Gamereviewgod
01-01-2006, 09:39 PM
No, not Kong: King of Atlantis and sure as hell not Kong: The Animated series.
This is the one based off the recent and spectacular Peter Jackson flick. Given how freakin' terrible the DS version was (my pick for worst game this year), it's understandable to assume the GBA version would follow the same path. It's an entirely different game, and even different from all 50 or so other versions.
It's a lot like Zelda. You'll control three characters (Driscoll, Denham, Darrow), each with their own specific attributes. Obviously, that will play into puzzle solving. It's top down when controlling these three.
Kong is a side view, and a great, simple, arcade style beat-em-up. His segments are short, but a lot of fun. You could see yourself in an arcade years ago playing this with a Konami logo on the cabinet.
There are problems, mostly with the adventure portions. It doesn't do a very good job of leading players as to what they need to do, there's plenty of pushing objects, and there are A LOT of dead end areas that shouldn't exist, but everything else is superb.
Combat is real time and easy to understand. There are extra weapons which are created by finding items and combining them in the menus. It doesn't follow the movie exactly, and actually has quite a bit from the 1933 version (like Ann's capture). Switching between characters is painless, and feels a lot like Secret of Mana. Kong's segments are short to avoid repetition.
I never saw this one coming, and had I not planned to write up a cross-system comparison on every version, I probably would have passed it off myself. I expected the mundane and short cell phone version. Instead, I snagged a game as a rental I might even buy.
This is the one based off the recent and spectacular Peter Jackson flick. Given how freakin' terrible the DS version was (my pick for worst game this year), it's understandable to assume the GBA version would follow the same path. It's an entirely different game, and even different from all 50 or so other versions.
It's a lot like Zelda. You'll control three characters (Driscoll, Denham, Darrow), each with their own specific attributes. Obviously, that will play into puzzle solving. It's top down when controlling these three.
Kong is a side view, and a great, simple, arcade style beat-em-up. His segments are short, but a lot of fun. You could see yourself in an arcade years ago playing this with a Konami logo on the cabinet.
There are problems, mostly with the adventure portions. It doesn't do a very good job of leading players as to what they need to do, there's plenty of pushing objects, and there are A LOT of dead end areas that shouldn't exist, but everything else is superb.
Combat is real time and easy to understand. There are extra weapons which are created by finding items and combining them in the menus. It doesn't follow the movie exactly, and actually has quite a bit from the 1933 version (like Ann's capture). Switching between characters is painless, and feels a lot like Secret of Mana. Kong's segments are short to avoid repetition.
I never saw this one coming, and had I not planned to write up a cross-system comparison on every version, I probably would have passed it off myself. I expected the mundane and short cell phone version. Instead, I snagged a game as a rental I might even buy.