Peter Pan: The Motion Picture Event (Game Boy Advance) Review

By James Temperton 24.04.2004

This will perhaps be one of the shortest reviews to ever be written for Cubed3, but there is so little to this game that perhaps you can excuse us. In a nutshell you can run, fly, jump, dive, roll, fight, earn bonus points, collect things, solve puzzles and sword fight. Sound like a tedious list...perhaps this reflects the game? Well in a word...yes.

The idea of the game is clearly to make some money off the recent movie, now we didn't actually go and see the movie, but if the game really is based on it the film must be one of the best ways to send you to sleep ever conceived. You take the role of none other than Peter Pan as you go about being eternally youthful and the like. You start off by running about the Darling's home in London, where you are treated to some very wooden text dialogue that seems to suggest that you wouldn't be surprised if a random boy in green with a peculiar shadow started to run about your house opening doors and stealing your money.

Screenshot for Peter Pan: The Motion Picture Event on Game Boy Advance

Even more stupid is the painfully British way in which the dialogue is written, it made us laugh but we don't think it was meant to be funny. Peter guides all the little Darling's back to Never Land, where you have to Pan your way about the place being all swashbuckling and youthful. You get to dodge cannon balls, collect coins and even grapple with 'real' pirates, swanky...

Screenshot for Peter Pan: The Motion Picture Event on Game Boy Advance

We can't complain about the games looks, it is a very well presented title, the characters are well animated and the cutscene sequences look very good indeed. The sound is also quite good. Whilst it looks good and sounds all lovely, it plays like a dog and controls like a very stubborn and aggressive horse.

Peter can jump, run and when he takes some pixie dust (possibly some sort of drug) he can fly about the place, of course it isn't really like flying, well it is, but we never considered Peter Pan to be a bus. The mixture of fighting, adventuring and flying is a nice one, but when you are so hindered by the controls all the enjoyment is sucked out of it.

Screenshot for Peter Pan: The Motion Picture Event on Game Boy Advance

Some of the levels have no real structure, and at times we are generally didn't know that a level had ended, only to be informed that we had completed the game...somehow. The level design is also exceedingly bland and washed-out. Whilst the look of the levels changes every time, it is blatant that the developers have used the same template for each and every sodding one of them!

After each level you are given a password that you can use to continue the game from that position, meaning you can switch off at the end of each level, thank the lord. This game is just about bearable for one or two levels at a time, but any longer will just have you ripping your hair out...or perhaps the cartridge.

Screenshot for Peter Pan: The Motion Picture Event on Game Boy Advance

Cubed3 Rating

5/10
Rated 5 out of 10

Average

Average, bang on it in fact. It has clearly been rushed, and lacks any excitement...at all. Whilst it looks good and sounds very nice indeed. We don't blame the developers, the clever money would be on Disney snatching the title from the developer's hands before it was even ready. Shame that.

Developer

Atari

Publisher

Saffire

Genre

2D Platformer

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  5/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (0 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date None   Australian release date Out now   

Comments

Comments are currently disabled

Subscribe to this topic Subscribe to this topic

If you are a registered member and logged in, you can also subscribe to topics by email.
Sign up today for blogs, games collections, reader reviews and much more
Site Feed
Who's Online?
Azuardo, RudyC3

There are 2 members online at the moment.