Article
Coraline
Nintendo DS Review
Based on the 2002 novella by Neil Gaiman, the game is a movie tie-in for the stop-motion film of the same name and that should tell you all you need to know about this release. Although its graphics and plot are based seemingly entirely around the movie the game is incredibly short and largely unfulfilling, I finished it in roughly four hours and if I recollect correctly much of that was spent wandering around trying to figure out which was the next trigger point to fire off the next sequence of game-play, a problem anyone who has watched the movie is unlikely to find. So if this review seems almost incredibly short, forgive me, but the game itself lends little to lengthy exposition.
Coraline is a linear adventure game set in a pseudo-sand-box environment, with the user being allowed to move the protagonist quite freely around the location - which comprises in whole the new house to which the family have moved and the gardens in which the house is located. I say 'pseudo-sandbox', because regardless of the very limited area in which you have to explore, any notable game-play is accessible only through given event-triggers which need to be found before any notion of game-play occurs. There is little, if any sense to moving your character around in a normal sand-box manner because there are so few additional mini-game triggers to find that the mechanic is rendered largely pointless.
It has to be said that the graphics are rendered very well for the DS and I am given to wonder if the game play was sacrificed in some manner for this, for although the included mini-games such as ‘Mr Bobinsky’s Mouse Circus’ and the ‘Bug Splatting’ side-quest are quite unique and enjoyable they are far too few in number and you are left with the distinct feeling that had the developers thrown in a few more, it might well have ended up being an immensely playable game. Still, it’s a movie tie-in and all in all you really do have to ask yourself when that has ever led to a great game. I personally can’t think of one myself and sadly Coraline is no exception.
The moral impetus behind the movie, and therefore the game is a valid one of course and is as obvious as all Grimm-style fairytales are, the most obvious points being tied to Coraline’s feelings of ontological security. Her inability to feel secure in her new home or affection from her busy parents leads her to seek these out in the other world, where waiting for her with her other-parents is 'the bedlam' (a witch with a penchant for stealing children’s eyes) and she is only too happy to fulfil Coralines needs provided of course that Coraline gives up her eyes for buttons (and as a result the mortal coil). It’s a cleverly designed moral lesson of course for arguing against such childish notions that the grass is always greener.
But I digress (mainly for the need to pad out this review) it’s a well-designed game based on a good idea, with some great characterization and with some well structured elements, but as a whole it can’t escape the fact that it is unforgivably short and even despite this, because of the running around required to find the next game play trigger, also quite a chore for those unfamiliar with the movie to complete.
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Coraline
Nintendo DS
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