Disney's Tron is one of the most fondly remembered movie-to-game transitions in videogame history. Either gamers have fuzzy memories or our expectations have greatly increased since the 1982 release of the arcade game. Many will end up picking up this bargain basement title (400 MS Points) with warm memories of how great it was, only to find that they really only wanted one small part of the original.
Upon starting the game, you are shown a screen with four different colored grids surrounding your position, each representing the game's four events. A quick flick of the left stick upwards pulls you into nostalgia heaven, playing the Light Cycle event. The game is essentially a slick twist on the generic Snake game. You control the blue cycle against opposing yellow cycles. Each of the vehicles leaves behind a colored wall wherever it drives, leaving you to drive quickly and accurately to both avoid walls and block your opponents into them. The last vehicle standing is the winner. Win an event, and the colored grid disappears, until you have beaten them all and move to the next level.
The other three portions of the game feel like tedious necessities to get to the next round of Light Cycle. The Tank would be a good time, if it not for the unfair advantage given your computer opponent and some awkward control issues. Although it takes you three shots to take out each enemy tank, it only takes one shot to destroy you; which hardly seems fair. The other issue is with the game's control scheme. The arcade game's controls were a joystick and a rotary dial to control the aim of your character. While you would think it easy to make the change to use the right stick of the 360's controller, the developers dropped the ball.
The game's default controls treat your right stick almost as though it is a dial, allowing you only to use the left or right direction to alter your aim. It makes for a frustrating experience that saps some of the fun out of the game, as you will spend quite a bit of time trying to learn how to aim correctly. The game does allow you to go into the controls and select 'absolute aim' for the right stick, but this only works correctly for the MCP Cone and IO Tower. The Tank game never really works correctly, as the game seems to have a hard time realizing that the right stick can move in 360-degrees; like your tank's gun. The game seems to get a mind of its own as to where it thinks you want to aim, causing serious problems when you have an enemy tank or two bearing down on you.
Oddly enough, the 'absolute aim' option creates the opposite problem with the MCP Cone and IO Tower games. Both games require you to precision aim, take out blocks (MCP) or spiders (IO), then run into the safe area to win the game. The original idea of the game was that your precision aiming was tricky with the dial, but since your aim becomes incredibly accurate with 'absolute aim', it removes that challenge; making the two far too easy to clear.
