The Hobbit

by Inevitable Entertainment

Product Features

• Explore the world of Bilbo Baggins, an unassuming young hobbit who's recruited for the adventure of a lifetime
• Jump gaping chasms, climb treacherous mountains, and solve mind-bending puzzles
• Travel with the Wizard Gandalf, the dwarf Thorin, and a number of friends as you seek the dragon Smaug
• Meet enchanting Elves, battle-ready Dwarves and massive Trolls -- prepare for battle against the deadliest monsters
• Set the stage for the incredible adventure that follows in the Lord Of The Rings trilogy!

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00008KTW2
• Item Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: September 23, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,446 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Platform: GameCube

From Children's Software Review

Set in the world of Middle Earth, this detailed, one player fighting/strategy game follows the story of the Tolkien's The Hobbit novel and is best suited for children ages 10 and up. Players steer Bilbo Baggins through places like Mirkwood Forest and Lonely Mountain, battling trolls and collecting gems for courage and health. The graphics are cartoony (like Zelda), but this doesn't take away from the game. We tested the Game Cube version, and found it to be very rich, with eleven different areas to explore. Strengths include a design that is really easy to either zoom through, or take more time and explore. For example, in the first level, all you need to do is fix a bridge and find a walking stick, and you're done. But you can take much more time and explore if you want to. The only thing we'd fix is to add a running mode -- Bilbo is a little slow at times, and our 16 year old seasoned tester found some of the puzzles really tough. One maze of islands, that requires specially timed jumps, stood out as being frustratingly hard. The bottom line? Buy it, if you're at all interested in The Hobbit book.Copyright © 2001 Children's Software Revue

Product Description

The Hobbit is an exciting 3rd-person action/adventure game that takes you into Middle Earth, for the great quest that predates the Lord Of The Rings trilogy!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great features and lots of hidden treasures., January 28, 2004

By 

Joshua Mayfield "Josh Mayfield" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hobbit (Video Game)

I played the GameCube version, but it is also available on PC, PS2, XBOX.

The Hobbit is a pretty good action adventure with appealing graphics and a lot of nice features. The game progresses through Tolkien's story, with each level representing a location from the book.

What to expect:
* Although the gameplay consists mostly of combat, platform jumping, and rope climbing, there is a fair amount of stealth and even real puzzle solving as well.
* While there's only one crucial timed sequence in the game, there are lots of little optional ones that can reap all sorts of goodies: Lockpicking is actually a minigame where you must trigger one or more moving mechanisms on a locked chest before the time runs out. While some chests won't fault you for failing, most chests will injure or poison you if you're too slow or make a wrong move.
* Through the course of the game you will obtain different weapons, starting out with the relatively weak but far-reaching walking stick. Other weapons include the shorter, but more powerful sword Sting, and throwing rocks of various kinds.
* You need every skill you acquire in the game. Different levels focus on different abilities (sneaking, jumping, fighting).
* Enemies and quests become steadily more difficult throughout the game.
* The game is just long enough to be satisfying and make you feel you've gotten your money's worth, but not so long that you get bored with it.
* At the end of each level you're presented with a screen that shows how many gems, coins, and chests you discovered as well as the total number available in that level.

What's good:
* The graphics are colorful and intriguing. A decidedly different look from the live action LOTR films and the older animated ones.
* Level design is generally good; each new location has a unique atmosphere and presents new challenges.
* Purple "journey gems" that guide you to important locations. These gems often appear when you reach new phases in the main quest, and are indispensable at times- especially during the final sequence, which is timed.
* There are goodies scattered all throughout the game, some out in the open, many hidden or locked in chests. What's great here is that you only have to walk in the general proximity of these items and they magically come to you. (Likewise when you dispatch enemies and they drop loot- even if they're across a chasm!) This is much nicer than games where you must make physical contact with all loot in order to retrieve it.
* All dialog is spoken, and the voices are pretty good.
* There's a very nice quest log that clearly identifies optional and required quests, and checks tasks off as you complete them.
* After completing each level you get to visit a store where you can use coins you collected to buy potions, rocks and upgrades that allow you to carry more items.
* Like most console games, you can't save wherever/whenever you want; you can only save at various "save pedestals" scattered around Middle Earth. What's nice is there are plenty of pedestals to be found, and they're almost always located right before particularly dangerous areas.
* When Bilbo does something that affects another area (for example, flipping a switch that opens a door in another room), the game always quickly cuts to the other location to let you see what just happened. This feedback is helpful and important.
* Some replay value, in that you may feel compelled to go through the game again just to find all the goodies you missed the first time.

