3:17pm Thursday 12th August 2010
By David Crookes
During the summer, games tend to give way to films. When the sun shines it is imagined that children tend to drop their consoles and head outside.
But of course, handheld consoles can be played anywhere, so it’s with that in mind that we review The Sorcerer’s Apprentice for the Nintendo DS.
The game is based on Jerry Bruckheimer’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, starring Nicolas Cage (see a film review on Page 21).
In the film he plays Balthazar Blake, the mentor to Dave Stutler.
And it is Dave’s story that you follow in this magical title as you do battle against the evil Morgana.
Licenses often fill gamers with dread. Some work well — Batman Arkham Asylum being a great use of the caped crusader — but most of them die a horrible death.
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice fits slap bang in the middle.
It’s distinctly average and it needs a great big spell cast upon it.
One of the problems, if not the main one, is its rather simple premise.
You walk and fight, casting spells using the touchscreen, but the story which ties all of this together is hardly compelling and the similarities between the movie and game are rather loose.
It’s disheartening to plough through the game past different backgrounds and realising as you do that it’s the same gameplay in just a different setting.
This repetitiveness is only enlivened by the accomplishment of the graphics.
In this respect, it’s spellbounding, if you pardon the pun, and the game certainly oozes style.
Ultimately, however, it is just not satisfying.
You complete the game and feel a sense of emptiness and you get the impression that something is amiss.
Whether it’s the fact that Blake sounds so dissimilar to the film character and bears little physical resemblance either or if it’s the relentless spray of monsters that head your way, no amount of fast-paced gameplay really compensates.
Another disappointment? Unfortunately so.
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