Wii Fanboy Review: The Spiderwick Chronicles
Thanks to the success of Harry Potter and those Lord of the Rings flicks, Hollywood has seen that the fantasy genre is quite the gold mine, laboring day and night to extract every precious bit of money from those that go to the movies. It's just the way things are now.
Enter The Spiderwick Chronicles, the latest film with a fantasy setting. It revolves around three siblings who have just moved to the creepy Spiderwick Estate after their parents go through a rather nasty break-up. As one might imagine, these grounds aren't what they appear to be, as its home to more than just the family that recently took up residence.
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For the first night in the mansion, the kids find themselves adjusting to their surroundings. With their mom needing her sleep before her first day of work the following morning, all three must take care to not wake up mom. But, Jared is just too darn restless to go to sleep and decides to check out his new home.
It's here in the beginning that Jared discovers Arthur's secret book, a field guide to all of the amazing and fantastic stuff around the estate. There's a warning not to open the book, but good old Jared doesn't heed the words on the note. Instead, he opens it and discovers that the family isn't alone in the house.
Within the walls is a Boggart. The guide describes that once the Boggart's trust is won, he can become an invaluable ally. Once you give him, Thimbletack, a new house (you destroyed his discovering Arthur's secret study) and a bit of honey, he becomes a more pleasant and helpful Brownie.
Suffice to say without spoiling too much, there's an evil ogre with a bunch of goblins out to get Jared and his family. The story from here on out is pretty good, actually, with some mature themes sprinkled into the mix. The story isn't where the game fails, however, it's the gameplay.
It's a shame the game isn't as fantastic as the world in which it is set. As one might imagine, this is pretty much your run-of-the-mill movie license tie-in, there only to present fans with an interactive experience that parallels the movie, allowing them to feel they have an impact on the story and characters in this world. But, the game was designed with children in mind, so we can't fault them that much.
You'll have the entire grounds, as well as beyond, to explore throughout the course of the game. Here you'll fight many enemies, over and over again, with a series of mundane and monotonous attacks. You can attack your enemies either through some Wiimote waggle, or you can mash on the A button to advance. The combat system has no depth, as you can't develop your characters forward with new, more interesting attacks. It's a shame, really, because for how much fighting you do, this could've been a great game if the combat was engaging.
Aside from the combat, there are plenty of quests to conquer. The problem that I had, however, was the game's hand-holding through each and every one. Opening your quest log will give you a breakdown on how to complete each and every step along the way, with the destination for completing each in bold. It''s not that the quests aren't fun (some downright are), it's just that we would like to think for ourselves sometimes. The entirety of our time with The Spiderwick Chronicles ensured that we need not exercise our cranial lump, however. And, if you don't have to think, you'd at least like something pretty to look at, right?
Well, the graphics in The Spiderwick Chronicles are very slick. The textures are crisp and the animations are smooth, not to mention that the look of a scary mansion in the middle of the woods has been recreated with such precision that we would like to know if there were any surgeons moonlighting as animators here. The game supports 16:9 progressive scan, so that helps, as well. Seriously, I was pretty impressed as far as graphics go.
As for the voice work, the actors really phoned in their performance. Nothing new here, as they've been doing that with movie tie-ins for longer than we care to remember. Also, the movie clips in the game are fairly brisk, with narration driving the story rather than acting on the part of the movie/game's main cast. Events rarely unfold in front of you, leaving you to discern for yourself their weight relative to the whole story. Instead, if something is important, the game will tell you. Again, you don't need to think here.
It's not that The Spiderwick Chronicles is a bad game. It's just a good game that needed some more work to make it great. This could've been a shining beacon in how to translate a movie into a video game effectively. Instead, it cuts corners like most other games of the type and doesn't present itself as a viable experience to those that don't go see the movie or haven't read the book.
Leave this one to the kiddies.
Final score: 6.5/10
