Peter Jackson's King Kong review

If you've ever wanted to star as a giant ape on an island teeming with dinosaurs who falls in love with a screen goddess, then goes ice skating - now's your chance.

King Kong has returned as the game of the movie-remake of the 1933 black and white classic, and follows the same events as Peter Jackson's reimagined ape adventure.

Kong's jungle landscape looks eerily realistic, populated - like some warped Darwinian nightmare - with dinosaurs and giant scorpions that could have been assembled from Jurassic Park out-takes. Character animation is jaw-dropping and the game designers have done away with relying on any sort of energy bar, creating a more fluid cinematic experience that loses the need for health packs or power-ups. You take control of Kong or screenwriter Jack Driscoll (played in the film by chisel-jawed Adrien Brody) and when your character's damage nears critical, the screen will flash red prompting you to skuttle out of the firing line until your health eventually recovers to normal.

The game is classed as a first-person shooter, but the ammunition is very sparse. If you need to check how much you have left, press a button and Jack will shout out the remaining number of shells.

While paying as the giant ape, the action changes to a third-person view to negotiate a series of obstacle and enemy-peppered sections where leaping, running and pounding prehistoric creatures to a pulp with your giant fists is required. These sections are also littered with smaller puzzles that are relatively simple to solve - including finding levers that will open up later parts of the level and burning grass to force roaming Raptors to their doom.

Action set pieces are varied and always engaging. One minute you might be thrown from a beach assault against giant crabs to fighting between the legs of a Brontosaurus stampede. Or the game may change from playing as Kong punching dive-bombing pterodactyls out of the sky to wading through a burning swamp as Jack while giant marauding centipedes attack from all sides. It's more of an action adventure game - like a huge movie trailer - with a healthy dose of survival thrown in. As for weapons, Jack can only carry one gun at a time, and he can also pick up pointy spears - but switching between the two isn't possible.

Kong bounces across the landscape with a range of convincing real-life movement and convincing animation - he can punch, grab, jump and grapple. However, as progressing through levels is linear - there's only a single path to follow - it does feel restrictive and you sometimes wish you could storm off in any direction you choose. If you're ever unsure of what to do, Ann Darrow, voiced by Mulholland Drive's Naomi Watts - the object of your uncontrollable monkey's lust - will tell you what to do. It's satisfying, simple fun.

If you do manage to complete the game and want a bigger challenge, an alternative ending can be unlocked if players go back and complete various maps and earn a total of 250,000 points - a target that's well within reason. Other bonus un-lockable features include effects house Weta Digital concept art galleries, interviews with Peter Jackson and co-writer Phillipa Boyens, an 'old movie' filter and the new movie trailer.

Kong is an atmospheric adventure that ties together the major set pieces from the movie - but it's too short and too easy to provide any lasting challenge.

Author: Peter Wood