Where the Wild Things Are review

Strangely lacking in imagination

GamesRadar+ Verdict

Pros

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    Record your own monster-scaring roar

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    Some nice design ideas

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    Levels arranged in layers

Cons

  • -

    By-the-numbers platforming

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    Characters move like cardboard cutouts

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    Forces annoying retracing of steps

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Aside from the option to record your own monster-scaring roar with the DS mic, Where the Wild Things Are is a largely by-the-numbers platformer based on the children’s book (well, the film of the book, predictably). Playing as wolf-suited hero Max, you have to round up the book’s monsters and use their various abilities – rock-throwing, rock-smashing, thorn-trampling – to get through levels, collecting items on the way.

There are some nice design ideas, with the monsters looking reasonably like their literary counterparts (albeit moving like cardboard cutouts) and levels arranged in layers that have you warping forwards and backwards, into and out of the screen – although the portions of each world can look so similar it’s easy to lose track of where you are, causing annoying step-retracing. There’s really nothing new here, but it’s a better than average film tie-in.

Jan 14, 2010

More info

GenreFamily
DescriptionThis is a charming little romp through one small boy’s imagination, even if it has an annoying camera and some repetitive combat.
Platform"Xbox 360","PS3","Wii","DS"
US censor rating"Everyone 10+","Everyone 10+","Everyone 10+","Everyone 10+"
UK censor rating"12+","12+","12+","12+"
Release date1 January 1970 (US), 1 January 1970 (UK)
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