The Golden Compass
SCORE: 62
I am walking on eggshells
while I review The Golden Compass on the Nintendo DS. This E10+ rated
video game is the most controversial topic of the entire year (editor:
2007) that Family Friendly Gaming has tackled. The books have been
labeled as anti-Christian hate speech by plenty of minds better than
myself. I have read exerpts out of the books, and have been dismayed at
the open attacks on Christians. This is the video game based on the
movie that have both been watered down in an attempt to make the content
have a broader appeal. The first thing I noticed is how the children are
empowered, and the authority figures are shown as bad. The problem with
this outlook is eventually those promoting it will be in power, and then
they can only expect the same disrespect from the next generation.
There are few movie based video games that have appealed to me. For some
reason, developers spend so much money acquiring the license that they
have a much lower budget for the video game. Blame the over the top
greed of the owner of The Golden Compass rights. The graphics are a
disappointing 2D side scrolling where some depth is added to give the
illusion of 3D. There are multiple paths in some areas, but only used to
avoid obstacles. There is violence as the animals/daemons fight people,
and other animals/daemons.
The musical content is decent in The Golden Compass for the Nintendo DS.
I enjoyed some of the orchestra, even though it did get a little
repetitive. There is good and bad dialogue in this hand held video game.
I was not fond of the deception, but asking someone not to take revenge
was a nice touch.
There are an amazing amount of levels in The Golden Compass, and many of
them are challenging even on the easy setting. There is little reason to
replay The Golden Compass though. In fact after certain levels were
beaten I never wanted to see them again.
The players daemon which is tied to her soul adds some gameplay
mechanics in order to progress in the game. There are some spots where
skills have not been used in awhile, and a hint would have been nice. I
found myself stuck more than once with no idea how to get by. I would
have to switch between daemon forms just to figure out what to do. I
would think whatever is needed should have been defaulted in that area.
Witches, daemons, and a disrespect for authority figures are biggest
problems in this video game. The Golden Compass is an obvious Chronicles
of Narnia clone, but a mirror reflection. The Golden Compass is also
much darker than Narnia ever was. It is your decision whether this
warrants a purchase or not.
- Luke
Graphics: 62%
Sound: 70%
Replay/Extras: 68%
Gameplay: 62%
Family Friendly Factor: 50%
System: Nintendo DS
Publisher: Sega
Rating: 'E10+' for Everyone 10+
{Mild Fantasy Violence}
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