Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Going from left to right within the Wonka factory
Tags: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Categories: GBA Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Aug 4th, 2005
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Adventure | No | ||
 |
The movie of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has spawned the inevitable videogame. Every movie that has a “family” or “kid” orientation will spin off into a videogame whether warranted or not. This isn’t the space to debate that validity of such practice, but to evaluate the Game Boy Advance version of this film to videogame conversion.
Players take on the role of young Charlie, as he adventures (mostly) around Willy Wonka’s factory and collecting various items as a means to an end – at times attempting to save the other children from their own folly, at times assisting Wonka in fixing one of his machines, at times just collecting items because they are there. Naturally there is a massive deviation from the film in terms of story (Charlie doesn’t help Wonka fix machines or attempt to save children in the film) but in the context of the game it all fits in well.
 |
There are naturally switches to be flipped, doors to be opened and platforms to jump from and onto. Helping the player out from time to time will be the Oompa Loompas, which players will have direct intereaction with. At times players will need to figure out how to get an Oompa Loompa from on place to another (be it having them follow, or giving them a balloon to lift them up to a higher platform, or by means of another device). Players will also have access to certain items that will assist them in moving from left to right throughout the game’s field of play. Perhaps it should be noted that health is measured in bars of chocolate.
 |
The game’s real fun however comes in a variety of mini-games that are unlocked as play progresses, so long as players collect the proper items (the letters WONKA) as they are spread throughout certain levels. These aren’t part of the normal game and are a diversionary distraction at best when looked at as a whole, but these mini-games in large part actually show more imagination and creativity than the standard game. It’s a shame that players actually have to go through the game in order to unlock the mini-games.
 |
The most worthless bit of collecting however is reserved for the most prolific of items – little cubes of… well, I suppose it could be sugar. These are used to unlock various Oompa Loompa screenshots from the film. Not only are these screens from the film grainy in the translation to the Game Boy Advance, but having more mini-games would have been a heck of a lot more fun.
The graphics are decent enough – clear, bright, with everything easily discernable. The difficulty level isn’t that great (read: just right for the target audience) and the music is good while playing the game but largely forgettable. On a technical level, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is serviceable with nothing to impede play or enjoyment.
Unless the person playing this is under the age of 11, there really isn’t much here. It’s good for what it is and who it is targeted for, but nothing more.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Mini-games are fun + Not a total deviation from the story |
8.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Collecting to unlock the film screens is pointless - Nothing spectacular for those older fans of the film |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Strictly for the kids. | |
[ Post the first comment | View related posts ]
Tags: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Aug 4th, 2005 and is filed under GBA Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
