Coraline

Coraline

Written by acclaimed graphic novel author Neil Gaiman, Coraline is the story of a little girl who is neglected by parents too caught up in their work to pay her much attention.

As a way to cope with this abandonment, she conjures up a fantasy world where her parents are perfectly attentive, and her life’s drab colours and unexciting monotony are traded for Technicolor wonder and relentless stimulation. It’s a premise as tragic as it is beautiful and, if the critics are right, the film adaptation is set to become a contemporary children’s classic. Not so for this videogame adaptation, which falls foul of many of the problems that beset movie tie-ins to turn in an experience that’s a pale shadow of its inspiration.

On the positive side, this is a competent-looking Wii game, one that benefits greatly from the art direction that has guided the film upon which it’s based. The movie was helmed by the same man behind Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas, and the heavily stylized character designs translate well to the game. Animations are solid and the environments robust, ably recreating the locations seen in the film. Play is split between the dreary ‘real world’ of Coraline’s life and a far more appealing alternate dimension which is much more vibrant and enticing. With voice acting from the film’s actors and a lot of the illustrative edging and textures seen in the film, the game does a good job of maintaining the film’s unusual aesthetic.

The problems lie in the uninspired game systems, fetch quests that will have you hunting down all of the blue objects in the house, or stacking boxes in clunky, awkward gameplay vignettes. Rather than forming a cohesive whole, the game relies heavily on tying together minigames to provide the bulk of its experience. These are clichéd (a slingshot shooting section, a card matching minigame, a clunky piano rhythm task and so on) and their difficulty varies wildly. While this is certainly a game aimed at children, the uneven difficulty of the tasks ensures that those children who do make it through will be old and experienced enough to know that they are getting the raw end of the gameplay deal in this title.

There are a few neat ideas, such as a shop that allows you to buy the right to a level select with the buttons you’ve collected on your travels. However, at between 3-5 hours in playtime only the very youngest players will have need of these section-skipping treats, The result is a short game, one clearly made under a tight and near unfeasible deadline and which does little to enhance the otherwise irresistible world of Coraline.

2 out of 5