Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (Xbox 360) Review
Posted by Joe Roche on 01.21.2009
It's a family game, aimed at the "casual" gaming market, that consists of a bunch of mini games based on a movie license. With all of that working against it, see if Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa The Game can succeed where so many others have failed.
Title: Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
Publisher: Dreamworks
Developer: Activision
Genre: Family/Platform
Players: 1-4 (8 player online multiplayer)
Rated: E 10+
Rarely (if ever) will a game appeal to everyone. It is with this statement in mind that I approached Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. This game was not designed with me in mind. This is a family game, it is designed for the all important “casual” gamer, and while I like to think of myself as a casual person, I would not be welcome at the “casual” gamer headquarters. It’s with that in mind that I thought I needed to get a second opinion on Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, so I enlisted the services of the TFC Princess. Now before the 411Mania copyright police come after me: this is not the Gamer Girlfriend.
My lovely wife does very much fit into the “casual” gamer niche, and she enjoys animated films which puts her right in the M2:EFA wheelhouse. My wife loved the first Madagascar movie, she actually got a kick out of the demo for this game, and with all of that on my side I enlisted her to participate in this review. I did play Madagascar 2, and this review will reflect that, but I also watched her play, and I got a pretty good feeling of what she liked, and didn’t like as well. I actually think that this process gave me a fairer picture of the game, and led to a better overall review then would have been gleaned from my personal experience alone.
Before getting into an actual review of the game I will say this – if you’re a fan of the movie franchise, or your wife or children enjoyed Madagascar 2 then they will probably have a modicum of fun playing this game. As someone who spent some time just watching this game being played by someone else I can tell that a lot of time and effort went into recreating the feeling of the movie. For fans of the movie that’s a good thing, for me it was a bit tedious. In both a positive and negative light this game was a pretty accurate representation of the movie that it was licensed from.
Graphics:
Developers who tackle the video game licensing of an animated movie are always confronted with an interesting task. Basically you’re just shrinking down the film and putting it into video game form. What I mean is that a live action movie like Batman takes a bit more creativity on the road to becoming a video game because you’re not already dealing with characters that have been previously animated. The trick when creating a video game like Madagascar 2 is to provide an accurate representation of the film’s backdrop and characters. On this front I’d have to say that this game succeeds.
For those who haven’t seen the movie the four main characters are Alex, Marty Melman, and Gloria. However, there are supporting characters that are both playable and move the story along in the form of King Julien, Maurice, Mort, and a couple other characters that play peripheral roles in the game (Moto Moto, and some crazy penguins off the top of my head). All of these characters have been faithfully reproduced in this game and look very good. One thing that I thought brought some level of realism (if that’s possible in a game based on an animated film) is that when you’d play a mini game as a character that is developed as being incredibly tiny, the entire world felt bigger. I know it’s a small detail but it’s one that I was happy about. The entire game would have felt awkward had I been playing as this little creature and yet the alligators that are trying to eat me seem to be the same size as I am.
Graphically the most important part of Madagascar 2 is the cut scenes. I say that because there are a LOT of cut scenes. This game is basically a series of mini games sandwiched between cut scenes and the only saving grace of the incredible number of cut scenes is that they’re animated pretty well. It’s actually pretty impressive how the game captures the true spirit of the movies, and does a solid job of animated the cut scenes so that you feel like you’re watching the movie. I was never a big fan of the Madagascar series, but I can say that the cut scenes do look like they’re almost outtakes from the movies which is a testament to the team responsible for creating them.
Sound:
The key to a game based on a movie that relies heavily on cut scenes is the sound, and especially the voice acting. One of the biggest pitfalls of movie licensed games is when the voice actors do not reprise their roles in the game. Now, I am not an expert at voice work, but it does seem as if all the stars from the movies are represented here. The movie voices are done by Ben Stiller (Alex), Jada Pinkett Smith (Gloria), David Scwhimmer (Melman), Chris Rock (Marty), and Sasha Baron Cohen (King Julien). If those same actors aren’t doing the voice work in this game then the people doing the work are good enough that you can’t really tell in the end. Even the peripheral sounds aren’t bad, with the recreated African wilderness represented by Elephant, and monkey sounds and the splash of water when an alligator snaps his jaws. All in all I’d say the sound is pretty well done in this game.
Gameplay:
And this is where it all unraveled for me. First and foremost when a game is predominantly cut scenes you are bound to wear out your audience. The TFC Princess got to the point where she couldn’t stand the cut scenes anymore. There were many times after the first few hours of gameplay that she simply just clicked through any cut scene because she just couldn’t stand to deal with them. That’s not a good sign for a game that spends a lot of time as cut scenes. I think the TFC Princess could have played through Metal Gear Solid 4 in three hours.
