Customer Reviews

Peter Jackson's King Kong

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This game is clearly associated with the 2005 movie. How can we tell? The full name of the game is Peter Jackson's King Kong - The Official Game of the Movie. Subtle!

The game was made with complete cooperation of Peter Jackson - he let the gaming team have access to the CGI and sets from the movie, and the game was made at the exact same time.

The game plays very much like being in a movie, with smooth slides between cinematic scenes and action sections. That being said, the game of course is FAR more action-oriented than any movie would be. In a movie you might fight off a group of creatures for a short period of time. In the game, of course, the hordes come in numerous, almost endless, waves.

This is more than just a beast-slaying game, though. There's a bit of thought involved. For example, if a gigantic dinosaur comes running at you, you don't have to try to slay it in straight-out combat. You can instead kill another random creature that is nearby, and the dinosaur will decide to go munch on it.

There are a few levels that you can play as Kong, but really for most of the game you are playing as a normal human in a band of friends. The various friends around you can either be helpful or REALLY annoying, depending on their mood. There are many times that I was tempted to snipe at my "friends" instead of the Giant Centipede or whatever the monster of the moment was.

The graphics are of course awesome. From the ocean waves to the murky dark caves, from the detail on the faces to the detail on the monsters' teeth, you get immersed in a high quality version of the movie. Again, this is to be expected, as the game designers got direct feeds of the movie graphic files.

The sound is also well done, with the sounds and feel of the movie. You get an immersive experience, drawing around you what the movie is all about. Danger, gloom, crashing waves and thunderous primal screams.

I have to admit that I found some of the puzzles a little tedious. Walking around and around a post to open a door was silly enough the first time, but for me to have to do it repeatedly was a bit much. Also, there were a few times that monsters seemed to get "stuck" in an area and I had to in essence go and prod them a few times for them to come out and properly attack me. I suppose not all monsters are highly intelligent :)

The game is definitely one that targets adrenaline-rush types. The sounds are loud and pounding - from bellows to cries of panic to screeches. The video is always jumping between dark caves to dark stairs to fiery bushes and things swooping down at you. You're kept off balance and rarely get a moment to breathe.

I did like how the game is set up like a movie. There aren't on screen health bars, ammo counters or anything else. You hit a button to hear a verbal check of your ammo. You talk to your friends to find out how they are. When you get hurt, your screen starts to go red and fuzzy, and you even hear "angels sing".

If I'm going to have any complaint about this game, it's really a personal one - I like games with a balance between hyped-up tension and more calm puzzle/investigating. There was really no break here, it was just non-stop thundering noise and attacking monsters. I'm sure most people thrive on that :)

Well recommended for those seeking a high action fix!

As has been discussed since the game King Kong was announced, Peter Jackson approached Michel Ancel to create this game due to his work on one of my favorite games, Beyond Good and Evil. When I heard the Michel Ancel was working on a high profile game, I jumped at the chance to play it. This was one of the first Xbox 360 games I purchased and the second I beat.

One thing Michel Ancel is extraodinarily good at doing is creating a living world, populated with rich characters and terrific scenery. He proved this in Beyond Good and Evil, giving various different gameplay functions to mess around with, as well as terrific characters that could bring a smile to your face. King Kong continues this and gives us a fully realized Skull Island as our playground. Ancel took away any hint of an interface. There's no life, ammo, or aiming device. Its all natural and you have to rely on vocal cues about the ammo, realize that one or two bites from a T-rex is going to kill you and estimate on how you throw your spears.

At first I was worried about the lack of aiming target, but the game compensates for this by being pretty open. Hitting a target really isn't too difficult as long as you are aiming in the general area. Playing in first person really helps get you in the shoes of the protagonist, and hearing the terrifying roar of a T-rex (or V-Rex as they are called in this game, to which I say, WTF?) behind you and knowing that he's there but knowing also that if you stop to look you will be dead really helps sink in this feeling. Its a survival of the fittest and you had better keep your wits about you.

Graphically, the game is beautiful. The textures in the land really help present an island teeming with life. The enemies are done pretty well over-all. One of the problems with the current form of normal mapping is that sometimes things can look shiny or slimy. This is duly noticeable in the hair of people. Naomi Watt's character's hair looks shiny and slimy instead of natural. The art direction is stunning too which helps cover-up any graphical short-comings there maybe.

The audio is stunning as well. The voice actors from the movie reprise their roles and unlike some movie video games, it doesn't sound like the actors are just talking into a mic to get paid. The screams, the bit of dialogue there is, it all fits into a nice package surrounded by terrific dinosaur sounds, ambient music and a terrific score. The only part of the audio that became annoying to me was when you are seriously injured. Hearing the angels choir became annoying after awhile.

