11/07/05 >> Madagascar (Xbox)

Genre: Platforming/Adventure

 

 

 

 

 

Intro:
While we don’t normally review games aimed at younger audiences, we do try to present a broad selection of games that will appeal to a wide audience. So we will keep this review short and simple.

 

I was quite unsure at first whether it was going to be a really, really easy game because it’s aimed at a younger audience. However, as I played through it, whilst it was not a difficult game, it had a few things that were hard to work out and it was amusing and fun to play.

 

Graphics 9/10
The scenery is great in this game. It really has everything in it that it needs and there are some funny things going on in the background from time to time. All the characters are true to their movie counterparts and all look great. The Island of Madagascar is awesome and looks fantastic as well, as do all the Lemur's. In New York the best bit about the scenery are all the cars moving down the street. They are very well done.

 

 

Sound 10/10
You want to know why the sounds so good? It’s because the voices from the movie are used in the game! So all the actors’ voices from the movie are used in the game, e.g. Ben Stiller is the voice of Alex in the movie and in the game! The background music is catchy and fun to listen to and fits the environments perfectly! Good job on the sound!

 

Controls 9/10
Once again the controls work very well. The buttons for the controller are all used well so attacks are easy to learn and execute. Younger kids should be able to learn the controls in a fairly short time.

 

 

Gameplay 8/10
Gameplay is good. Controls are easy to pickup and use, you can find money around the place that you can use to open up amusing mini-games that are very fun to play and you collect Power Cards to give each character new abilities. Overall movement of characters and enemies are good to and it all flows very smoothly.

 

Challenge 7/10
Not a particularly challenging game for most of us, however younger kids, maybe about ages 6-12, will take quite some time to finish the game, but its not so hard that it will frustrate them. Some bits take a bit of practice to do, but very quickly you figure out the best way to do things.

 

 

Replay Value 6/10
You could always go back and try and collect all the coins or beat the arcade high-scores, but it is an adventure game and adventure games only have replay value if you like them enough to play them again.

 

Rent or Buy?
If you in the age group of 6-12 and whether or not you liked the movie then you should buy the game, because you will really enjoy it. For us older games from about 14+ it might be amusing to play, but it’s probably a rent first, it appeals to very different and wide range of people.

 

 

Overall 8/10
Madagascar is a very fun game, filled with great graphics, sound and controls, but its just a little too simple with its challenges and length. If it were a little bit longer that would also help. In closing I would like to just note that you do not have to see the movie to enjoy the game, but you enjoy it more if you have seen the movie.

 

 

 

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Game Score: 8.0