Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa Review – On PS3, Xbox 360, Wii
I should start by saying that I understand Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa may not be a game that interests those regular commenters. I know that, so this review isn’t for you. It is instead for the casual gamers such as myself and people under the age of 16 who may enjoy a bit of infantile humor occasionally.
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is a game of a movie, meaning it should automatically be dire. But it’s not. Sure, it’s a simple affair, being a series of mini-games joined together by a story, but what it does, it does well. Your typical Metal Gear Solid 4 or Halo 3 player probably isn’t going to enjoy this title, but then they were never meant to, and probably won’t be in the market to buy it anyway.
The game has a single player story mode and a multiplayer mode for up to four players, which comprises some of the mini-games from within the main game. These are quite fun the first few times through but don’t really offer enough long-term appeal for a high replayability factor. So most of your time will be spent in the story mode.
There are 12 levels to the game, all of which have quite a distinct feel and look. The graphics throughout are superb. Although not exactly gob smacking, they compliment the style of the movie well and are very clean and crisp. There are no glitches or bugs, which for a movie to game translation is a rarity.
The bulk of the game sees you taking on the part of one of the main characters from the film, either Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Gloria the hippo, Melman the giraffe, or the ever-resourceful penguins. Your quest is to help King Julien make a travel brochure, and he needs photos for the brochure, meaning you are charged with supplying the poses.
The game moves at a blistering pace with barely time to catch your breath between mini-games and platforming. Every element is simple and intuitive meaning a five-year-old could probably play it. It may take them a little longer than it did me to finish the game though as a long weekend could see the whole thing completed and back in its box.
It’s easiness is both its main strength and main weakness. Anyone will feel at home playing Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, which is a great boast for any game, but it’s very hard to fail throughout, severely shortening the game’s length and value for money.
The biggest positive is the humor throughout, with many a chuckle derived from the characters chatter in the game. King Julien in particular made me laugh on several occasions even though I’m a grumpy, middle-aged man. The biggest negative is probably the lack of original voice actors, with Ben Stiller, Chris Rock and company obviously too busy or too expensive to voice a game.
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa won’t be for everyone but those people who will hate it know who they are and will avoid it like the plague anyway. For young kids and fans of the film, which is after all the target audience, the PS3 version used for this review offers some simple, short-term entertainment suitable for all. And that’s good enough for me.
Score: 3/5
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3 Responses to “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa Review – On PS3, Xbox 360, Wii”
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December 15th, 2008
Nobody has commented here, seems like nobody is planning on buying this game. I wonder why?
December 16th, 2008
I kept almost leaving a comment, but couldn’t think of anything to say other than ‘FIRST’ or ‘tumbleweed’. Neither of which are very funny.
December 23rd, 2008
haha