MY VIEW
Games: 'Madagascar'

By Jeremy Castillo
Special to The Advertiser

The Verdict: THE RATINGS 5 — Outstanding: Add it to your collection now. A must-have. 4 — Great: Buy it or rent it — definitely play it. 3 — Good: Worth playing despite some flaws. 2 — Fair: Unless you're a fan of the license or series, don't bother. 1 — Poor: You'd have more fun playing Pong.

Console: PlayStation 2 (also available for XBox, Gamecube, PC, DS, and Game Boy Advance).

Developer/publisher: Toys for Bob/Activision.

Genre: Action/children's.

Number of players: 1 (2 for mini games).

ESRB: E10, for cartoon violence, crude humor.

Premise: At New York's Central Park Zoo, Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe and Gloria the Hippo are stars of the show. When one of the animals goes missing, the others break free to search for him, only to find themselves reunited on a ship to Madagascar. But after their vessel capsizes, the animals, all raised in captivity, learn first-hand what life is like in the wild. The video game is based on the new animated film.

Gameplay: The game starts out in Central Park Zoo, where you have to complete certain tasks as specific characters. For example, as Gloria you must win a foot race against three arrogant ostriches. As you continue with the game, your characters learn more complex skills and journey to different places, including the streets of New York and the jungles of Africa.

As one may expect with a game based on a children's movie, "Madagascar" is pretty simple for anybody to learn, with mostly one-button commands for any action. There are also enough hints throughout each level for players to pass them with barely a thought.

However, the game is far from being a razor-thin offering. Each level has 100 coins hidden throughout and these coins may be used to buy extra prizes such as costumes, power-ups and mini games.

The good/bad: One great thing is that all the stars from the feature film (including Ben Stiller, Chris Rock and David Schwimmer) provide the voices for the game, too. This is a refreshing change from spin-off games that use voice actors who try to impersonate the actual stars. Another good thing is that your enemies don't reappear in the level once they are defeated. That means that if you lose, you can replay the level from the last checkpoint without having to worry about refighting foes.

Level interaction is great as well, especially by children's game standards. Not only do the people in the background react to your character, but so does the environment — for example, you can see a hippo tumble into a car and knock it over or a big lion roar and scare the little children around him.

My take: Video games based on movies have a reputation for being wretchedly inadequate, much attested to by "Fight Club" and "Starsky and Hutch" for the PS2. However, Toys for Bob has done an excellent job creating an exception to that rule. Parents will be happy that their kids will be entertained by a video game with minimal, cartoonish violence and kids will be happy they will be able to play as characters from their favorite movie.

Jeremy Castillo is a student at Windward Community College.

Have a game or CD you want to review? Reach Island Life deputy editor Dave Dondoneau at ddondoneau@honoluluadvertiser.com.