The Polar Express (TimeMage)
Format: Advance
Genre: 2d platformer
Developer: Tantalus Interactive Pty. Ltd.
Publisher: THQ Inc.

Review
This game is a movie game, and plays a lot like a barbie styled collectathon with 22 levels and super imposed shots of the movie(?) as cutscenes to tell the story. The gameplay is a sidescroller platform styled game. Walk around, jump on objects, gather candy canes and bells to advance. All in all, the game handles pretty basically, it does have smart-ladder grabbing which is nice. There isn't all that much difficulty but at the same time there's not all that much variance. The Train-Control levels can be a bit cheap at times. 1/4th a second reactions or just pause game to see what's coming up. I've never seen this movie but I assume it's a horror movie based off the creepy clown doll level and santa's workshop having more ways to kill the player than toys. The graphics for the cutscenes can be pretty funny at times, and the billy slide was pretty hilarious, but took a few tries to beat it. The last level was literally flappy bird... I don't know what they were thinking on that one.

All in All, I think this game deserves it's rating, since it had challenge but was very bland and basic. Some of the music was good, other parts felt monotonous. Can't expect much out of a movie game.

TimeMage's verdict: