and capitalised on some of the missed opportunities, I’d have no problem in recommending it as a family-friendly title. Or even in its current form if it was an 800 (at maximum 1200) points purchase from the XBLA. Charging £29.99 is laughable though, much more so than Ben Stiller will ever be.

This game is bad, but at least its playable. It is extremely short, but that is actually a positive for it, which is something you never want as a developer. Stay clear at all costs unless you need a quick gamerscore boost.

You may have guessed by now, but I hate Night at the Museum 2: The Video Game. It plays like it was put together by confused adolescents with broken fingers and no concept of reality. It's buggy, broken, stupid and about as far from funny as a game that's based on a comedic film could possibly be. There are no redeeming features, save for the fact that it's mercifully short. In recent years, film to game conversions have been getting better, but Night at the Museum 2 is a step back to the bad old days, when excrement was shovelled into cases and sold to clamouring simpletons for slightly less than full price. Avoid this slice of history at all costs.