9.0

Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie

Peter Jackson's King Kong movie adaptation has finally smashed its way onto the XBox that is probably one of the most refreshing games of 2005. Although many movie games are a lot to be desired, King Kong on the XBox is a step ahead of the rest and is not just your average first person shooter type game. Rather, it has been carefully scripted and choreographed to mimic the movie that although doesn't contain as much action as you would find in your standard first person shooter type adventure game, it makes up for it in wonder and excitement.

The storyline transforms gamers into the fearless and daring Jack Driscoll, a screenwriter who accompanies director Carl Denham (meticulously played by Jack Black) to a strange and mysterious island that has been lost by time itself. Fortunately for Jack, he is also accompanied by the beautiful and sexy Ann Darrow and a few other Star Trek "red coats" in uncovering the mystery that surrounds this island.

Unfortunately for our intrepid hero, when his boat crashes on this dangerous island, his life is soon turned into turmoil and to make matters worse, his party is either divided or killed and when Ann is kidnapped by the natives, it's time to use every bit of skill and guile to rescue her.

Although the gameplay is reminiscent of a first person shooter game, it is far more than your average action game because it has a healthy dose of adventure that requires you to use all the resources that you can find on the island from bones to spears, to guns to sniper rifles. The game also contains a variety of different enemies from giant scorpions to deadly dinosaurs and of course Kong himself, not to mention a health dose of puzzle solving.

Interestingly enough, your characters in King Kong have no access to health bars or status bars for your weapons. This change of gameplay style is an attempt to make things more realistic that assists in really immersing you into the environment.  When things start going from bad to worse for your character, your vision starts to blur or your breathing becomes shallow that helps in forcing the adrenaline of all gamers to flow.

Fortunately, a small break will revitalize your character and when you're running low on ammunition, your character will also tell you how many rounds are left. Thankfully the gaming environment has various items littered throughout the island to assist you when you are short on weaponry.

The twist behind King Kong is that gamers get to play as King Kong himself that really throws a curve ball into the title. One minute you're playing as the daring hero Jack, the next minute you are battling tyrannosaur rexes and giant bat-like creatures with all the latest wrestling moves from Kong the Great!

The move from action to story is a refreshing breath of fresh air on the XBox and some of the areas that you visit in the title are quite simply awe-inspiring, thanks to the graphical power of the XBox. Even the cut scenes themselves are done in real-time which means you can interact with these scenes and once again helps immerse you into this environment. Without playing it yourself, the easiest way to explain it is that you are actually starring in the movie... real-time.

Graphically, King Kong on XBox is amazing as all the characters have been professionally designed that contain realistic textures and movements, especially King Kong himself with his sheer size and primal rage.

All the backgrounds have been professionally designed and from what I've seen on the movie previews, they are also true to the film. Match that with a variety of special effects from blurred vision, lighting and bump mapping and this game is probably one of the best looking titles that I have been in a long time on the Xbox. The attention to detail is extraordinary.

In conclusion, the average gamer will complete this title in around 15 - 20 hours but with a huge twist at the end, get ready for another attempt. Awesome graphics, brilliant gameplay and a kick !@% storyline, what you waiting for? Go out and get this title NOW!