First up a kid’s game which may appeal to adults too, just like Disney Pixar films do. This one’s Ratatouille for the Wii and it’s really not that bad for a film license aimed at younger gamers.
The game follow the plot of the film quite closely. You play a rat called Remi who gets separated form his family, makes his way through the sewers and pops up in a gourmet restaurant in Paris. That’s quite lucky really as he’s a rat with taste who knows how to cook. He then befriends a skivvy in the kitchen, helps him make great food and lots of other fun stuff happens which I won’t spoil for anyone who hasn’t seen the film yet.
This is first and foremost a 3d platformer, with the first few stages taking you through how to control your rat. You can sprint, jump, balance and climb around levels indoors and out, also avoiding enemies like humans, dogs, chickens and cockroaches. The obligatory training level was a bit too long for my liking and me and my girlfriend were both quite shocked where at one point you had to hit cute chicks that look like Tweetie Pie with a wooden spoon.
As you move round the streets, kitchen and other rooms, you’re set task, such as knocking down food for your friends at night, collecting apple cores, or distracting enemies blocking your way. You also get to interact with lots of items such as balancing on balls like a circus elephant, using tin cans to bounce on to reach higher parts of the levels and running up brrom handles and along rafters to make your way about. There are also mini games where you must slide down tubes collecting stars and make soup by pointing at ingredient and clicking when you’re told to.
As a game, this one works really well. The cut scenes are close to the look of the film and use the voices of the actors and the game works without any noticeable bugs – something quite rare in a movie license (I mean, just look at Superman Returns or Transformers for how not to do it).
If your kids have seen the film and love it, they’ll love this game too, and if it’s you picking up the controller, it should keep you interested. I know it did with me and I’m still playing my way through Heavenly Sword and Halo 3.
Ratatouille doesn’t quite get a Michelin star but it does get a very good 7 out of 10.
