The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Rating: T
Score 5.0/10
One year has passed since The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, but in Narnian time, it’s been 1300 years. In that time, Narnia was taken over by King Miraz. With the help of Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, Prince Caspian must take down King Miraz. This game is available for Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360.
If you haven’t read the first book in the series (or seen the movie), you’ll instantly be lost playing this game. It explains little of what happened in the other three books chronologically before it. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe was published first, then Prince Caspian, but chronologically, before the events in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and Prince Caspian, there were the events from the sixth book, The Magicians Nephew and between the two were the events in the fifth book, The Boy and His Horse. Confusing, I know. Check out the all-knowing “Wikipedia” for more details.
Back on topic, the game explains little about the previous books. You might even be a little bit lost in the normal story if you never saw the movie, read the book, since the information in the cutscenes is questionable vague at best. The game designers must have assumed gamers would come out of the theatre loving the movie so much we bought the game, meaning the designers could slack off a bit and exclude information. Times have changed, now nice reviewers, like me, tell you about the games, and you readers decide if it’s worth the investment.
The gameplay is repetitive, seriously. The first level will bore gamers to tears. You hit levers, to go to a place with more levers, to advance to a place with, you guessed it, more levers. Repetitive fighting and I use this term loosely “compliments” the repetitive objectives. Simply tap the attack button till your fingers bleed. You can play as multiple different people but the fighting is still boring no matter whom you choose.
You can also play with a friend in co-op mode, but this is more of a chore than a treat. The fighting is still boring with a friend to assist, and you and your friend may – no, scratch that – will hit invisible walls, interrupting the fighting just to reposition your (or your friend’s) character. There is little depth to this game. There are no special abilities to unlock, there are no special characters, there’s only the game and unlockable artwork and such.
With so little to offer, this game should be avoided. This game feels like it was rushed to completion from start to finish. A rabid fan of The Chronicles of Narnia may enjoy this game, but most will shut the game off after Level 1.