The summer of 2009 has already been tremendously kind to the licensed video game genre with the recent release of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. With Activision Blizzard’s release of the adaptation of the hit animated film series, they are helping erase the notion that all video games based on films are terrible. THQ is now joining the party and has brought forth it’s adaptation of Pixar’s Up to home worldwide. With THQ’s party crashing, they have not only helped reshape the image of video games based on films, but they “one-upped” the ante with a brilliant title that gamers of all ages should enjoy. Up provides gamers a chance to play as Dug, Carl, and Russell as they embark on a journey that Carl has wanted to go on for ages.
Their journey isn’t only whacky and funny, but it has translated well into a video game. The characters, such as they were in the film, are colorful and charming on the Xbox 360 to the point that you’ll want to run out and see the film again before it leaves theatres. Playing the part as a platformer – akin to Banjo-Kazooie – gamers will run around the levels collecting items and coins to further their wonderful campaign through the game. If you’ve ever said to yourself, “Boy, this would be an excellent game to play with my child,” then look no further as THQ has developed the entire game around a cooperative experience. Each character has special abilities to utilize to progress through the level, so the cooperative opportunities don’t seem rushed or tacked on at the last second.
Carl can use his cane to pull up Russell to high places; Russell has his Boy Scout knife to cut through the environment set before him, and so forth and so on. If you aren’t looking to play the game with a friend or with your child, then you can easily toggle between both Carl and Russell without encounters any problems. The computer AI is handy in almost every occasion – outside a few boss fights where they’d get stuck on hidden objects and invisible corners – so there’s no fear of not finishing the game due to poor AI. Graphically, this isn’t going to live up to the Pixar standard, but then again, can anyone match Pixar’s brilliance behind animated features? The detail in the level environments won’t wow you, nor with the character models, but everything looks similar to the film so you won’t find yourself lost and wondering what game you are playing.
Framerate problems do plague the game, especially when you are fighting several enemies at once, but it shouldn’t stop anyone from playing the game since the slowdowns clear up in a few short seconds. If you are crossing your fingers for replay value, then you might want to look elsewhere since Up doesn’t offer as much as it could have. The achievements are easy to earn, the three offline multiplayer games become tiresome, and the only reason to play through the game again is to collect all the items you missed the first time. Up is truly a one and done video game for adults who look for more than a single-player campaign to play. For children, I don’t see many problems with them reliving their favorite moments from the video game with a second play through the storyline.
Go see Up in theatres if you haven’t already, it’ll win your heart in a matter of minutes. The video game does an excellent job at recapturing the charm and essence of what made the film so successful. The only issue is that Up doesn’t offer longevity by the baker’s dozen.
