Peter Jackson's King Kong (Xbox 360)

Kong of Persia

When you take on the role of Kong you enter a third person exploration/battle game that is quite reminiscent of the Prince of Persia series. You can climb, shimmy and leap around to your hearts content and the puzzles become more acrobatic. Kong’s sheer strength and martial prowess are tested in a variety of ways, again with no HUD or indication of health meters. The screen performs the same way and flashes red if Kong takes too many hits from the game’s enemies.

As Kong you are given access to a simplified but still well designed battle system, allowing for grabs, slams and a whole range of Big Monkey hurt. Including a few taps of the Y button to enter a rage mode where Kong can inflict more damage and cause more pain than normal. Some enemies can be picked up and thrown, used as a club or generally beaten around until they submit and it’s this sense of power that makes these sections fulfilling.

But its not all smash and bash, there are sections where Kong has to navigate the overgrown jungle environment, one part has you chasing down the fleeing Ann, who rather than submitting to Big Monkey adoration would run off and prefer to act as chow for the various dangerous inhabitants of Skull Island.

Expect to do some protecting as well as both Jack and Kong are saddled with people that just won’t find a place to hide, Carl Denham, Hayes and crew are all particularly good at getting themselves into trouble. Ann seems to have the edge on all these adventurous men since as I played she managed to kill more monsters than me, with just a stick.

Ok. I exaggerate but not that much.

Kong will go toe-to-toe with the great Tyrannosaurus Rex and other Dinosaurs, and for this particular game Ubisoft have spared no expense in getting the WWE feel of Big Monkey vs. Monster battles from the old films, down to a ‘T’. Kong has some bone-crushing slams, and some brutal jaw-breaks and back-breaking moves in these battles and they are extremely exhilarating, better one could say than watching ‘The Rock’ perform the ‘People’s Elbow’ for the millionth time.

Graphics

We’re into the next generation of consoles and there’s no Jean Luc in sight. But is Kong on the 360 a step above its other console incarnations, such as Kong on the Xbox? The answer to this is a resounding yes, there are noticeable graphical improvements on the 360 version of the game and they’re not just a tiny bit better either. Its obvious from the outset that Kong on the 360 has been Ubisoft’s baby and they’ve put a lot of work into getting the graphics as sharp and atmospheric as they could using the game engine.

The lighting and graphical effects on the 360 version of the game are top notch, with a great amount of detail in the environments and the special effects. The water is gorgeous and in a battle versus two T-Rexes, Kong was thrown into a pool by a vicious tail swipe, the water blasted up and showered towards the screen.

The game looks great on a standard TV and even better on a HDTV as we would expect from Microsoft’s new console.

Models

With a step up the polygon ladder Kong swings into the forefront over the normal Xbox version once more. You can see the attention to detail on these models, the humans and the weapons look extremely good but it’s the monsters themselves that almost leap out of the screen at you. Kong is gorgeously modelled and textured, with layers of bump mapping and other trickery. The same can be said for the various adversaries that range from tiny spiders to massive angry slavering Tyrannosaurs, the attention to detail is something worth seeing.

Environments

I could have used the word levels but in this case I feel environments is more suited to the game, the Jungle and later on the City area has been brought to life with a great attention to detail and each rock, tree, building or incidental element is rendered up in jaw-dropping clarity. The game’s environments are linear and this isn’t a bad thing because it’s not billed as a go-anywhere do-anything kind of game but they are laid out in such a way as to give you a great sense of space when its needed and tiny claustrophobic passages make some really great ambush spots for the odd monster or two.

Animations

With good looking graphics and atmospheric environments you need something to bring the characters to life, Kong has fine animations and the game brims with nice touches in that department. The human characters are animated very well, with realistic movements and motions but the monsters steal the show as far as I’m concerned with the big bad boy himself Kong being at the top of the animation tree.

King Kong himself is beautifully animated with lifelike motions and a broad range of moves, facial expressions and features that bring him to life. Next to Kong the Tyrannosaurs and other Dinosaurs are superbly brought to life with the same detail in their animations, the combat between the heroic Gorilla and his adversaries makes good use of the animation system and delivers a thrilling experience.