The other problem that she had (and I shared) was the controls. I mean c’mon Activision, this is a platformer that you’re gearing towards children, and there is absolutely no excuse for my character to handle like a four cylinder hatchback in the mud. For those who don’t follow that logic – most of the characters are very jerky, and difficult to maneuver. There will be times that you’ll try to jump from a ledge to a rock in the water and you’ll touch the joystick and fly off to the right and to your death for no real reason. This happens WAY more then it should and at one point resulted in the TFC Princess just yelling “I’m sick of this game” which is a quote that you’ll never see in a TV commercial.
A better example of my gripe with the controls is that there are many mini games that require you to either race/drive/or hit some specific marks while running that are increasingly difficult because of the clunky controls. It is very difficult to move some of the characters right or left while they’re running. Honestly, the best way to describe the controls of clunky. If Prince of Persia had the Madagascar 2 controls you’d be jumping off ledges and towards your death 9 times out of 10.
As far as the game itself it follows the same story as the movie. There are a handful of different regions that you’ll gain access to as you progress through the game with various mini games that you must complete to unlock the next region. Some of the mini games are actually pretty fun (racing as Marty), while others are just horrible (soccer game against King Julien). I will say this – the TFC Princess wanted to play this game, which almost never happens so clunky controls aside I guess Activision hit the mark with Madagascar 2 on that front.
The other MAJOR problem that the TFC Princess had with this game is the auto save mechanic. I’m not sure if anyone has ever had this problem before but she would play the game for a couple of hours, wait for the auto save to be complete, turn the console off, and when she would come back the game would no longer be saved. I know that this happened to her at least twice and almost completely ruined the experience for her. Honestly this is a much bigger problem clunky controls because it almost derailed her playing of the game completely. I can’t think of any reason why this would happen but it did, and that to me is inexcusable.
Fun Factor and Lasting Appeal:
As I said above the TFC Princess actually enjoyed herself playing this game (when she wasn’t getting frustrated with the controls). I chalk that up to the fact that it’s not terribly difficult so “casual” gamers can pick it up and play well. Also the game follows a pretty simple story so it’s mindless fun, but with that it is actually fun for some people. I’d suggest that if you have kids then this game is right up their alley, or if you’re like me and you have a wife who you want (or who wants to herself) get into gaming this might be a good starting point. The game requires little attention to detail, and does present itself in an easy pick up and play format.
As far as the lasting appeal goes if you enjoy the game it actually has quite a bit of lasting appeal. As you progress through the game you will unlock various mini games that become available to you in the Africa Arcade. Once unlocked you and up to 4 friends locally and 8 friends over multiplayer can take control of your favorite character from the game and partake in some mini game trash talk. The fact that there is local multiplayer in this game immediately makes it one that will stay in our house for some time because it offers us a chance to play together as opposed to some games which provide only online multiplayer. Sure the controls might not be great, but it’s a family friendly game that rewards you for progressing through the story, and provides numerous mini games that you can play against your friends later on.
Do I think that I’d keep Madagascar 2 in my Xbox 360 disc drive if it wasn’t for the TFC Princess? Nope. But will this game stay around my house longer then something like Viking did? Yep, and that game was meant for gamers like me, so who wins that argument?
Of course there was the major fun factor deduction taken for the auto save system blanking out my wife’s saved game and causing her to return to her 46% complete game to find it reduced to 0% complete. I give her credit for going back over the mini games and playing through the game again (twice) because I would not have had the patience to do that.
The 411:
From the moment I fired up Madagascar 2 it was working from a position of weakness with me. I didn’t have low hopes, I had no hopes. I very rarely find much to like about movie licensed video games, and when they’re based on a franchise like Madagascar, and come with pegged as a “family friendly” game I pretty much tune out. That’s why I enlisted my family to play this game along with me so that I could get a point of view that wasn’t tainted by years of video game snobbery, and in the end I think Madagascar 2 deserves some credit for what it did.
Of course I have to take some points away for what I feel is developer laziness, namely the poor controls. I’m not sure if it was simply a product of not caring much about the controls in order to get this game into the market as quickly as possible to capitalize on the movie, or what – but the controls in this game are horrendous. Also the save system malfunction was a major drawback to me that I would warn anyone against who is starting this game.
In the end though Madagascar 2 deserves credit for doing what it sets out to do – it creates a game that “casual” gamers will enjoy, that has a decent lasting appeal and capitalizes on a movie license. Sure this isn’t my type of game but it’s tough to argue that it doesn’t do enough to at least warrant a rental from any casual gamer.
Graphics
8.5
While not beautiful by any means, it captures the essence of the film and the cut scenes are well animated.
Gameplay
6.5
While my wife had a good time with this game, most seasoned gamers will be completely thrown off by clunky controls and save game problems
Sound
7.0
Voice acting is pretty solid, the rest of the sound is a bit monotonous.
Lasting Appeal
7.5
If you're a fan of the game/movie then you'll find plenty of reasons to keep playing the mini games in the Africa Arcade
Fun Factor
7.0
While the mini games, and local multiplayer add to the fun the clunky controls really hurt this game overall.
