His Review with Ian Abbott
Following the exploits and escapades of the 4 main animal amigos from the Madagascar franchise, this gaming tie-in coincides with the UK release of the third film. Buddying up and following briefings from the penguin mafia, the troop have to put on the finest circus ever seen in the cities of Rome, Pisa, Paris and London in order to escape back to their American homeland.
Aimed at the 5-7+ market, the game successfully builds repetition, learning and discovery into the nooks and crannies of each of the artistic interpretations of the cities in question (is that really Trafalgar Square?). Running parallel to the level design are distinct and recognisable soundtracks and cues from NPC’s attached to each of the city folk which either became gloriously lovable or mind falteringly irritating (those Parisians have a unique vocal response) depending upon my state of mind.
With co-op fun for young gamers firmly in mind, I could either share the fun locally with a sibling/friend/Tracey or if riding solo, take control of both characters, alternating one at a time. Both sets of the character skills are required to complete all of the tasks (Giraffic tightrope walking skills or Lion scaring pigeons were my personal favourites) and optional level objectives which are often set by the irrepressible King Julien who consistently had the wittiest dialogue and delivery throughout the 6hrs it took to complete the game. Escaping from the pesky animal wardens and Officer Dubois who patrol the key areas of the cities was also relatively easy and only had the consequence of a quick respawn to a previous save point if I was caught.
A handful of mini games are offered at the end of each city stage as you operate inside the big top and were replayed with a slight increase in difficulty each time that I found entertaining (and I am certainly NOT the target market). My personal favourites included: chucking desserts and fruit at multiple audiences whilst building up a win streak to unload a sack load of bananas on my opponent, (temporarily paralysing their ability to accrue their own score), and a miniature puzzle platformer navigating my way up, down and across numerous moving circus ephemera to reach the top and display the huge circus banner.
The street layout and city architecture are essentially card board cut outs replicated each time with subtle differences and the collecting missions saw me collecting 10 shoes, 10 pizzas and 10 teapots in very similar locations in each of the levels. However I was encouraged us to scramble over roof tops, smash crates and dance on street lamps to fully explore each location. It is a repetitive game in its design and structure, but young audiences will find the familiarity accessible and no doubt recognise all the artwork and locations from the film. For the targeted age range, it’s a great extension of the filmic world without slavishly tying to the movie and offers a genuinely fun co-op experience for the young gamer.
Her Review with Tracey McGarrigan
Big girl hippos, contagious giraffes, cannon balling zebras, trapeze jumping lions and pizza loving lemurs can only signal the fun return of the Madagascar cast. Convinced that a popular circus tour of Europe will eventually lead them back home to the USA; the troop visit Rome, Pisa, Paris and London, avoiding animal control catchers by donning sunglasses to blend in with the tourists (or jumping up onto ledges as the poor pointy legged officers can’t jump) whilst preparing for every big show along the way in the latest video game Madagascar movie tie-in.
The plot could be wrapped up in a 10 minute box, is fairly undemanding and pokes fun at our EU cousins but does provide opportunity for some acrobatic amusement. Each city has character specific items to collect, nestled in the alleys or hidden atop chimney tops – many of which were tricky to access without genuine team work; utilising the unique abilities of the four playable animals who call out to each other to lend a hand. Though there’s a solo player option, this game is far jollier with two and is ideal for families wanting to play together. Often, a certain area can’t be accessed by one character alone, and requires another character to help out. I found myself talking through how to navigate a section with Ian to get the most elusive treasures – ideal for gamers with a completionist complex – as well as being a great learning tool for little ones. Whilst Gloria dives into a well to unlock a secret area which in turn allows Melman to bounce and trot along the terracotta rooftops of Rome in search of Italian leather shoes to deliver to the brilliantly eccentric, scene-stealing King Julien (who has the best laugh out loud lines), Alex and Marty work together zooming around the cobbled streets of Paris sticking up posters with mango glue in a race against the clock. Each level features the same combination of tasks including find and fetch missions, collect as many items in a given time mini-games or races against the clock, avoiding capture from the evil head animal catcher Dubois as well as circus tricks to perfect in the end of level show.
The tasks are varied just enough and have a good pace which keeps play from getting stagnant. After some funny, frantic, quick-time ticketing in the box office run by monkeys before battling to hand out of snacks to the paying punters where speed can negatively impact on your opponent – thanks for the dumping of many banana’s on my head Ian – the final circus acts involve zooming through the air collecting balloons after being fired from a cannon, jumping through flaming hoops in time to a drum, walking the high-wire whilst avoiding obstacles and flipping on the trapeze – all of which offer a welcome break from the city exploration and can be replayed and honed to perfection from the main menu section.
Overall, the presentation is excellent with the cities (despite having some generous artistic licence with geography) full of happy, intricate details and bright colour pallets whilst the animations of the characters is identikit to their movie counterparts. Hidden passageways, twisting tunnels, roof-top scaffold and underwater-ways reward the exploratory player but younger players will be equally satisfied basically navigating their way through; contributing to the team in order to put on a good show. The characters move smoothly though the environments whilst the soundtrack picks out some stereotypical instrumentation to match the locations, be it twiddly Parisian accordions or stately British brass. This is big top fun with enough to entertain the whole family and is a great accompaniment to the film which hit cinemas this week.
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted is out now for Xbox360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii and 3DS.