Playing as Kong is a delight, mostly. Instead of making it difficult, the game-developers wanted to give players a sense of strength and reckless abandon that you don't have playing as a human. And they succeed. Kong is vicious, you don't have to worry about timing anything or about hiding. Charge in there, destroy things, climb on walls, jump from ledge to ledge, break T-Rex's mouths open. Its all there, easy to pull off, and makes playing as Kong a joy instead of a chore.

Once you get off Skull Island is where the game lost a little. It felt as if New York wasn't as developed as it could be and it was over in about 10 minutes. Pretty much a let down but I'm sure that it was done this way to keep any surprises from the movie leaking out.

Now, as great as this game is, there is a major problem. Its damn short. It took me about 5-6 hours to play it. Since its an incredibly linear video game with no room for exploration, you pretty much have no choice but play it quickly. It is a visually stimulating and exciting journey, but a very quick one. In fact, I don't know if I can justify the $60 price tag. Its a game that begs to be played and you can get it down in one weekend without realizing it.

Michel Ancel succeeds in creating another exciting game. If it weren't in such a hurry to get out before the movie, maybe it could have been a bit more flushed out. As it is, the game is a terrific way to spend 6 hours of your life. But, as to the $60 out of your pocket, that's debatable.

I played this game on my friends brand spankin new XBOX 360 and its absolutly unbelievable! The graphics are superb, it looks like youre playing the movie! You get to play as one of the main characters in the movie (can't remember his name) OR as King Kong him self! This game is so intense... when you are playing as a person, you do not have any health bar, or any ammo information, you must entirely rely on the other characters that are with you to let you know when you are dying or need to re-load. When you wish to distract a menacing T-Rex, you can shoot down a flying dinosaur and he will actually go over and eat the bird, buying you time to run for your life! While playing as Kong, you can smack the hell out of your enemies and throw them around untill they are left lifeless. Its an excellent game that is sure to please all! Can't wait until the movie!!!!!

I will be honest, I was not a huge fan of the movie and wasn't initially interested in this game. I purchased it recently because I had read that it was an easy way to get 1000 achievement points (just play it all the way through), and because it had considerably dropped in price to less than $20.

So, with low expectations, I have to say that I was initially pleasantly surprised. After some clips from the opening of the movie, the game starts off with you playing through the scene of them landing on Skull Island. The voice acting is great, as I keep hearing Jack Black making all his silly comments about capturing footage of everything as we move through the island. The graphics are good, as the character models look very much like their real-life counterparts and the island is rendered in pretty full detail. However, I would not put these graphics anywhere near Gears or some of the newer 360 games, but they are decent enough to hold your interest in the game. The game mechanics are pretty easy to pick up, you either have a gun or you can pick up a spear. Soon you learn to catch the spear on fire and use it to burn patches of thicket in order to clear the way or fend off creatures. There are also some other puzzle-like aspects, such as stabbing bait and throwing it to distract creatures, or needing to find the handles for opening doors.

From there, though, I found the game getting rather repetitive and old quickly. You run through a series of areas fighting and evading various creatures and finding a way out, only to get to more areas where you have to fight and evade creatures.

Finally, after what seemed like an exhaustive amount of play, I got to a stage where I was able to play as Kong. I felt the Kong sequence seemed like it had been tacked on as a gimmick rather than an integral part of the game. First of all, it switches to third-person while you're Kong, so the gameplay is totally different. Secondly, it just took me through a series of climbing, jumping, and swinging sequences, which were all accomplished by pressing 1 button to do everything, so it felt more like a glorified cutscene than actual gameplay. Lastly, I had to fight a flying boss, but due to the third person camera angle I could never face the right direction or time it right to punch him each time he swooped in at me. After multiple attempts I finally beat the boss, but ended up feeling more frustrated than thrilled by it.

The next level has me playing as Jack again, and I frankly haven't summoned up the motivation to play any further yet. I understand there are more Kong scenes coming up where you fight dinosaurs, so that might be fun, but the idea of having to play through another couple of hours as Jack doesn't seem worth it to me.

I recently acquired a few other new games for my 360, and I just find it hard to want to go back to this one to finish it. Perhaps there will be some time when I'll decide to finish this game, but for now I have shelved it and don't have a strong desire to keep playing.

All in all, I would say this game is decent for the price and can provide a couple of hours of entertainment, but don't expect to get hooked on it because you will likely lose interest fairly quickly.

