The Chronicles of Narnia Review by: star4z - 6.8/10
The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe [GBA]StoryThe Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe tells the story of four children: Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, who flee inland during World War II to escape the bombings. They find another world through a wardrobe in the house of the professor they are staying with. The land is under the control of a powerful sorceress, the White Witch. They work together with the talking creatures of the land, called Narnia, to overthrow her. This game beautifully portrays the story originally told by C. S. Lewis. It felt so fresh and new the whole way, while telling a familiar story, with some parts added from the new movie (as opposed to the old B. B. C. movie). It felt great to interact with familiar characters, such as the Beavers, Mr. Tumnus, and Aslan. I was compelled by this game’s visualization of the land of Narnia.
GameplayThe exploration of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was a continual joy. Going into such classic places as the Beaver’s house, the White Witch’s castle, and the Professor’s mansion gave me the satisfaction of feeling like I was in the old days when the walls of your house were made of real, solid wood, and the wood had a nice smell that mingled with the smell of herbs, burning over the fi
replace.
Battle was a little touchy at times, and I found myself favoring Peter for hand-to-hand combat because of his weapon of choice. However, it was still nice to use each character’s individual abilities, and the “spells” you learn throughout the game add a nice level of puzzle solving to be done.
My favorite part of the game was a short chapter in which you have to cross a bunch of icebergs without drowning. I was impressed by the gameplay of the level, which is the only level where I got tense, because of the amount of concentration the level took. The only downside I saw to this level was that it was from the movie, not the book.
One downside to the gameplay is that the characters’ walking animations are a little stilted, but this is not unusual in the Game Boy Advance generation. This game felt more three dimensional that most Game Boy Advance games because the camera takes a lower angle than top-down.
GraphicsThe graphics of this game are simply beautiful. Everything looks very organic, and any repetition of tiles is, for the most part, unnoticeable. The graphics felt very original and fit the story, setting, and characters pretty well.
AudioThe soundtrack for this game is very appropriate and does its job very well. It sounds very wintry and somewhat haunting.
Sound effects weren’t especially amazing, but they were okay.
AddictivenessThis game was fun for the first time through, but after that, I didn’t feel an urge to play it again.
The exception to this was the iceberg level, which I replayed once, and was rewarded with the discovery of another object for the Mr. Tumnus’ House collection. However, completing the collection was not a great enough motivation to play the game any more.
Depth & DifficultyThis game is okay in length, but only takes up to three hours to beat. The game is pretty easy as a whole, but in some parts it is easy to get lost.
Graphics
10 Sound
7 Addictive
2 Depth
5 Story
10 Difficulty
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