One of the most popular European comic book characters, Hergé’s Tintin, has made his way from the page, to the small screen and all the way to the big screen in full 3D. Now, you can experience the adventures of Tintin on the even smaller screen of your mobile devices with Gameloft’s The Adventures of Tintin: The Game. Being a Tintin fan, I was rather excited to get my hands on the mobile game adaptation of the forthcoming film today at Paramount Studios in Sydney.
The plot of the game follows the movie, incorporating levels that fans will find very familiar, such as the Karaboudjan and Marlinspike Hall: both of which I had a quick play through. Incorporating a number of different game play modes, The Adventures of Tintin allows you to control Tintin, Captain Haddock, Snowy and even Sir Francis Haddock. You make your way through levels, which are designed for gamers of any level to enjoy, solving puzzles, fighting pirates, piloting planes and even collecting bonus items.
The Karaboudjan level has you control Tintin has he attempts to escape from his kidnappers. Climbing from the window you will need to use stealth to scale the hull of the ship, avoiding sailors and rats and trying not to fall. Because the game is based on the movie, there are a wide range of cut scenes that push the story forward. These cut scenes use the same engine as the game, and as a result become interactive, allowing players to look around using their devices gyroscopic technology and tapping to find hidden puzzle pieces and coins to collect. There is always the ability to skip them, but then you’d miss out on the engaging story. The game play itself takes advantage of the mobile devices touch screens, allowing you to tap and swipe to engage with items, not to mention the two action buttons and virtual-joy stick to use through out the game. The elements all marry well and provide for a rather interesting game. I am eager to play the game in its entirety and experience the range of other game play features.
It’s strange to see Tintin and the rest of Hergé’s characters as fully three-dimensionally rendered characters. I’ve grown accustomed to, nay very fond of the simplistic style of Hergé’s work and when I saw the trailers for the upcoming film I was a little concerned. However, after viewing the film, and furthermore after playing the game, any worries I had soon washed away. Paramount and indeed Gameloft have done an excellent job reimagining Hergé’s beloved comic book character into a fully rendered 3D character, capable of exploring a vast interactive world. The graphics for The Adventures of Tintin currently the best quality graphics I have seen developed by Gameloft, if not any mobile developer. Although my adventure with Tintin may have been brief, I look forward to more in what is hopefully the very near future. The game will be available for all on the 15th of December 2011 for iPad, iPhone and Android.
