The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe Review (no fat)

by Griptonite Games Platform: DS Genre: RPG	ESRB Rating: Everyone Release: 2005-11-15	The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe Features: Action RPG 1-4 players w/ cartridges Original DS version Based on the Chronicles of Narnia movie
	Egamer's Rating: 7 / 10. Reviewed on: 2006-02-08

Game Description

Welcome to The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. The cursed land of Narnie, a once thriving and picturesque country, is now overcome by the evil clutches of the White Witch. Through the freezing conditions four children will brave their way into adventure and bring back freedom and spring to its inhabitants.

Disney gave the nod to a traditional Action RPG with some new features, in hopes of further spreading the popular The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe franchise. Movie-to-game ports are the fashion these days. Even while gamers tend to gratify the developers, there are only a few movie-to-game ports that can hold their own without support from their movie-world counterparts…CON is one of the exceptions.

The Chronicles of Narnia Story

CON is a very straightforward Action RPG for novices, with simple controls and a familiar story. The DS version is not a port so it receives its own flavor, with some pretty intuitive twists in certain spots.

In the usual Disney style, a group of kids (The Pevensie children) discover a magical wardrobe that transports them to the land of Narnia. Lucy, Susan, Edmund and Peter soon discover that it is their destiny to free the land that the games main villain has taken over.

The White Witch is not your typical Disney villain, but she is more than enough to push along the kid based storyline. Fans of the books will be in familiar territory, while hack and slash vets will approach the game with a ‘been there done that’ attitude.

The Chronicles of Narnia Gameplay

Throughout the adventure gamers will be able to control 4 characters, unless the story specifies otherwise. Like all RPG’s the leveling up system is intact, with any level up that occurs being able to be distributed to any of the 4 stats: health points, defense, willpower, and strength.

The points or ‘virtue points’ can be used any way you like, allowing you to make the weakest character a powerhouse. The most basic of character creation on the developers part casts Peter and Edmund as the sword swingers, Susan with the bow and arrow, and Lucy as the magic caster. Lucy will become invaluable as the game progresses in the later stages, with her panpipe ability making her the best healer and summoner of the party.

The side-quests are provided by the friendly creatures in the game. Completing them will enhance certain characters abilities, and even in some cases give them finishing moves. The side-quests are nothing too challenging, but they have characteristics of a good time waster to venture away from the main storyline.

The Chronicles of Narnia Battles

The game’s real-time action battle engine tends to be on the slow side, enough to where turn based battling would have been better suited. Deciding how, and on which character you use your virtue points depends on your choice as you plan out your fighting style.

Switching between characters in areas that allow it is as easy as using the trigger button, and setting the supporting AI from attack, defense, and heal or support is a touch screen away. Since all four characters use the same health gauge it becomes pretty simplistic to win battles.

When the gauge reaches 0, whosoever gets hit will be knocked out cold for a few seconds. Quite conveniently, the game doesn’t start over until all 4 characters are knocked out, and even then you restart from the last checkpoint which is usually a lot closer than you’d expect.

World conditions affect battles so it is important to keep an eye on the icon on the upper left of the screen, which tells you if your characters are warm or cold. If they are too cold, the already slow game pace will get slower and make it increasingly difficult to successfully defeat enemies. Shelters will remedy this, but overall it is not a huge difference maker.

The Chronicles of Narnia Graphics

Anything with Disney backing is guaranteed to have an impressive graphics engine, and CON does not disappoint. Well rendered 3-d animations with some nice skins for the enemies give the title a nice epic feel. Backgrounds that could have been glossed over with nothing but white are detail filled, and breathe with life.

But under the interior of this great design are basic attack animations, a smaller world to explore than expected, and the usual slowdown. Night and day effects are a nice touch but nothing over the top.

The Chronicles of Narnia Sound

The game moves along quite well with or without headphones, taking advantage of the DS’s underused technology. The soundtrack is memorable and sounds almost as if the author handpicked it.

Even with the lack of voiceover's or great sound effects, the music should win over many gamers.

The Chronicles of Narnia Summing up

Everyone loves movie-to-game projects, especially from Disney. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe forces its way just above middle ground to more of a feasible playable status. Not a must have adventure but the slight innovation in key areas of the hack/slash genre helps it to stand out from the usual bland movie titles.

As frustrating as the slowdown can be at times, hardcore RPG’ers won’t mind for the simple fact that it is the norm for all RPG’s.

The Chronicles of Narnia cost

The game retails for $29.90, at the time of writing.