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By Keith B (14th May 2007)

Meet the Robinsons is in many ways a standard movie tie-in, though it boasts some nifty features and a generally decent (and surprisingly original) narrative focus. Add to this proficient controls and well-executed cut-scenes, and the result is a decent game that tends to appeal to a younger demographic, though not without certain aspects that are bound to please most.

Review:

Meet the Robinsons is a typical Disney children’s film about hope, dreams and�"for the less Morgan Freeman-minded�"adventure. The film, rather than the game, follows Lewis, an orphaned twelve-year-old boy genius, who wants only to find his long-lost family. Lewis invents the Memory Scanner, a gadget that will somehow help him locate his mother. This, unfortunately for Lewis (though fortunately for the plot), is stolen by the sartorially named Bowler Hat Guy. Enter Wilbur Robinson, boy-rascal, who transports Lewis to the future to meet his rather unconventional family Robinson, get the Memory Scanner back, foil our evil mastermind, and help Wilbur find his family.

Problem is, though, that Lewis is something of a dud. Clumsy, nerdy, and unadventurous, Lewis will simply not pass muster in the gaming world. But Wilbur, on the other hand, is the seat-of-his-pants wild child. So what does Disney do? The old switch-a-roo: supplant one blasé protagonist with his free-wheeling side-kick and�"voila!�"you have a videogame.

Meet the Robinsons, the videogame, thus follows Wilbur as he travels through time looking for thrills. A more or less standard three-dimensional platform adventure, Meet the Robinsons has all the usual characteristics: puzzles, mazes, and levels culminating with head-to-head battles with different enemies and antagonists. One of the better, and more original, features of the game is the invention system. Here you will be asked to assemble different, generally very useful weapons and tools. For instance, the Disassembler proves a useful way to shred enemies and collect new parts for new tools; the Chargeball Glove, which unlocks a pretty decent mini-game, is used to stun enemies before a finishing dose of the Disassembler; while the Scanner will unveil hidden areas, detect enemy weaknesses, and aid in puzzle completion. Added to these are a few lesser items, such as the self-explanatory Levitation Ray and Havoc Gloves.


Gameplay is in part improved by the continual on-screen presence of weaponry. Rather than ham-fistedly pounding away at buttons and thrashing away with the Wiimote, players use an on-screen catalogue of weapons and gizmos, allowing easy selection and deployment. Most likely a feature devised to aid children, the on-screen catalogue is really a useful, though slightly distracting, add-on that makes selecting a weapon feel less like a harried rummage through one’s bag for some loose change and more like the casual Rambo-style lock and load of yore.

Gameplay is in part aided by proficient Wii controls. Target locking is, as expected, confined to the Z-button, while the A-button is used mostly for situation-specific actions: picking up, pulling and pushing. The analog stick is likewise used to pan the camera. This can at times be either too sensitive or not sensitive enough, sending the camera spinning or leaving it stationary as you violently swing about the room. This will easily prove something of a problem for younger gamers�"frustration borne of under-developed motor-skills always does�"though Wilbur’s environment-sensitive intuition, which will have you climbing adjacent walls, scaling nearby ladders, and jumping forthcoming ledges without any effort at all, will likewise please the continually flummoxed younger set. But, of course, a feature developed or at least instituted with one demographic in mind is likely to alienate another. In this case, phenomenal players, though even as young as twelve years or so, will find Wilbur’s I’ll-do-that-for-you attitude a little invasive. Tapping an A-button here or firing a B-button there isn’t a tremendous amount of work�"this after all isn’t the mind-boggling world of other systems�"so it’s hard to understand why Buena Vista Games, Meet the Robinsons’ developer, would institute such a vigorously do-nothing approach to activities which require only a little practice and moderately decent timing to master. Here the need for more player- and skill-specific controls is manifest: otherwise, the Nintendo will likely antagonize that exceptionally mixed demographic of non-gamers which they have already so successfully wooed.

Graphically the game is well-executed, though this is like complimenting mother’s dinner by saying that it is well made if not strikingly delicious�"the sort of comment which, though apt, never seems entirely to recommend something. The movie’s aesthetic has more or less been successfully ported, though some will grumble about the self-evident disparity between the latest in film animatronics and the last-gen capabilities of such systems as the Wii. Sometimes character movement is slightly awry, at other times the Wii struggles with complex animation sequences, chugging along like an ancient pick-up truck trying to take a steep hill. That being said, it’s clear that the game’s developers put considerable time into making the game their own enterprise. Sure, this is a movie tie-in and, rare as it is, occasionally we see a game built as a commercial add-on exhibit truly novel features. The change in narrative focus from Lewis to Wilbur, while most likely meeting the ready assent of Disney’s ever profit-minded executives, certainly distinguishes the game from the movie, just as the developers’ choice to construct their own cut-scenes, rather than cutting and pasting from the already available film, shows considerable attention to detail when none is really necessary. The end product is thus one of shocking originality in light of its predecessor. Not as much tempered praise can be heaped on the game’s audioscape�"though, then again, this seems like another problem with audience-specific development and marketing. Voice-overs are well enough done, being recorded, seemingly, without stand-in voice actors, though repeated at a frequency even Phillip Glass would balk at. Rarely has one character’s vacuous commentary concluded before another feels the need to interject. The result is something akin to watching a morning talkshow: a phenomenal amount of squawking accompanied by little pertinent analysis.

The game’s lack of a multiplayer player function will easily be the most disappointing feature of the title for some. Children have never been terribly good at waiting out their turn, so I imagine most parents will want to avoid this game, and its consequent bickering. Mother dearest can only tolerate so many “Moooooom, Tommy has been playing foreeeeeeeeeeever!” before tossing the game out.

Meet the Robinsons is by most accounts a decent game, though that troubling issue of audience persistently rears its ugly head. No sooner is one aspect of the game lauded then its child-specific faults are revealed�"improved access to weaponry selection, for instance, quickly gives way to hand-holding automatic features. Conversely, the game’s most glaring absences�"the lack of a multiplayer mode and a sometimes difficult-to-handle camera�"show little attention to audience at all. With that in mind, it’s hard to recommend Meet the Robinsons to everyone: some will enjoy its videogame-light feeling the way Danielle Steele novels prove adequate comfort food for suburban housewives, just as others will loathe the game’s tendency to mother. Those with young cousins should keep this title in mind when trying to busy the young visitors; others should give this game a try as a rental and decide for themselves if it merits its purchase. Most, I believe, will enjoy this game if they give it a chance. Granted, though, I’m not really sure how long they’ll enjoy it for.