Company: Ubisoft
Platform: Playstation 2
Genre:
Rating: Teen
Buy on Amazon.com link

I have yet to see King Kong in theaters (still plan on it) but the video game is out now for your gaming pleasure. Many people probably have already beaten the game, while I’m still slowly trudging my way through the levels. I’m not a good gamer okay! But what I played so far, I like.

King Kong is based on the featured movie and was produced by Peter Jackson, just like the Lord of the Rings’ games were. So if you know PJ is overseeing the development of the game, you know you’re in for a treat with the visuals and the game play. After all, Peter Jackson admits he’s a gamer himself and plays Halo a lot (or when he can). The game features all the actors’ voices from the movie and their dialogue were recorded specifically for the game. The game starts out with director Carl Denhem (Jack Black) gathering up a team to journey to the mysterious Skull Island to shoot his greatest picture. The leading lady of the movie is struggling actress Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts), who King Kong eventually falls in love with. But Kong has to contend with Jack for the love of Ann. In the game, you start out as writer Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody), landing on Skull Island and help lead the way into the island. But you hear sounds and weird things start to appear like giant ass spiders, big centipedes and flying dino creatures. You start out with no weapons but once you locate crates you can get some guns. You can also pick up sticks and use that for weapons or a torch. Make sure you protect Ann and other people with you because if they die, you have to start over. I never liked that in the game because it requires too damn much. It’s always about ME! I can’t figure out what to do when my saved game is low on health, should I try to repeat a board and get better health or try to tough it out. I guess I’ll figure that out.

Now besides being Jack, you can play as King Kong as well. As of right now, I have not gotten to that point in the game. I’ve heard the levels are a lot of fun to play, but the levels are too short. Actually, I heard the game is too short but god knows I won’t found out since I’m not as good as the typical gamer. I guess I’ll find out when I get to that point what playing Kong feels like. The difficulty I found when playing the game is trying to walk on something like a bridge. I usually just fall off and have to start over. I always sucked for those types of things on console games. I had some problems with aiming my gun or throwing things at first but I got the hang of it. I like how the game acts as a first person shooter game like Bond or Halo. The environments and everything around you, really add to the game experience because the graphics are so well done. I’m sure they look ten times better on an Xbox 360 but I was just playing on PS2. The audio was something to note as well because it really brings you into this world of King Kong. Sometimes the sound or visuals outright scares the crap out of you. But I’m a jittery lad so something as basic as Tetris will scare me. One negative I found with the graphics was a lot of the scenes were too dark. I had to play this game with all the lights off in my apartment and at night time because I just can’t see what i’m doing. It takes a little bit of time to get used to.

While i’m still only in the beginning of the game, I thought King Kong was a lot of fun to play. It just becomes frustrating for me when I die but that’s for every game. I’ll just have to keep on playing and if I have to, cheat like I always do (God bless cheat codes and walk-throughs!). For the experienced gamer, this video game might be too easy for you so maybe just rent it? I see more teenagers and kids playing this game than adult gamers. Worth checking out though.

Bottom Line:
Favorite Aspects: That you can play as Jack AND King Kong as well!
Cheats:
Overall Rating: