by:	December 02, 2005

King Kong on the Xbox 360 stands head and toe above the other versions (Xbox/PS2/Cube) in the graphics department. This isn’t some poor port like GUN or Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland. You can see visually the improvement that King Kong has graphically. The lighting is amazing and is such a pleasure to see. The effects have been anted up such as fire effects, the breathing of characters and gun shots too. The textures of every creature and character are better and delightful to play through the game entire game. There have been reports of the other console version having frame rate problems; this isn’t the case for the 360. I haven’t encountered an obstruction that halted the frame rate ever while playing King Kong.

What about the HD Difference? Spectacular! If you have a HDTV, make sure this is among the first games you play on your 360 for it. The levels are darker, scarier and just bleed through the screen with beautiful graphics. Of course on a regular television, the levels still look better than the other consoles but the real difference is when you play it on a HDTV.

The regular Xbox version runs better than PS2/Cube version but does stutter from time to time. Compared to the 360 version, the Xbox version looks decent but when played on an HDTV, the Xbox version falls way behind. By itself, the Xbox stands up nicely for the console is among the prettiest games to be released in the past few months.



The audio is stellar due to that the film’s cast lent their voice for the development team. Jack Black, Naomi Watts and even a little dialogue from Adrien Brody are all included so pay attention and you’ll be in for a real treat. If you have a home theatre system that supports surround sound, be prepared to listen to the magical roars of every beast that will give you chills. When King Kong beats his chest and gives his almighty roar, I wanted to be there next to him beating my chest yelling “READY TO DIE!” When running through brushes, the effects are heard. When on the rowboat going to the island, the thunderclouds and waves bellow loudly.

King Kong is nice step in the right direction for movie based video games. It could have used another two hours of gameplay and maybe a few mini-games to go along with it. A worthy addition that would have caught my attention right away would have been if they actually included a ticket to the movie like Aeon Flux just did. I am hoping Michel Ancel recognizes that his games are a little too short and needs a few more puzzle elements. If he includes this next time around in his next game, not only am I set for a long adventure but one that has me thinking on my toes on what to do. I love his games and they continue to amaze me. Just hope next time I can enjoy it for more than one sitting.

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Only way I wouldn't recommend this game is if you don't want to be spoiled by the ending. If you want to be totally surprised by the movie itself, avoid this until you watch the movie and then play this. The game is too short but for how much you put into it, you'll get a lot out of the experience.

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