Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – GBA – Review

It’s got
to happen every time: A dazzling visual effects-driven movie comes out, and
there must be a tie-in videogame. It’s the law. However, unlike other laws,
there is no accountability when things go wrong.

Charlie and
the Chocolate Factory is a new movie from Tim Burton. It is not a remake of
the “play loose with the novel” Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,
but a movie based more on the classic story, with one of the author’s relatives
as one of the Producers. So, it’s more faithful to the vision of Roald Dahl
(though I still love the older version as well). The GBA game of the same name,
however, is horribly disappointing in almost every aspect.

It is a
rehash of various side-scrolling action games. Whereas some games might pay
tribute by borrowing the best of another game’s attributes, C&tCF seems
to have tapped the worst qualities of similar games and compiled them into a
game that’s a mere footnote to a decent film.

You play as
the main character, Charlie Bucket. There is a warm and fuzzy non-audio
narrative at the start, which is just how the movie begins. So far, so good.
Then, once the first game level starts, the magic ends. You must jump, push and
crawl your way through obstacles trying to accomplish a goal for each brief
level. You can move objects, or enlist the help of Oompa-Loompas where needed.
They can retrieve things you can’t get to, or operate as your hands while you
tend to other tasks. That adds some attempted “puzzling” action to the game,
which is fun when it’s done well, but these puzzles are just annoying. Some are
difficult in a bad way. Not in a invigorating “challenge my brain” way, but more
in the sobering “Please let this game end soon” way.

There are
some side-games that would play fine on a cell phone, but come off terrible on
the GBA. They’re unlockable, so without cheat codes, you have to earn
them. It’s not worth it. I find that I had to remind myself to go play them when
I’d get the rights. Unlike most games, I wasn’t dashing off to play the extras I
had worked so hard to win.

The audio
tracks are repetitious and clumsy. You get the feel that you’re stuck behind a
noisy ice-cream truck rather than a tribute to a decent movie score by Danny
Elfman. The event sounds are generic and clinky as well. I always play my GBA
games with headphones to maximize the experience. As well as bringing out the
best in a game, it painfully exposes the worst. So, I unplugged myself and let
the tiny speaker fill the air, which was far worse. I ended up turning the
volume completely off.

The graphics
are way ahead of the rest of the game, and its sole saving grace — if there is
one. The movie is full of expressive colors and variations that shows months of
planning and creation — to fully display Dahl’s graphical vision. I have read
that he would have loved to see this version. The game stays very close to that
look, which is a real challenge with the small system. The colors “pop” and
aside from a few situations, there isn’t too much “blurring” where colors blend
into others to make playing more difficult. Charlie is lanky and resembles
(Where’s?) Waldo, but that’s just the way he is. If you know a little about the
film, there is one actor (Deep Roy) playing the whole Oompa Loompa troupe. He is
decently represented in the game. I give them credit for obtaining the looks
that they did — given the scale of difficulty with such colorful material to
convert to this kind of medium.

This is a game
for kids. It shouldn’t be, as the book/movie is not geared specifically for a
child, but the game will make a seasoned, gaming adult, very annoyed. The
levels are short and not worth the trouble of navigating some of the jumps and
maneuvers. Hey — throw in a double-jump or something to make it more
interesting! It’s (sadly) just a tired re-tread of many other scrolling games.
You’ve played it before, and didn’t like it then, either.

Gameplay: 4.5
It’s easy to learn.
There’s just a couple of buttons to use, and a lot of walking. Interaction with
the ‘Loompas makes for some (brief) interesting moments. Once you’re in the
action, it’s just a lot of repetition and some occasional use of the noggin for
some puzzles. Move this there to make that thing go – wherever. Same
game, different name.

Graphics: 7.0
The graphics stand
out as the only part that makes the game worth taking a second glance at. Though
not enough to warrant purchase, the colors and eye-candy are very well done. The
book is very expressive, as was the movie. They did a fine job cramming a good
look into a tiny format such as the GBA. Some of the smaller objects tend to
blend into the backgrounds, but that’s an inherent quality of this tiny format.

Sound: 5.0
The music is
simplistic and annoying. Jumping and moving things generates generic noises like
a broken jack in box. I get the feeling the sounds were pulled off “Fun House
Sound Effects Vol. IV”.

Difficulty: Easy
The game’s challenges are within its inability to move well, and create
situations where you rely on other characters to help you. They aren’t always
good at it. Lots of micro-managing employees who don’t even work for you (yet)!!

Concept: 4.5
I can only score this as high as it is for the graphical achievements. They
were able to faithfully deliver some of the visual appeal of the film, if not
the wide-eyed wonderment. It seems that no attempt was made to make this
an original game at all. It is a uninspiring romp through worn-out clichés of
side-action scrolling games.

Overall: 5.0
The prized glass elevator can’t even lift your spirits on this one. It’s not
much fun once the opening text narrative ends. Then, it’s
poke-yourself-to-stay-awake action. There are some mild perks when you encounter
WW and the Oompas, but the thrill is gone faster than a candy bar in Augusta
Gloop’s pocket. You also get put to work in helping undo some of the messes the
kids get into. Yay. Isn’t that what they pay the help to do? The real brats here
are the ones that tried to tie-in so easily with a decent movie – hoping the
momentum would be enough to sell this game and people won’t care that it was
poorly executed. In the world of repeatability and replay value, this is no
Ever-lasting Gobstopper!