Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie

aka: Jin Gang
Moby ID: 20441
PlayStation 2 Specs
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Description official descriptions

Jack Driscoll, scriptwriter, follows director Carl Dernham and actress Ann Darrow to Skull Island where Dernham intends to film his next movie. But primeval creatures await them: giant insects, dinosaurs, and King Kong. Based on Peter Jackson's 2005 remake, King Kong lets you play as Jack Driscoll and Kong himself.

Jack's levels are HUDless FPS levels set on Skull Island. Jack must use a variety of weapons, traps, and fire to kill or repel Skull Island's fauna. Kong's levels are third-person brawlers set on Skull Island and New York City, where Kong must puzzle his way through environmental obstacles and thrash his opponents.

The PSP version is shorter, with some parts cut out which featured in the console and PC releases.

Spellings

  • PETER JACKSON'S キング・コング オフィシャル ゲーム オブ ザ ムービー - Japanese spelling
  • 金刚 - Chinese spelling (simplified)

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

472 People (445 developers, 27 thanks) · View all

Project Producer
Creative Director
Scenario and Dialogs
Game Design
Art Director
Lead Level-Design (Jack Levels)
Lead Level-Design (Kong Levels)
Level Design Technical Director
Lead AI Programmer
Lead Programmer
Lead Platforms and SFX Programmer
Animation Director
Lead Sound Designer
Associate Producers
Project Closer
Production Assistant
Level-Designers (Jack Levels)
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 79% (based on 78 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 57 ratings with 4 reviews)

Michel Ancel's King Kong

The Good
Peter Jackson’s King Kong is a mesh of two game types: the first-person shooter and the third-person platformer. The FPS levels star Jack Driscoll, a playwright whose investment in the game’s events grows as he falls in love with lead actress Ann Darrow. The third person levels star Kong. Kong is also in love with Ann, and his climbing, jumping and brawling levels often find him saving her from primeval dangers.

A quick montage, culled from the film, explains why director Carl Denham is filming a movie on Skull Island. The game opens with the Venture dropping anchor off Skull Island and lowering rowboats loaded with crewmen and Denham’s film crew. As the boats head toward Skull Island, the player learns the camera controls—looking around frantically as the boats are rocked by waves, careen towards ominously carved rocks, and are done in by crumbling rock formations.

Jack and company recover from the battering at sea only to find giant crabs and centipedes waiting for them on land—the thrill ride continues. King Kong is a thrill ride, with only a few areas giving the player a chance to explore and enjoy the Michel Ancel trademarked beauty of Skull Island. For all its dark caves, rocky outcroppings, dense jungles, vermin-ridden swamps, and ruined cities, Skull Island is a wonder to behold. Even before considering the fauna.

Skull Island is populated with life (perhaps more than it could possibly sustain) and understanding how the food chain works is a major aspect of the game. The monsters of Skull Island, insects, dinosaurs, flying beasts, and more, use food as their motivation. Some puzzles spring off from this concept: like luring creatures away with food, but it is also important in terms of survival. Jack’s portions of King Kong largely focused on protecting his party, opening pathways, and defending locations.

King Kong has a HUDless display. When Jack or Kong become injured the background music changes, they slow down, and their vision begins to fade. Pressing a button reloads Jack’s weapon or has Jack give a report on the amount of ammunition he has left. Ammunition is scarce on Skull Island. Ammo and guns are dropped from a biplane, but Jack ends up relying on makeshift spears for good chunks of the game. Luckily spears can be set on fire to boost their effectiveness and this also leads to a series of interesting puzzles where Jack must use fire to clear a path or dissuade dinosaurs.

Jack and Kong’s stories are told concurrently. Some levels will have Kong fleeing with Ann and others will have Jack searching for her. The change between gameplay modes is often refreshing. As a human, there’s little Jack can do against a V-rex (spears are rumored to slow them down). As Kong, the player can grapple with them and break their jaws or backs. Jack can flee from the natives’ spears, but Kong can destroy their villages.

While Jack’s levels are often fierce struggles for survival, Kong is comfortable near the top of the food chain. It is possible for Kong to die, especially as overwhelming hordes of winged creatures tear into him, but he also can fly into a rage, moving faster and doing more damage. The Kong levels, especially the New York ones, reminded me of nothing so much as the Hulk. Fortunately, the bulk of the gameplay is focused on Jack. Jack’s levels have more variation, more scope, and further the story. Kong’s levels are refreshing breaks from being a puny human.

The Bad
If King Kong has any trouble spots, they stem from pushing the limits of a legacy system and from losing Jack in the New York levels. The graphics in Kong are jaw-droppingly gorgeous, but my PS2 struggled to keep up during frenzied action scenes and creatures were often locked into a room, preventing them from pursuing me.

King Kong has always had a schism between Skull Island and New York that runs deeper than the one between Oz and Kansas. The New York levels lose the Venture crew, who we’ve grown accustomed to during the bulk of the game and Jack disappears (save for a bonus level leading to an alternate ending). This is surprising, since Jack plays a big role in the movie's New York scenes. By focusing solely on Kong, New York levels become very short, very objective oriented, and—frankly, anticlimactic for the majority who are aware of the ending.

King Kong has been criticized for being a short game, which is never a criticism of a bad game. The main story takes about six hours, but the game’s length is extended by replaying earlier levels to improve your score and unlock bonus content. Unfortunately some of the bonus content involves an annoying requirement (ala Beyond Good & Evil) to visit Ubisoft’s King Kong web site and enter in an Internet code to get another code to enter into the game.

