Let’s all go to the movies via video games
Video games based on movies mix like Ayn Rand and a Peace Corps volunteer. In short, they don’t. Most of them are mindless cash grabs designed to trick clueless parents into buying them as gifts. Still, they keep coming, year after year like a sad sequel nobody wants. Let’s give some of this summer’s a spin.
“Brave: The Video Game”
System: 360/PS3/Wii
Publisher: Disney Interactive
Rating: 2/5
Pixar has ruled the CGI roost ever since the original “Toy Story” graced cinema screens in fall of 1995. The company continues to rake it in with beautifully designed and unusually nuanced (“Cars” withstanding) animated features. Now they are back with another one, and we have the related cash-in video game to prove it.
“Brave: The Video Game” is about as boring as games based on movies usually are. The gameplay is your standard 3-D action platformer. You spend most of your time wandering around the Scottish countryside, smashing boxes and collecting coins. The biggest shame, being that this is a Pixar property, is the graphics. They look like they are running on the hottest graphics engine of 2002. Oh well, Billy Connolly’s voice is still cool.
“The Amazing Spider-Man”
System: 360/PS3
Publisher: Activision
Rating: 4/5
While the last Spider-Man movie came out more than five years ago, your favorite web-slinger has been keeping busy in video games. He’s like a costumed John Madden, pumping out sequels on the regular. Most of these games have been serviceable, but none have reached the glorious heights of Batman’s Arkham titles. Activision is trying again now that there’s a new Spider-Man movie out. Is it Arkham City or, gulp, Superman 64?
Don’t worry webheads, it’s good. The fighting mechanic, the graphics and the story are all top-notch. You have the whole of New York City to swing around in. This leads us to the game’s only glaring fault, the swinging. It’s a one-button affair that is neither challenging or fluid.
