Bilbo Le Hobbit

OK, The Good: The over all feel, while a bit childish, is fun. Good character movement, and the acting, backgrounds and animation are all solid. Lots of fun puzzles to solve to advance. Some of which are quite intricate and long. It is a good natured game, and never gets too gory or nasty, which will disenchant the hardcore LOTR gamers, but make it an acceptable game for most preteens or young teens. Lots of different and interesting levels! The AI is OK, with the monsters getting tougher to fight as you progress. Great game to watch. My wife loved watching because one of the unique things is the telling of Bilbo Baggins and his adventures. She liked that. It's a fun puzzle action game. Simply put.

Now, The Bad: The camera is a bit wonky. This makes a lot of the jumps, (and you have to do a lot of that in this game), quite literally "leaps of faith"! It does tend to get quite annoying at times, as you get stuck, dying, jumping, dying, jumping until you get it right! This is especially painful if you have forgotten to save recently! This is not a sandbox world, and you can't go everywhere you'd like. Other than the beginning, there is no real interplay with other characters. You speak to the dwarfs, and get side quests, but nothing else. I would have liked to see more interplay. It gets lonely out there! Haha!

In Summary: Sure they're not super realistic like the LOTR movies, but this game isn't about the LOTR. There was no Mordor yet. Remember, The Hobbit is a prequel, or the tale of Bilbo Baggins, not Frodo or the fellowship etc. That wouldn't happen for almost another 90 years or so, by Tolkien's story line. Therefore, there are no huge armies of Orc's, Goblins, just what is out and about for what is normal for the time. Which doesn't mean they're not up to bad deeds! LOL! It is a fun game, lots of game play and more that just a hack and slash epic. It is Bilbo's story and it's fun.

Reminiscent of the Tomb Raider games, this title gives you a lot for your money. The quests and puzzles are challenging without being impossible, which made it perfect for my two boys who are 8 and 6 years old. I found it was also a game that can be played more than once without the boredom factor setting in. As to the story, the basic "Hobbit" tale is there. Yeah it does take some liberties with the Tolkein version, but (being a big fan of the Hobbit book) I found that these liberties actually fleshed out the original story and gave some background to some of the characters and situations. The music is folksy and catchy and I didn't get annoyed with my kids playing levels over and over again. (If you're a parent you'll know what I mean!) All in all, if you are a fan of Tolkein or of adventure/quest games, this one is well worth it. The only reason I didn't give it a 10 was because once in a while the camera angles freak out on you, but not enough to distract from overall enjoyment of the game.

I Personally think that people like J.R.R. Tolkien has been planning this for years ever since boardgames were invented. Now I guess with the Hobbit game out, how the heck is the movie going to be released without suspense!!! If you played the game, you would know what's going to happen even if you read the book too. It does kind of take away the special effects, though. J.R.R. Tokien has blown a few too many screws. Check some movie website to see the latest news. If Peter Jackson was this games adviser, than I can't complain any more because I do admit his films are a bit good. He kind of takes special effects the wrong way but hey, look at the bright side, at least it wasn't Spielberg who made LOTR!

I know this came out almost 20 years ago now, but it is still very replayable. Game cubes are immortal, we can't seem to destroy ours, and GC had some of the best games ever done. We pull ours out to play this once a year or so, and have since it came out 18 years ago! My then-kids are adults now and they still love this.

The music is great and the voice acting is also well done. The graphics used to be top notch and now they stink, but the design of the 3D world has always been impressive to me. The puzzles are well thought out and game play follows the book well.

It's really easy, and we can complete it in a day. We have yet to 100% it in 18 years though! One day maybe.

The only complaints are the camera is a nightmare, weird glitches sometimes, and Bilbo is a really uncoordinated jumper ! But thats probably me.... It's super outdated now but it is still entertaining.

If your a Tolkien purist then I suggest you avoid this game. However if you have fifteen bucks burning a hole in your pocket and are at least curious you just might enjoy this.

You play Bilbo, a slightly more active hobbit then what was portrayed in the book. You'll follow the book for the most part and engage in side quests that help fill the game. The game is actually one of the harder platform games I played (mind you I'm no expert with these games).

High points of the game include the voice acting which is top-notch and fit the characters to a tee. The environments fully realized from the book: Hobbiton, The Halls of King Thranduil, Lake-Town and Erebor are all fun to explore. And the climax with the Battle of Five Armies is a great and satisfying ending. Also nicely done is the music and Chapter framing sequences.

The cons are few but notable including a sometimes difficult camera control and some really tough stages. This was rated E but for difficulty it should be a T.

All and all I liked it but would only play it once so buy it cheaply.