None of these quibbles prevents King Kong from being an astonishing game.

The Bottom Line
Games based on movies have three obstacles to overcome. First, they are often tied-in to a release date and suffer from flaws that may have been ironed out during a longer testing process. Second, their source material dictates their content—this knife cuts both ways, either the game acts as a spoiler or is too watered down (occasionally the game wanders so far from the source material you wonder why anyone bothered). Finally, there is usually no intended audience beyond the completists who want to experience the entire franchise, see Fantastic 4 (MobyScore 1.2 ) for details.

Peter Jackson's King Kong deftly avoids all three of these pitfalls, resulting in a game which could easily stand on its own.

PlayStation 2 · by Terrence Bosky (5397) · 2006

Mostly very good, with some great ideas.

The Good
The first thing that struck me when playing this game was the intro, using clips from the film.

The second thing that struck me when playing this game was how the characters transferred, all look pretty true to the film, except perhaps Ann Darrow, who looked a little iffy, and all are voiced by the original actors, so excellent and authentic voice acting then.

The very beginning of the game puts you straight in the shoes of Jack Driscoll, leaving the Venture to row ashore to Skull Island, you’re alongside in a small wooden row boat with Carl Denham and Ann and a couple of others, the rain's beating down and the swell’s rocking you’re boat as Englehorn shouts down from high up on the Venture's bulwarks. Denham, true to character, starts filming as the boat struggles to avoid crashing against the rocks on the approach. It’s very atmospheric and very well done, a great start.

You end up washed up and staring up at Ann, you actually have to press the forward key to climb to you’re feet before you can get around, a small touch but nice attention to detail.

This game is a game of survival when playing as Jack, and it does the action very well, very tense, you will run out of ammo, and you will have to resort to using improvised spears (and real spears left by the natives) to fend off the attacking dinosaurs and other hungry creatures. The use of fire is a novel inclusion and it works far better than I expected, it’s handy for clearing areas to allow passage to other areas (destroying any creatures in its path, including you). You can also bait some enemies by spearing some of the smaller inhabitants of Skull Island to distract them as you run past. The characters will all hold their weapons above their heads when wading through deep water and on occasion you’ll have to provide cover for them (they’ll also provide cover for you).

One section involves running between, or trying to, the feet of some very large stampeding Dinos, similar to the film. Some of the Dinosaurs are huge, naturally, and they can look pretty breathtaking when you first cross paths.

I enjoyed playing the Kong levels on Skull Island, lots of jumping from cliff face to cliff face and snapping Dino jaws, Kong also has a frenzy mode (achieved by spinning the mouse wheel for awhile) which makes it easier to knock out enemies, and quite a few other moves under his belt as well.

The Bad
Once you get to New York everything really is rounded up very quickly and I got the impression that the game was under pressure to be finished and out the door.

The Bottom Line
Lots of atmosphere, for the most part a very well crafted game. Jack’s levels are the highlight and there’s some un-lockable goodies available from the Extras menu. But a bit disappointing when you get to New York - there is, however, an alternative ending, available from the Extras menu, I didn’t earn enough points while playing through the game to unlock this but I read up about it in a few walkthroughs and it sounds pretty cool, mayhap a good excuse for another play through. If you liked the film or Michel Ancel’s (Creative Director) previous game Beyond Good and Evil than you should enjoy this. Mostly very good if not excellent.

Windows · by Jack Lightbeard (2685) · 2006

One of the most underappreciated story-driven FPS games

The Good
The atmosphere, which Peter Jackson himself had a hand in crafting, is so tense and the game doesn't let up on that. The music and gameplay are equally great. As for the graphics, it definitely stood the test of time.

Guns feel solid but ammo is scarce, even if you are conservative about it. This adds some survival horror into the mix, into a game that is already tense enough.

The Bad
The PC port gets some visual bugs and framerate needs to be locked at times to move past certain sections. Also, the Kong parts can feel like early 2000s beat 'em up games.

The Bottom Line
This is a unique game. It's like a piece of art made with the help of a guy who knows how to set an atmosphere, and boy, does it show! This would've been a 5/5 if those Kong sections were done properly. Fingers crossed for a proper sequel or remake.

Windows · by Lal Fam (27) · 2024

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Where's the suck? Ace of Sevens (4479) Jun 28, 2007

Trivia

Windows versions

Two different versions of the game were released for the PC: the original retail release which compares to the PS2/Gamecube and other current generation consoles, and a so-called Gamer's Edition only available through online purchases or OEM disks which features the improved models and textures from the Xbox 360 version and allows for even higher gameplay resolutions.

Xbox 360 version

In an interview with BBC News, Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot admits the Xbox 360 version is too dark on standard TVs, making it hard to play.

We have a problem on the 360." [...] "The screen is dark on some TVs and it totally changes the experience. When it's dark, you don't see where you have to go.

He also said the team who made the game used certain settings on high-definition TV screens, and it didn't occur that there would be a problem with standard televisions, which are what most people use to play console games. Unlike Perfect Dark Zero, the type of TV cannot be selected in the game, but a fix is in the works.

Awards

  • 4Players
    • 2005 – Best Voice-Acting of the Year
  • PC Powerplay (Germany)
    • Issue 02/2006 - Best Movie Licensed Game in 2005

Information also contributed by Zovni.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Terrence Bosky.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Sciere, Stratege, DreinIX, Cantillon, Patrick Bregger, Starbuck the Third.

Game added December 14, 2005. Last modified March 12, 2024.