Disney Pixar's Ratatouille
Score: 80% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: THQ Developer: Heavy Iron Studios Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - 4 Genre: Platformer (3D)/ Adventure/ Action
Graphics & Sound: Graphically, Disney/Pixar's newest movie-turned-game, Ratatouille, is okay at best. It's not to say that the overall visuals are poor, but there are some inconsistencies in quality and workmanship within. Following the movie's cartoony look and feel, the game by the same name is presented with a semi-realism that works. While the visuals aren't necessarily spectacular, the animations of the main rat character work well, and are at times, funny and cute even. The music has a strange appeal to it. With the same Italian-style melody constantly playing continuously in the background, you'd think it may get old, fast. But it doesn't. For whatever reason, the music has a slightly upbeat personality to it that keeps it fresh. The sound fx are a standard mix of cartoon-inspired sounds and real-world additions that fit the bill quite well. Unfortunately, the voice acting has a bit of work to make the storyline a bit more interesting.
Gameplay: While I have yet to see the film release of Ratatouille, the game does seem like it is loosely based on the movie. Your main controllable character, Remy (the Rat), gets caught putting items into a soup that ends up tasting great. So the main human character, Linguini, makes a deal with Remy to obtain help becoming a chef. However, as far as the gameplay goes for Ratatouille, you'll spend most of your time trying to collect 100 stars and other miscellaneous objects in typical platforming fashion, all as a side to the main goal of completing missions handed down to you from the other rats. Ratatouille's single-player gameplay is quite linear in nature when it comes to the paths that you'll take for each individual mission. With that said, you are able to attack different missions at almost any time with the ability to walk around and "enter" into the different areas where missions take place. While the missions are certainly different from each other in specifics, you will likely feel déjà vu many times over from the generally similar objectives. However, it should be said that the game ends up playing out quite long, and considering that ability to go back and play if you missed side missions, the replay value of Ratatouille is quite good. Increasing the replayability further, as you work your way through the game, you'll be earning points toward buying, and unlocking, different game modes, movies, and a lot of other things. Within these unlockables are single-player and multiplayer mini-games, adding even more to the value.
Difficulty: While Ratatouille may appeal, and may be somewhat geared toward the younger crowd (it is rated "Everyone" after all), there are often some challenges that may be quite difficult for small gamers. Some instances are that of what amounts to giant slides, which have you turning and jumping with precision. Fall even a few times, and you'll have to start from scratch at the beginning. Other mini-missions can be a bit tricky as well, or require a bit of thought to do correctly. Thankfully, when in doubt, your rat has the ability to sniff into the air and you'll be treated to a plume of blue smoke that trails toward your next objective. Parents be warned, however, you just may need to help your little ones with a few difficult spots.
Game Mechanics: The controller scheme is also very low-maintenance, perfect for early-years gamers. Most of what you will have to do is mapped to the (X) and (O) buttons, which are jump and action, respectively. You'll also be able to get a speed burst (R1) and have to sniff (L1) to find your way once in a while, but this happens relatively little in the grand scheme of things. But the simple controls are accompanied by a major problem -- the camera. When your character is out in the open, the camera follows you well and has relatively few issues. However, when you have to quickly run and hide in a corner to not get spotted by any number of people/animals, the camera will often position itself so that you cannot see the action and have to come out of hiding in order to manually move the camera around again. Other than some small complaints, Ratatouille plays like many other movie platform games geared toward the younger crowd, but fun enough for other gamers as well. There will likely be certain spots of extreme difficulty for the youngest of gamers, but a decent challenge for those who have played these types of games before.
-Woody, GameVortex Communications AKA Shane Wodele
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