King Kong game wasn't really a great game or a terrible one, hence the 3 star rating. The most impressive aspect of this game was how gorgeous gaming enviroment was. The rocks and grass were almost touchable through the tv screen! The only draw back about the graphics were how the actual humans were rendered. They were not was "realistic" as the enviroment that the game was.

Comparing human graphics between two games, the humans in Condemned: Criminal Origins were more realistic, smoother, and less choppy. The game play wasn't too bad, and the game wasn't that hard to complete. Sometimes, things would get a bit repetitive but that's how the game goes. Playing the game in 5.1 surround sound is a plus, you can hear the rain from all directions and when a character talks to you'll hear their voice coming out from a particular speaker from their direction.

Overall, the game is not worth the high price of $59.99. However, if you're bored it is a game to take a shot at renting for a couple days or so. Long lives the king....

If I were simply rating this as the quickest way to get 1000 gamer points (just finish the game) it would be a 5 star review. However that's about all King Kong is good for.

Pros:
-Great voice acting: if you're a fan of Jack Black you will enjoy his comments throughout
-New take on shooters: rather than a display showing how much ammo you have left you click B and your character says how many clips you have left. (You can also go into options to have your remaining ammo displayed)
-Also when you run out of ammo there are plenty of spears to throw at enemies
-Great graphics: Obviously the graphics are now eclipsed by this year's giants, but they are much better than old Xbox games.
-Taking on T-Rexes and V-Rexes as King Kong is a blast!

Cons:
-Very short: you can beat it in one weekend.
-Puzzles are too easy: for every puzzle you light a stick on fire and burn thorn bushes, the only hard part, sometimes, is finding the fire
-Too dark: There are many places where you can't figure out where you're going because you can't see.
-Very linear: The whole time you're in a corridor and all you do is move forward.

I can only recommend this game if you're either a huge Jack Black and King Kong fan or if you want a quick 1000 gamer points. If you're a fan then you've already got this game. If you want easy points you can't beat that price!

The game is both a First Person Adventure and a Third Person Action. You play as a human in the first person adventure sequences, and as Kong himself in the third person sections. Both modes are merged together within the storyline, flowing from one to the other. The story line determines which one you will be playing at any given time.

While playing as the human, you will have to overcome various obstacles and solve puzzles throughout the game. Many of the puzzles include finding handles to turn in order to open doors, or finding fire to burn some bushes blocking your path. While playing as man, it gives you a deep feeling of the `survival' element because ammo is scarce and you will often have to pick up and throw sharp bones or spears at enemies, in order to conserve your resources.

Graphically, this game is amazing. I was truly impressed with the level of detail all throughout this game. The hair on Kong is jaw-dropping and will keep you wondering how in the world the console can generate that amount of detail. The environments are lush and well designed.

While playing as Kong, you will mainly have some platform jumping, which is really easy to do, and mainly fight off dinosaurs and the human savages of the island, destroying their villages as you pass through. Kong's adventure is shorter than man's.

In both modes whenever you are badly injured, the screen turns read, all you have to do is stop or avoid taking damage and you health will recharge itself. There are no health packs in this game. Saving can be done at anywhere in the game however you will sometimes start at the beginning of the chapter of somewhere in the middle. The chapters for each mode aren't long to complete. Some of them are as short as ten minutes or as long as half an hour. Luckily whenever you die, you start not to far from where you were killed off..

Although Kong may lack the depth of game play desired by more advanced gamers, it is a truly unique gaming experience.

The first thing that you will notice is that the graphics and sound are amazing. The next thing you will notice is the game play is slow at least to my preferences. Now the game is better than the movie the movie looked great it just was too corny. Man was it corny I fell asleep. The game provided some mild entertainment but not enough for the hard core gamer. I suggest renting or a purchase for a child under 16.

I had bought this same game for my son for pc, but when we got this one for the xbox 360 there is no comparison...
It has all the features and effects to make it a favorite for us and my son and we would totally recommend it..
If you liked the movie then you will have to love this one as it is just like you are in the movie yourself and you are the one rescueing ann...
All the levels have new tasks to over-come that keeps you on your feet..
One thing i would recommend is that if you have problems getting through a level,,
then just go to you tube,,put in king kong and the level's name,, and watch the video on that level and learn how to get through.
For the price we got this one it is safe to say it is a knock-out......

This was the second game I bought on the 360 about four years ago now. I thought it would be cool to play as King Kong and believe me it is. What other game do you get to play as a giant monkey? The graphics are nothing to write home about, but it is a first person shooter when you play as Jack, but its third person when you play as Kong. It can be fun, but I was also disappointed to find out it was only single player. The back of my box states its a two player game...so unless I haven't unlocked something, the case lists the wrong information...

Play as Kong...its worth it for a discounted price now.