Overall
Overall, this is a pretty good game for the Gameboy Advance. It lacks in some areas, like graphics and gameplay, but it still is worth it to spend a few hours playing this game. This game version of Tolkien’s classic story (released around the time of the Lord of the Rings movies by Peter Jackson, not the new movies,) is a pretty accurate telling of the story.

Graphics
The graphics of this game are pretty good, especially for the characters and unique locations. However, this game is very lacking in terms of graphics in the dungeons, where it  repeats to the extent that you can find multiple rooms that all look identical, their purpose not being to be a puzzle to a user or to confuse the user, but because they didn’t make enough variety in tiles  in the game for one, or expected the user not to notice. However, other than that, the textures were pretty good, with the game having its own specific feel in terms of textures. The map and the title screen feel very appropriate and well done, finely depicting the feeling of the book.

Gameplay
The battle controls and setup in this game are pretty good, especially with hand-to-hand (close range) combat. The charge and roll with the staff is also a nice gameplay feature. The weapon upgrades are nice, but they don’t really add much to the game. The upgrades in health and shielding are necessary, but the whole fraction thing is a little misleading because at the end of the game you don’t have a chance to go back and get the upgrades you missed after you go on to the next area. Also, it isn’t necessary to get all the upgrades to beat the game, making them seem a bit inane. Boss battles are well done. Most of the puzzles are fairly easy, but occasionally a puzzle comes along that isn’t as obvious. However, after the fact, they usually evoke a “well, duh, why didn’t I think of that?” reaction.

Sound
This game has its own trove of memorable melodies that blow the average game out of the water, with the exceptions of the likes of Zelda and Mario. I sometimes caught myself humming a theme, and after a little thought, realized that it was from this game.  The sound effects are pretty good, but sometimes they become a little cliched or exaggerated.

Addictiveness
This game is moderately addicting the first time through, but the large adventuring regions are hard to keep track of and can become tedious (specifically, the Misty Mountains). Also, the ending is surprisingly abrupt (“I should rest now.”), which doesn’t lead to feeling of, “hey, I want to play that again!”

Depth
This game feels pretty big as you get into it, and has good-sized dungeons, but at the end it feels like it was missing about and eighth. The added scene where you have to get the three pendants before you can give the guy the arkenstone feels tinier than it really is, but despite it feeling like filler, it makes the game’s ending more abrupt.

Story
The story of this game is really good, and it retells it accurately, even bringing up fond forgotten memories of reading the book as I played, as the game quotes the book (or something very near to it) quite frequently. Bilbo the hobbit is taken on a slightly involuntary quest with dwarves by Gandalf the wizard. They set out on a quest across much of Middle Earth to reclaim the treasure lost by the dwarf lords of old to the dragon, Smaug. They get into trouble with goblins in the mountains, resulting in Bilbo finding the Ring of Power, which can turn him invisible, and the goblins on their tails all the way out to the Lonely Mountain, where Smaug lives with the Dwarven treasure. The dwarves are captured by the woodland elves on their way, but Bilbo frees them and they continue to the mountain. They do not defeat Smaug, but they accidentally release him on the nearby town, where townsman kills him with an arrow to a weak spot. The townspeople are now lined up to attack the dwarves in their fortress, but then the goblins and their allies come, and there is a huge battle in which the dwarves are reconciled to the others. Bilbo goes back home and lives in his hobbit hole some more. I just love this story, not as much as Lord of the Rings, but I love it nonetheless.

Difficulty
A few of the boss fights here are harder to beat, and the occasional puzzle takes some looking around, but this game is pretty easy, to the extent that you can beat it without finding all the upgrades.