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Home >
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> Results: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
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by Cary Woodham
August 07, 2005
Youﾒve got a golden ticket to explore Wonkaﾒs mystical chocolate factory!
Reviewed for PS2.
Also available for GC, PC, XBOX.
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Scroll down for our Kid Factor.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for the big home consoles is based on this year's summer movie, which is a remake of an older movie, which, in turn, is all based on a classic children's book. Get all that? Eccentric candy maker Willy Wonka has initiated a contest. Five golden tickets are hidden inside his Wonka candy bars. Whoever finds a ticket gets a tour of Wonka's grand candy and chocolate factory. Four bratty kids and one poor but honest kid each find a golden ticket. You play as the poor but honest kid, Charlie Bucket. Keep the other brats out of trouble while you help Wonka and the Oompa Loompas save the factory!
This is a pretty standard 3D platformer, but there are some puzzle elements as well. Wonka lets Charlie take command of the Oompa Loompas in his factory. If you've ever played the "Clank Missions" in Ratchet and Clank games, you'll kind of know what to expect here except Clank's game is more fun. In each level of the factory you'll have to find Oompa Loompas. You can command them to follow you around, wait in their position, operate machines, and other tasks. Some Oompa Loompas have special skills that you'll have to utilize to help out Wonka and get the other kids in the tour out of trouble.
You'll explore every nook and cranny in the factory, from the Chocolate Room to the Television Room. Aside from jumping and running, Charlie can use special "Candy Powers" like throwing Gobstoppers, exploding candies, or fly with Fizzy Flight Soda. Collect scattered items like Wonka-Vite to increase your energy, Lollidoodles to fill your "Candy Power" meter, and lots of other crazy collectibles that neither me, nor the instruction manual, or even the game knows what they're for, like Wonka Bars and Square Candies that Look Round.
Graphics aren't really much like the movie, with this game they went with more of a style that looked like the illustrations in the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory book that I had when I was a kid. The graphic style also kind of reminded me of the stop motion animated movie James and the Giant Peach, which is also a children's book written by the same author. Music is forgettable and repetitive, but there are plenty of voice samples not taken from the movie. Whole scenes are narrated to explain the story by a narrator who sounds like he's drunk, what with all his slurred speech. Play control feels slightly loose, and the bad camera angles and invisible walls don't help either. With the unclear goals and sloppy gameplay, this is one chocolate factory tour you may want to skip out on.
Basic gameplay, simple controls, and little to no violence make this a seemingly acceptable kids game. All the text in the game is coupled with spoken voice, so little to no reading skill is required. Trying to figure out what to do with your Oompa Loompa army and knowing what you have to do in the stages can be rather unclear sometimes, even though you can press a button to get hints from Grandpa Joe. Unclear goals coupled with mediocre gameplay and visuals make this one kids' game your young gamers may get bored with. Get them the book instead!
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Video Games
> Results: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
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