What's bad:
* I encountered a clipping issue where Bilbo became permanently stuck on a mushroom. I loaded a saved game and avoided that mushroom after that.
* While camera control is usually pretty good, there are numerous tight spots where you simply can't get the camera at a good angle, or worse- when the camera keeps moving when you're trying to do something.

My rating (from Very Bad to Very Good): Very Good

You will probably like this game if you liked these: American McGee's Alice, Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Game!!, November 13, 2003

By 

Corey Brennan "bubbajones_1" (Milford, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hobbit (Video Game)

I bought this game last (11/12/03) night, and I have to say it's really good. I'm a huge fan of Tolkien's work, and this game is a tribute to his book. The cinematic sequences are fantastic, the in-game graphics are superb, and the game play is loads of fun. The music is great (it doesn't sound repetitive like other games), and the voice acting is spot on. I've been waiting for months for this title to be released and I wasn't disappointed. This game is a "must have" for any Tolkien fan.

24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Brick Foundation with a Hay Roof, November 29, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Hobbit (Video Game)

The game has a lot of potential, but there are a number of little things that are interfering with my enjoyment of the story and gameplay. I am very frustrated by the courage-point/treasure and saving systems in particular.

Regarding courage points and treasures, there are a specific number of each per level. Courage points can be collected to increase your maximum health capacity, and treasures sometimes hold essential weapon upgrades. This sets a challenge which takes away from the story and enjoyment of the game; you have the added pressure of getting every last treasure chest in each level, many of which are well hidden.

Getting every last item isn't a requirement, but judging from posts on various gaming message boards, I'm not the only person who feels inclined to get perfect scores. What's worse, most levels actually set road-blocks along the way so you cannot backtrack if you miss a chest. Plus, once you complete a level there's no going back. This game is unusually linear for an action-adventure title, perhaps due to the designers desire to stick to the confinements of the book. One level is equivalent to one chapter in the book.

The courage-point system is further complicated by the limitations of the saving system. You have to save the game very frequently because it's terribly easy to die, (especially by falling to your doom ... I guess poor Bilbo has a weak bone structure). If you die, you automatically start off at the previous save point, and any progress you had made, enemies you killed, or points you collected are all lost. Thus I find myself acquiring one courage point in a tricky location, and then rushing back to a crystal pedistal and saving the game, and then repeating the process one courage point at a time. It's just not fun playing in such an obssessive manner.

From reading reviews I was expecting more of a Zelda atmosphere, where you could at least backtrack within levels to explore, and you wouldn't have to be paranoid about loosing all your hard work every few seconds by misjudging a jump barely 3 feet off the ground due to the unfortunately-limited control of the camera angles.

If you enjoy the challenge of thorough hide-and-seek, or if you're relaxed enough to let missing treasure chests slide, then do check out The Hobbit. It really has some great elements, combined with a Mario meets Link design of sword slinging and platform jumping. The retelling of the book is an enjoyable touch (though certain artistic liberties were definitely taken throughout), with illustrations and narration bridging each chapter. Plus the soundtrack is one of the most amazing and unique I've ever heard. There are a couple accoustic guitar tracks, some Celtic music, and a bunch of other songs and instruments you've probably never heard in a game before Bilbo came to town. It is fully orchestrated, and well timed with the scenes and events of the game. I wish they would release a CD of the game music!

I hope my ranting review helps,
R.P.

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