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Ratatouille
Score: 78%
ESRB: Everyone
Publisher: THQ
Developer: Heavy Iron Studios
Media: Blu-ray/1
Players: 1
Genre: Platformer (3D)/ Action/ Adventure

Graphics & Sound:
Disney Pixar's Ratatouille for the PS3 does a really good job of pulling off the visual style and feel set up by the movie of the same name. There is a slightly noticeable graphical lift from the 360 version (though that could be caused solely by my personal setup and the difference in definition that I have in the two systems). Remy and the rest of the characters come through pretty good and the levels definitely have that very distinct Paris-based Ratatouille look to them.

Where my problems start with this game is its audio. Oh, the background music isn't bad in its French fun and fancy free way and the sound effects have a nice feel to them that gives the game a bit of a comical air to it. The problems I noticed immediately were during the in-game cut scenes. I found that the character voices were almost always non-existent during these bits. It was quite disheartening to watch the various characters go through the motions of the story, but get no actual information. I did some research and found that no one else seemed to have this problem, and when I tried the game on Geck0 and Psibabe's PS3, I didn't get the issue. Eventually, I tested different audio outputs and found the issue only exists when outputting over the digital optical line. I knew it wasn't a problem with my PS3 or surround sound system itself because other games seemed to work perfectly fine. So if you do get this game, be aware of the setup on your machine.

Until I figured out what was going on, I tried tons of options to play the game through and I managed to get through it, but only because I had played the game on another platform before. Quite frankly, the fact that I got no vocals from the game would have been a mere footnote instead of a full paragraph if I could either skip the cut scenes or at least turn on subtitles.


Gameplay:
Disney Pixar's Ratatouille lets you go through the motions of the movie by the same name. You will control everybody's favorite Little Chef, Remy, as he tries to fulfill his dreams of creating the best foods and helping his new friend, Linguini, and avoid the restaurant's head chef, Skinner.

Most of the game takes on a platformer feel as you scurry around various locations that seem like they could be from the movie. For the most part, you will run through these very linear levels trying to pick up all the collectibles or complete various missions given to you by other rats. Everything is pretty much straightforward and easy to follow. There were a couple of times when I felt like I didn't quite know what I needed to do next, but those points were pretty infrequent. While there are typically a lot of areas to explore in each of the levels, there isn't really a need to do a lot of exploring.

As you play through the game, you will also unlock mini-games (like cooking with Linguini) and tons of extras like artwork.


Difficulty:
Disney Pixar's Ratatouille is definitely geared towards the younger gamers. While there are a few parts in the game that will leave even some of the more experienced players a little frustrated, most of the game can be run through pretty quickly and younger gamers might find it at just the right level of difficulty to make it challenging but still fun. The only real problem I had was the few times when I felt like I didn't have quite as much direction as I would have liked, or at least the next step wasn't exactly obvious when I completed a task.

Game Mechanics:
Disney Pixar's Ratatouille has pretty basic controls and should be picked up fairly easily by anyone who's played other action/platformers. Movement and camera control are done with the analog sticks while attacks are performed with the Square and you interact with objects with the (Circle). These are typically jumping onto nets, poles or lines and tapping (Circle) lets you hold onto these objects. For ropes, you will land on the line and be able to walk across, but you will have to maintain your balance as you do by either titling your SIXAXIS or your left stick. I found the stick to be the better option in this case because the controller just didn't seem to respond quite like I wanted and I would always fall off. In fact, I found it best just to turn off the motion sensing option in the game's menu because it never really worked quite as well as the buttons.

Ratatouille for the PS3 feels just the same as it did on the others systems, so unless you are really jonesing for a new PS3 title and you haven't tried this one out yet, I wouldn't really recommend this version, especially since I had audio problems. If you still want it, definitely rent it first to make sure you don't have the same issues I did.


-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications
AKA Chris Meyer

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