Format: Advance
Genre: Adventure
Developer: Saffire
Publisher: Sierra

It was the best of Shires, it was the Worcestershires. Based off the popular book of the same name (and possibly the movie as well?), this game follows the adventures of Bilbo Baggins as he travels on an adventure with Gandalf and a boisterous gang of dwarves to go defeat the dread dragon Smaug. The game plays fairly well as an action adventure game, with a control scheme similar to that of the zelda series or secret of mana. You play Bilbo, a hobbit who has no aspirations for adventure. Practically forced to go along, Gandalf guides you and the dwarves across middle-earth towards the lonely mountain, home of the dwarves(?). I think that's how the story goes anyways. The gameplay itself is the highlight of this game, although the storytelling is also on point. Gollum in this game looks fairly weird compared to his other incarnations, but all the same it's told just as well as in the books. Gameplay wise, your hobbit is equipped with the ability to climb up fairly high ledges, the ability to jump very small gaps, and the ability to "sneak" with the R button. Using all these features, the player makes his way through several areas such as the forest, the mountains, and crypts. Along the way you get new gadgets, tools, and weapons such as the sword 'sting'. The stick weapon you get can be charged up by holding it's action button. Reminiscent of link's awakening, you can hold 2 items, they don't have to be a weapon. Defeating enemies such as the rats or bats or wolves or bees you meet along the way can yield many things. Often dropped are apples or drumsticks which add to your food supply. Hobbits have the magical ability to recover health by +5 whenever they eat. That means getting a good storage of food is always a good idea. Enemies can also drop other things like tokens(collect 50 for a 1-up), rocks, fireworks, and "thunder-claps"(rockets). The game maintains a fairly light and adventurous tone throughout the game and isn't all that hard. The few exceptions are around water. For some reason Bilbo drowns fast and hard in water. This can easily lead to a very fast game over if you have trouble getting over even a small amount of liquid. There are also several collectibles in game that will help power up your hobbit into a feral murder machine. Skill Runes increase power, Defense runes increase defense, and Life runes increase your max HP. Often these runes are a bit out of the way, 9 of each of them. The graphics are a bit droll and faded, which is what you would expect out of a medieval era landscape. In that regard they nailed it. The landscape is also fairly defined, so you won't normally be trying to squeeze through something that you can't fit through. This game has quite a lot of fighting to it as well, and the bosses are quite a bit strange. Personally speaking, I rather enjoyed this game as it was a welcome break with an enjoyable story. Well done, and the audio was fairly good as well.

HOT TIPS: ~ELROND is the bridge password. ~In the Final Tomb: Firecracker the skull in the top left to reveal the 3rd secret hidden switch to progress.

All in All, This game earned a 9 for it's score. Most of this game's downfalls come from very specific instances. one-time dialogues with progression locked codes. Some enemy sounds were unsettlingly deep. Unknown hidden method of progression in the Final Tomb. Unclear conditions when you're able to "jump" over water. Lack of necessary tutorial mechanics in general. Has Elves.