The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (Wii) > Reviews (1)

As a man who has been gaming for as long as I can remember I really should know better than to buy movie tie in’s but as a huge fan of Tin Tin when I was younger and having a couple of vouchers to spend in a local supermarket I found myself, much as I admit it against my better judgment, buying The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn for £30.
This game was of course released at the back end of last year to coincide with the movie and in it you take control of the hero himself and the video game takes you into the world of the movie and if you have indeed seen the Speilberg movie you will notice straight away sights, images and set pieces from the film to make it familiar. With this being the wii version I must say the first thing that will hit you is probably going to be the shoddy graphics. We know not to expect too much from the aging Wii now but this looks terrible with block people, poor colours and abysmal backgrounds making it one of the most ugly games I have ever played. Still this bad graphical output would not be so bad if it was not for the gameplay which in The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn happens to be pretty darn bad! The controls are pretty poor throughout this game and it feels very loose and untidy to play and half the time with the Wii controls the response is poor, the whole game whichever character you are does not make for an easy ride. It is not hard, just poor controls. When you do get playing the levels take various forms although it does tend to get a bit repetitive. Most levels are platform based, running, jumping, collecting in typical fashion with some puzzles and vehicle rides thrown in as I said. It all makes a bit of variety especially when you throw in the control of the different characters but it soon gets boring as the level design is too plain, feels far too rushed and unchallenging. The game lasted me about 17 hours but most of that was painful and lord knows why I sat through it. 17 hours is good going though in this day and age when games tend to come and go without you even getting chance to settle in. If you try it on different settings and take your time it could last for longer but I would say 17-20 hours is going to be normal for any gamer to get through this. Its not tough but just the bad controls let you down. What also might have you considering to come back would be the co-op which me and my other half tried and which was fun but again the problems of controls hamper it! All in all this is just another bad movie tie in that may be enjoyed by kids but please do not expose them to such a shoddy, shoddy title!