Madagascar
Children’s movie to game experiences tend to feel like a shallow attempt at making an extra buck with low production costs and almost no thought to development. Thankfully Madagascar feels like more than that and while it may not be game of the year material by any stretch of the imagination, it’s a worthwhile game.
Following the story of the film, Madagascar the game features all of the characters that you’ll instantly recognize if you have seen the movie. Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Gloria the hippo, Melman the Giraffe and even my personal favorite, the penguins make an appearance. Yes this is a children’s game and yes it’s extremely simplistic and straight forward, but for film to game translation it breaks the stereotypical bad experience.
Gameplay:
On its surface Madagascar is a straight platformer, but there are enough subtleties to the gameplay that provide a wide variety of experiences. To start off with each character that you get to use controls differently and has attacks the others don’t. That means that Marty has the ability to kick down doors, Alex can roar with all his might and Gloria can create an earthquake with her butt.
Unfortunately you don’t get to pick which character you want to use since each stage is built around use of a specific one. This means that even with all of the variety you are presented with the game winds up being extremely linear. If you want to, you can go back and play a conquered stage more than once, but with only eleven levels to choose from, pickings are relatively slim.
All of the standards for the platform genre are here from coin collecting to switch hitting for accessing new areas. That means that Madagascar has a strong “been there done that” feeling with little creativity or uniqueness. The only slight detours from the normal you’ll come across here are a few mini-games that can be purchased with the coins you collect.
That detour is well worth the taking though since the games actually allows for play with some friends. I particularly liked the nine-hole mini golf the most, but the shuffleboard and lemur game are fun to play with too. There are some miscellaneous items to unlock too so expect this game to keep you coin collecting for a while, even if the game itself takes under five hours to beat.
Madagascar does have its share of problems though, especially when it comes to the slower than molasses camera control. While other games that feature a manually controlled camera allow it to zip to and fro, Madagascar is content to let it slide slowly along. What makes matters worse is that it’s restricted by walls and surfaces and moves on its own even after you’ve adjusted it! It gets pretty darn frustrating at times if you can’t tell.
It’s not just the camera that feels sluggish though, the controls feel the same way at some points. There were several points during my game time that I pressed a button to jump or to attack and my character just stood there not doing anything until a few moments later. This lead to some cheap hits and falling from that perch I just spent a minute jumping to.
Let’s face it, Madagascar is aimed towards kids, therefore there is very little challenge factor for any serious gamer. What difficulty that is here comes from the pain in the butt camera and slow responsive controls. The game is relatively short on stages and play time, but the mini-games help alleviate some of that.
Graphics:
You will instantly be able to recognize this game compared to its movie counterpart, since a lot of the same design styles are there. Unfortunately though, the textures are average at best and there is a lot of pixilation and jagged edges. Animations aren’t a problem at all since most every critter in this game moves naturally and smooth.
For those of you that may be looking forward to clips from the movie don’t bother since aside from the opening there really aren’t any. The cut scenes that are presented here are done so using the in game graphics, so you can expect to see the same textures and character models. It’s not that the graphics are an affront to the eyes, it’s just they are extremely average when compared to games currently on the market.
Audio:
Surprisingly none of the voice cast from the film made their way to the game adaptation, which needless to say is a little disappointing. What we have here are voice actors doing their best impressions of their counterparts and quite frankly several of them hit the nail on the head. The guy who does the Chris Rock impersonation is amazing and it’s hard to believe that it’s not him.
The soundtrack is fairly decent as well with tunes befitting the game’s genre, though don’t expect to be humming any of these tracks after you finish playing. My only real complaint with the audio is the amount of repetitive sayings you’ll hear through the course of the game. Hearing sailors prattle on about the same thing over and over again got old quick and so did hearing the main characters talk to themselves constantly.
Conclusion:
While I normally avoid movie to game crossovers, Madagascar is actually pretty decent despite all of its shortcomings. This game is perfect for children who enjoyed the movie and is very kid friendly. Older gamers will probably not enjoy it as much in the end because of its ease, linearity and short length.
The variety of gameplay between all of the characters is appreciated, though it would have been cool to have been able to select who you wanted to be on each stage. My personal favorite is the stage involving the penguins and seeing a penguin karate chop a sailor never gets old. The mini-games are worth the time to unlock as are the variety of extras presented here.
Unfortunately the camera is horrible, to the point that you’ll take damage because of its uncontrollability. The graphics may be average at best, but the audio department is definitely a step in the right direction despite the fact that the film’s actors didn’t work on this project. It may not be the best game out there, but it’s definitely not the worst. If you know a kid who really enjoyed the movie, they will love this game, but older gamers need not apply. Recommended