Movie tie-ins are a given in today's game business. Movie tie-ins that are over three years late? That just doesn't even make sense. Crave's Napoleon Dynamite: The Game is the latter. The title offers 25 minigames based on the film, and nothing else.

The games are all based on jokes in the movie. The activities range from "Feed Tina" and "Football Toss" to "Tetherball" and "Talent Show Dance Competition." To developer 7 Studios' credit, they nailed the visual style. It really feels like a Napoleon Dynamite game. The choice to use a big-head character style was obviously an attempt to make the faces visible on small screens, and it doesn't take too much away from the look.

However, looks aren't everything. The minigames are simplistic, repetitive and often unresponsive. There are no multiplayer modes, which is unfortunate for a minigame compilation. Simply put, the game, like the movie, gets tiring very quickly. While a movie can pull this off by being passive and full of jokes, a game without voice acting and games less polished than most made by beginning Flash developers certainly can't.

While a game like this would have had some redeeming qualities when the movie was popular years ago, now the jokes are tired and overdone. Crave didn't back it up with strong gameplay, and the result is a frustrating game. It's not a horrible game for Dynamite addicts looking for a laugh, but it's just not worth buying.

Feb 11, 2008 | 0 comments
Graham Russell