The Lord of the Rings, Volume 1

by Interplay

Product Features

• Role-playing game set in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth
• Search for the One Ring that can destroy the world
• Journey with a party of elves, dwarves, humans, and hobbits
• Each character will actually tell you how he can be of service
• For 1 player

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00002STXO
• Item Weight: 8 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,121 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Manufacturer Description

Adventure comes alive in 16 bit fantasy with the swords and sorcery of J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings.' Prepare yourself as this treasured Tolkien tale takes you on an epic quest to destroy the One Ring that has the power to enslave Middle earth. But beware the evil Lord Sauron and his mighty forces will fight you at every turn in your quest to conquer the Balrog and destroy the One Ring of Power.

Product Description

This is the game J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings for the Super Nintendo SNES. This is cartridge only and is used or preplayed. All of our SNES nintendo games are cleaned tested and guaranteed to work. We stand by our products and offer a 60 day guarantee. If a game does not work within 60 days from the time you receive it we will gladly exchange it for you. You can read details about our guarantee

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars COULD HAVE BEEN GOOD, June 13, 2001

By 

EMAN NEP - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lord of the Rings, Volume 1 (Video Game)

This game could have been one of the best on SNES, but Interplay screwed it up. Well, lets start with the good. The graphics are REALLY good. Very detailed trees, characters, enemies, etc. The in-game animations are very fluid, almost life-like. Interplay does an excellent job of setting the atmosphere. A light fog covers the Barrow Downs, giving it a very eerie appearance. The music can be chilling at times. Interplay also did a wonderful job of scaling Middle Earth. The world is HUGE. This is one game where you will definitely need a walkthrough, or risk being left behind, as I later was. Now for the downsides to this game. In this game, you control one central character, while the others follow you around (Like Secret of Mana). However, these other characters will sometimes wander off-screen, usually ending up getting themselves killed. I might add that this is a game where one traveler won't survive. You NEED those other party members, especially when you get in a fight with 2 or more orcs. My next complaint is the graphics. Great, like I said before, but pretty soon all screens start to look alike. ESPECIALLY the caves. Speaking of caves, some of the mazes in this game can be really frustrating--even with paper and pencil handy for drawing maps. There are not that many enemies in this game: wolves, bats, snakes, orcs, barrow wights, and dark riders, but that's all I remember after many hours of playing this game. The towns are boring and uninteresting--you can't walk into any building, only see it from the outside. Finally, there are some mandatory quests that you must undertake that were NOT in the books. Your very first one will be to find someone's glasses in a large cave. Overall, this game will seem exciting and interesting at first, but after you play it for a while you'll probably start to see what I mean.

30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "Clouded, this game's future is...", September 1, 2001

By 

Ben (Smyrna, Tennessee United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lord of the Rings, Volume 1 (Video Game)

Why the Yoda reference, you ask? Tolkien has absolutely nothing to do with Star Wars. However, Interplay's attempt at a Tolkien game seems to have suffered from the same problem as LucasArts' attempts at Star Wars games. Awesome concepts, wonderful stories to work with, but ruined by poor execution.
First off, this game does have wonderful graphics, especially considering that it was an SNES title. Some of the music is also amazing, capturing the mood of Tolkien's story perfectly, in my opinion. That title theme, and the song that plays in the Shire... excellent. The caves and dungeons are dark and eerie, just as they should be, and the forests are very lush and realistic. The sound of that wind blowing in the cave is simply chilling if you're really into the game.
Unfortunately though, there are some major flaws to this game which, in my opinion, make it unworthy of a purchase. For one, the multiplayer aspect is very poorly done. Like Secret of Mana, this is an action RPG with real-time battles. However, instead of being able to give instructions for the CPU to follow (like Mana's Action Grid), you must hold a button to guide their actions, which results in your controlling ALL of the allies at once--press Left for one person, and your entire party moves left, press Attack and everyone swings. Do not even consider relying on the CPU to guide them. They sometimes stand perfectly still and let an enemy attack them without even attempting to defend themselves. Or, even more often, they become utterly foolish and go wandering off alone into some odd parts of the woods. They are usually killed by an orc out there before you can find them.
That leads me to another flaw: characters cannot be revived. If someone falls in battle, they are gone permanently for the rest of the game. If Frodo falls, the game is over.
A third flaw is that the game, for some strange reason, uses a PASSWORD system instead of a battery save, with long and tedious passwords to boot. This is just completely impractical for an RPG.
Finally, there are two last things that really kill the game. One is that there is too much dungeon crawling--WAY too much. In fact, that is pretty much all you do for the entire game. The other is that there are too many odd events added to this game that are totally inconsistent with the book. This usually doesn't bother me too much, but this game just takes it way too far. They've made all sorts of completely unacceptable story twists, just to give an excuse for you go wandering into all these dungeons.
Ultimately, this game could have been an excellent addition to the Super Nintendo's already impressive list of RPGs, but it fails badly. I'd say stay away from this game, but get the soundtrack if one exists.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Tolkien would be rolling over in his grave!, June 30, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Lord of the Rings, Volume 1 (Video Game)

This game is a real stinker. Your party members wander off constantly and moments later you'll hear them grunting as they're be slaughtered by an troll. After playing 10 minutes of this game you just want orcs to kill you and you're whole party. This game was a big letdown.