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Review

The Spiderwick Chronicles

6.0

Format Xbox 360

Developer Vivendi Games

Publisher Vivendi Games

Genre Unknown

28-Mar-2008 Is it cooler than Spider Man, or wickety wickety wack?

1 Comments

It's been almost five minutes since a film-licensed video game was released, so anyone starting to get withdrawal symptoms can drop to their knees and thank their respective God for the arrival of The Spiderwick Chronicles, the game based on the film that was based on the books which weren't based on spiders. It's typical adventure fare, putting the player in the role of a trio of siblings who find their great-great uncle's hidden study and uncover a world of fantastical creatures: ogres, goblins, sprites and the like. Lay off the narcotics, kids.

What follows are the usual shenanigans you'd expect from a game of this ilk: take control of the three children (each with their own skills, naturally) and perform various tasks in order to proceed through the game.

In fairness, it's presented well: the game looks relatively decent, the film's fantastic musical score features heavily throughout the game and the cut-scenes show clips from the movie which are practically HD quality. The only problem - which coincidentally is the most important aspect - is the gameplay.

Simply put, for the most part it's just dull. The start of the game sees you just running around trying to find items. Frustratingly, the things you need are scattered all over the house but you can only look at them: you can't actually pick them up until the game tells you that you need them. We don't really understand the point of a free-roaming environment when you're so restricted as to what's possible.

Later on you have to catch sprites: this involves catching them with your sprite net then playing a mini-game where you have to paint them in your book within a limited time. This is pleasant the first couple of times but quickly gets dull.

The Spiderwick Chronicles is unfortunately yet another generic movie tie-in. It's slightly more imaginative than most, but that's like saying being punched in the face is slightly preferable to being elbowed in the crotch.

Jon Hicks