E3: King Kong First Impressions

Long live the king! We take a look at Ubisoft's massive game tie-in of Peter Jackson's King Kong.

This Christmas, one of Hollywood's biggest creations will come back to life - not only on the silver screen, but in living rooms as well. The creative force behind King Kong is three-time Academy Award Winner Peter Jackson, who is realizing his life-long dream of re-making the 1933 classic film. He is relying on Award-winning Videogame creator Michel Ancel to bring Kong to the film-based videogame.

It's no secret that many videogames based on films turn out to be just a lame marketing ploy. But with these two greatly imaginative people at the head of the King Kong the game, there's a good chance it will turn out to be a thoroughly great entertainment experience.

The game is divided in two parts. You start out playing a first-person shooter in the role of the hero of the movie, Jack Driscoll. At some points you get to play King Kong himself in a very interesting Kong vs. Godzilla type mode; fighting off dinosaurs and monsters that live in Skull Island. Both modes look very interesting and seem to blend well with each other.

As far as the graphics go, things are very simple but highly effective. Although the team isn't relying entirely on graphics to impress (a good story and interesting characters are promised for one thing) the highest point visually is the use of textures and particles for a very realistic jungle atmosphere.

AI is certainly worth mentioning; The interaction between monsters is great; and in order to succeed players must work along with the rest of the members of the expedition crew. On a related note, some of the characters follow the story and characters of the movie, as well as using the likeness and voice of the actors playing the parts like actors Jack Black and Naomi Watts.

One highlight is the gane's incredible cinematic value; being that the game is based on a story and characters of a feature film it should set out to do them justice, and it does with grace and vision.

Michel Ancel definitely knows how to create an interesting videogame using the same language of film, and our hpes are high that many gamers will be agreeing when King King hits consoles at the end of the year. Stay tuned for much more coverage.

Kijas Rodriguez
Contributor, Kikizo Games