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Blue Tongue’s The Polar Express is stacked up. With just over $82 million in the office after three weeks in theaters, the WB’s The Polar Express is one of this season’s hottest children films. As expected, THQ has lined up with a videogame to please all of the youngsters who saw the film, loved it, and wanted more. The Polar Express, the videogame, is what the company has given us. And well, how does it fair?
The Polar Express follows the plot of the film. Told through a mix of full-motion video and in-game cutscenes, the story follows the young boy who will be taken to the North Pole to meet Santa Claus in the appropriately titled Polar Express train.
The actual gameplay follows the standard platformer line of gameplay. As you explore the Polar Express’s rooms looking for the lost tickets of the train’s passengers, you’ll participate in a variety of different gameplay formulas. Nothing is too difficult since the character can’t do much other than ducting, jumping and performing an action attack – aside from running – of course. But you’ll have to get in a few fights with toys, or run across the top of the Polar Express. There’s even a light stealth segment where you need to sneak past a chef or control some vehicles in some simple levels. For good measure, there’s even a 2D sidescrolling level thrown in.
Visually, The Polar Express struggles to achieve mediocrity. Most of the different gameplay areas are sub par, the architecture isn’t especially involved, and the texture quality and as a result, the overall details, are middling. The character models aren’t much better and actually suffer through the same result. Thankfully, the visuals are saved a bit by the fluid framerate, passable FMV quality, and Blue Tongue’s satisfactory mixing of FMV and gameplay.
The game’s audio is made up of cheery, Christmas-themed music which fits the game wonderfully. The sound effects are ordinary, though. The same could be said of the voice acting, which was done with a sound-a-like providing the voice of the conductor (played by Tom Hanks in the movie).
The Polar Express is a definite case of a game rushed to meet the movie’s release. Blue Tongue incorporated several styles of play, but these are blemished by the imperceptive control scheme. Overall low production values and an incredibly short game – three hours and I took my time – don’t allow me to recommend The Polar Express to anyone but the most ardent fans of the film, preferably under the age of seven or so. -- Jake Wilson, PGNx Media
---- Nov 26, 2004
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