Madagascar 3 – Review

Another movie and another movie tie-in, same old story? Well yes and no as Madagascar 3 has good points and bad ones. This game is primarily aimed at the younger audience and this is reflected in the gameplay. You play as the four main protagonists of the movie in two player missions as you set out to find objects and perform circuses. Our heroes are trying to get back home to New York and they have bought a circus somehow, now they are traveling across the world to get home.

The story is simple as is the gameplay. I have to admit the controls are easy. Jump, special action and move are your choices, you can also swim as Gloria the hippo. Melman the giraffe jumps and sneezes, Alex the lion roars and can perform jumps and swings while Marty can use ramps to jump and reach high places. The ideas behind the gameplay is you perform missions as set out by the penguins, most of these are fetch missions for items you need for the circus. The two player swapping is easy and most of the missions can be done easily. I found the problem to be that during play I was confused as to what I was doing and where I was going. I ran around a lot to find place markers in the shape of animal balloons resembling the character I was playing.

The gameplay is also very repetitive and can get slightly boring. It’s nice to avoid animal control by wearing shades and it gives a slight frantic feel to play and when you get caught you just tap X. There is also multiplayer where you can jump in and out of each others games for two player co-op fun. Kids may like this game but for them it maybe a little simple. The best part is the circus mini games; you get shot out of a cannon, jump hoops of fire, sell tickets, feed the crowd and walk tightropes. These are pretty fun actually and break the missions up well. You can also view stats and trophies during play. There are objectives to complete during missions as well like paint posters, collect shoes or wood. This also helps but these tasks feel a bit meaningless.

It’s a decent game but feels a little bland, the graphics are bright and pretty. Kids will like the colours and bright settings. The characters come to life very well and the various others people in the streets of the cities are also cute. The animal control officers are decent enough but they are very slow and evading them is simple. Just jump on a crate or interact with an object and you are good to go. The sounds are nice and the character voices add a lot to the game. The menus are very simple and easy to get where you want.

This is a nice game with a very simple premise as the gameplay suggests. The two player missions and co-op are nice but the missions themselves are confusing as you will spend a lot of time simply walking around. Fetch missions are aplenty here but the circus mini games help to break up the flow. Not a bad game but not a good one either.

Madagascar 3 – Review, 7.8 out of 10 based on 4 ratings

AB

A gamer that loves to write and play games.

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