Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole
Xbox 360 (also for PS3, Wii)
Krome Studios/Warner Bros. Interactive
Rating: Everyone 10+
Score: 3 (out of 5)
I love owls. (Oh, really? Yes, really.) Of all nature's weird avian creations - ostriches, penguins, Seasame Street's Big Bird - owls are by far the coolest. If you need additional proof, do a YouTube search for Transformer Owl, and prepare to have your mind blown.
Despite my owl love, I had never heard of Kathyrn Lasky's Guardians of Ga'Hoole books. Aimed at younger readers, it's a sweeping series of 15 novels that have been adapted into a just-released movie directed by Zack Snyder of Sin City, 300 and Watchmen fame.
Except instead of homicidal hookers, muscular Spartans or giant blue ding-dongs, Legend of the Gurardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole has kid-friendly CGI birds. And, to no great surprise, a tie-in video game.
What is surprising about The Owls of Ga'Hoole game is it's not terrible, as far as movie-to-game adaptations go. It does assume that players know and (hopefully) love Lasky's world of talking, sentient owls - it's kind of like Lord of the Rings, with hooting birds - and that they'll be emotionally invested in a video game about that world.
Players take on the role of Shard, a young owl whose fate is swept up in events larger than he, in classic fantasy form. From start to finish, the game plays as a sort of feathered flight combat experience, with dozens of midair dogfights (owlfights?), escort missions, bombing runs with hot embers and so on. Put propellers on these birds and it would almost feel like a kiddie spinoff of Crimson Skies.
The game plays reasonably - perhaps even surprisingly - well, with solid controls and visuals. Diving into canyons, banking around giant trees and going talon-to-talon with enemies with the game's simple target-and-attack system is reasonably fun.
At least, for the first hour or so. But despite the eventual addition of new attacks, armour options (yes, your little owl can wear metal armour - don't even get me started) and changes of scenery across the five game environments, it all quickly gets repetitive. It's possible to plow through the 22 story missions in just a few hours, though, so maybe that's not such a problem.
We tend to have low expectations of movie-based games, for the simple reason a lot of them are crap. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole flies a little higher than most, but it's a short-lived diversion for fans of the books and film only. The rest of us likely won't give a hoot.
Bottom line: Solid controls, visuals and production values make this feathery aerial combat game better than most movie-to-game adaptations, as long as you're a fan of the source material.
TOP ZOMBIE GAMES LIST
Ah, zombies. Even though they want to eat our brains, they remain near and dear to our hearts.
In honour of this week's release of the zombie-festooned action game Dead Rising 2, here's a look at our five favourite zombie video games from the last five years. For critters that are already dead, zombies sure are a lot of fun to kill.
Dead Rising (Xbox 360, 2006)
The prequel to Dead Rising 2 (in guess that wasn't obvious from the title), Dead Rising so closely mirrors some of the action in George Romero's shot-in-Ontario movie Dawn of the Dead that there was talk of a potential lawsuit. What, there can't be two zombie adventures set in shopping malls?
As photojournalist Frank West, players must survive three days in a zombie-overrun shopping centre, slaying hundreds of the undead, helping civilians to escape and fighting insane bosses. It's a quirky and occasionally frustrating game, but being able to use virtually any object in the mall as a weapon -- or put on any clothing you find, including women's outfits -- makes it a winner.
Resident Evil 4 (GameCube, PS2, Wii, PC; 2005)
The Resident Evil franchise is the longest-running and most famous of all zombie game series, and has even spawned cheese-o-craptic movies starring Milla Jovovich. So, bad with the good.
While last year's Resident Evil 5 was a very solid and visually stunning game, the action was faster-paced than previous titles, and the levels set in sun-baked Africa never seemed quite as menacing as Resident Evil 4's creepy European castles and countryside. That fourth instalment still represents the pinnacle of the series for many fans, as players step into the shoes of Leon S. Kennedy and do battle with virus-infected cultists, massive monsters and a creepy little dude with a Napoleon complex.
Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360, PC; 2008)
We wanted to include Half-Life 2 on this list, just for the facehugger zombies that infest the sinister town of Ravenholm, one of the scariest video game levels in recent memory. But Left 4 Dead, also by Half-Life creators Valve Software, is a much more traditional zombie game.
Well, traditional in the sense that the whole game revolves around killing hordes of zombie-like infected mutants and other fearsome critters in a post-apocalyptic U.S.A. What's not typical about this four-player cooperative shooter (and its exceptional 2009 sequel) is that most of the game's enemies are insanely quick, and will happily charge at our four heroes in an attempt to overwhelm them with speed and numbers. Zoey, get out of the way! You're in my line of fire!
Plants Vs. Zombies (PC, Mac, Xbox 360, iOS; 2009)
When you're trapped in your home with a horde of ravenous cartoon zombies advancing across your lawn, it's time to do some ... gardening. This simple tower defense game from PopCap, makers of such digital crack as Peggle and Bejeweled, has you planting Potato Mines, Peashooters, Cabbage-pults and other forms of offensive flora to fend of the army of the undead.
It sounds too weird to work, but it does. Killing waves of zombies gets you access to seeds that will sprout new and ever more deadly plants, but naturally the zombie horde itself also swells and gets more tenacious. Who knew horticulture could be so useful against the undead?
Dead Space (Xbox 360, PS3, PC; 2008)
The definition of zombies can be a bit vague. Purists say they're dead human beings who have been reanimated and crave the taste of brains, while others insist any sort-of-dead homicidal humanoid qualifies as a zombie, whether they're actually infected by a virus (Resident Evil 2), a parasite (Resident Evil 4) or an alien organism that's mutated them into grotesque sci-fi horrors that will haunt your nightmares. As in Dead Space.
As 26th-century engineer Isaac Clarke, players navigate a mining spaceship overrun with monstrosities called Necromorphs, and must use tools such as laser cutters and rotary saws to strategically slice off enemies' limbs and carve them into bits. The lack of a traditional heads-up display makes the already creepy game just that much immersive. In space, no one can hear you scream ... except yourself.
steve.tilley@sunmedia.ca
