The Polar Express

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a game by	Blue Tongue Entertainment Pty, Ltd.
Platform:	Playstation 2 (2004)
Editor Rating:	6/10, based on 1 review
User Rating:	10.0/10 - 3 votes
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See also:	3D Platformer Games

As far as the movie goes, The Polar Express is pretty damn good. It was a movie that my son would watch multiple times each Christmas until he got too old for it. To be honest, I was always happy when he would want to watch it. He was so into the movie, that I decided to track down the tie-in video game which was made by THQ back in 2004. I went for the PlayStation 2 version of the game. I did not expect much from a 2004 movie tie-in game and that was for the best!

I Want To Believe

For the most part, The Polar Express video game follows the plot of the movie pretty well. We play as a young boy who is having a hard time believing in Santa Claus anymore and a huge train pulls up outside his house and offers to take him to the North Pole so he can partake in the festive festivities with the other kids. The movie changes things a tad as there is this Scrooge puppet that is only in the movie briefly, but it plays a much bigger role here. The basics are the boy wants to get to the North Pole and truly believe in Christmas and Santa Claus.

From The DVD And The Bootleg VHS

One thing that I really like about The Polar Express is that it tells much of the story via cut scenes that are taken directly from the movie. The quality of these is actually very high, pretty much DVD quality actually and that was great as the movie is a fun time. Parts of the game that do not have a movie cut scene to move them along are done with these very awkward looking cut scenes that look pretty bad. The whole game has a very low budget look to it which is such as shame as the spectacular visuals were what the movie was known for when it was released. This is a real shame as many other movie tie-in games on the PS2 looked great.

Variety Is Not Always The Spice Of Life!

One thing I will say about the gameplay of The Polar Express is that this is a game that is clearly aimed at kids and as a result, it is very easy. It is also very short; you are looking at about three hours to play through the game! The problem is the game is just not very well made. They at least tried to make sure there was plenty of variety. There is 2D platforming sections, 3D stages, a skiing section, puzzle solving, and a food fight to name a few. I think having this much variety in a kid's game is a good thing as it helps prevent things from getting boring. The problem is, the skiing section is the only one that I would say is actually done well.

Games like The Polar Express are a huge reason as to why video game movie tie-ins had such a bad name and also why they are probably a thing of the past. It is a real shame too as the movie is a fun time and it had some great elements that would have been perfect for a video game. To be fair to the people behind the game, I do feel like they tried to make this a fun game for kids. However, they clearly had to have this ready for when the movie dropped and that is probably why the gameplay and the in-game visuals are so poor as the game was rushed.

Pros:

I liked how it used cut scenes from the movie
The cut scenes are DVD quality
There is a decent amount of variety to the gameplay
The skiing section is actually pretty fun

Cons:

The whole game has a very budget and low quality look to it
The gameplay is very basic, but it also feels like the game was not fully ready to be released

Overall rating: 6