Narnia and Middle-earth Video Games

[gouldie]

Hi all,

I'm new to the forum so I don't know if the Narnia video games have been discussed before. If they have apologies, and could someone please direct me to the thread about them.

I am studying C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien for my dissertation and am examining the changes made to the two imaginary worlds when they are adapted for TV and video-game mediums. Was just wondered what experiences people on here have had regarding the games and what they felt about them when they played them?

Would be very grateful for any responses.

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

Hello, gouldie, and welcome! We haven't had a whole lot of video game discussion before, so you're fine! I just moved the discussion to a more fitting section of the forum.

I've played the LWW game on Game Cube, computer, and Nintendo DS; PC I've played on computer and DS. I'm much more familiar with the Game Cube and computer versions than the DS (which doesn't follow the same structure as the others), so I'll address those.
With LWW, the most notable differencesin the video game adaptation is violence in the early levels (eg: Edmund and Lucy fight off wolves on their way back out of the wardrobe, there's fighting in two whole levels leading up to the kids reaching Beaversdam, etc). One would think that such activity would raise red flags for the kids and convince them that the adventure is over. In addition to the pre-mature fighting, there's also fighting later on where there shouldn't be (eg: "Resuce Edmund" is not an in-and-out rescue (plus it features Peter as a playable character, which is not how things went down in book or movie), "Follow Aslan" has the girls fighting baddies between Aslan's camp and the Stone Table (and skips the part in which they walk and talk with Aslan); "The Witch's Castle" has baddies to fight); etc). The final levels feature all four kids participating in the latter half of the battle and against Jadis (though Edmund is put out of commission partway through).
In short, LWW is your basic hack-and-slash button-masher designed to maximize the hacking and slashing experience throughout the story.

PC is part hack-and-slash and part puzzling. It has a slower pace as a result (especially on one-player mode) and a different feel. There are some pre-mature fights (eg: Telmarines along the way to the Bridge of Beruna), but less so than LWW because when they're not fighting, the kids and Trumpkin are climbing up to a little cave or moving rocks to cross a river, etc.. (Plus, the PC film upped the amount of violence, so the game doesn't have to deviate too much.) This game also allows for different playable characters at different points of the story, so you get to play the kids, Reep, Trumpkin, Glenstorm, even Trees.
It's been a couple years since I've played PC and I only played it through once, so I'm afraid that's the most help I can give there.

Now, I don't have as much experience with the Middle-earth games. I've played Aragorn's Quest on DS (and a couple levels of it on Wii) and watched a friend play Battle for Middle-earth II for a short amount of time.
Aragorn's Quest was pretty boring on DS, honestly (though it was cool having Sam tell that story to his kids in between levels). I don't remember much of it beyond running about between points (and dodging traps along the way) till you reached a fighting portion. The Wii was much more entertaining. As this particular game focused more on Aragorn, it's more like his perspective of events (plus extra things on the side). Nothing wrong with that, of course, especially since Tolkien told chunks of the story from Aragorn's pov.
Battle for Middle-earth is strategy-based, building up your armies and resources and whatnot. Version 2 of the game allows you to, once you've completed the entire game, mix-and-match your armies however you want (eg: Elves at Minas Tirith). I have the first version of the game myself, but haven't had a chance to play.

[Shield Maiden]

I have Aragorn's Quest for DS. The biggest thing I noticed was that it took the entire story and focused on Aragorn. A particular source of frustration is when the Fellowship is climbing Caradhras, and the Hobbits say, "Strider! Go on ahead and make sure things are okay!" - which never happened in the movie. It's been a while since I've read the books, but I'm pretty sure that AQ is based on the movies. It's almost like the Fellowship is nonexistant in the game. I was also surprised by the tutorial level, in which Aragorn fights massive enemies and eventually Sauron himself - which also clearly never happened, but is later revealed to be Sam's kids exercising their imaginations.

I never made it past those pesky spiders in Moria, though, so I have no idea if the game remains close to the movie's narrative or if it continues to add in minibosses that were never originally there.

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

If it helps at all, Aragorn was originally going to fight Sauron at the Black Gate, but they decided that Sauron should just remain as the Eye, so they CG-ed the Troll in instead. But again, it's not an element in the books and not part of the film after all and I believe I remember something about Aragorn having to avoid the Eye's burning gaze in the final level?

[Lil]

I bought the Nintendo Gameboy version of the Chronicles of Narnia (though I did have a small chance with a friend to play the gamecube or playstation version. I kept failing the part where they ride down the river on the ice, and once we did pass it my friend was too bored.)

There was some puzzle involved (moving stuff, finding stuff, gather stuff.) and some side quests that you had to finish before continuing. (like help the bear find his mother.) as some gathering. During the winter section you had to keep lighting fires otherwise your characters health would go down and they'd freeze. As well as gather food to keep their spirits and health up. I think also there was a level in the white Witch's castle where you have to sneak around and free the prisoners. It's been a long while so I don't recall if edmund gets caught and rescued there or what happens. The last level (I think from what my brother told me) ends after the final battle (edmund goes up against the witch. Unfortunately I always got turned to stone trying to avoid her two attacking henchen.

not being a big gaming system player growning up (we didn't have one and anytime I played on a friends I useally failed. Except for N64 Donkey Kong and Mario Party 3) I usually fail at games. Recently I've been playing the lego version of Lord of the Rings on my Ipad and really enjoying it.