When C. S. Lewis penned the widely acclaimed Chronicles of Narnia, I'm sure that he always imagined one day his literary masterpieces would be translated into a videogame of simple puzzle solving action and large-scale battles. At least that's the impression someone must have got, as here we have a bright shiny copy of Prince Caspian for Xbox 360.

Developed by Traveller's Tales, the minds behind the Lego Star Wars and Lego Indiana Jones titles, Prince Caspian brings the latest film adaptation in the Chronicles of Narnia series to life on the home console. For the uninitiated, the story of Prince Caspian tells of the Pevensie children's return to the land of Narnia, when they are called upon by Prince Capsian to help remove his crooked uncle, King Miraz, from the throne and return Narnia to its people. As is to be expected from any movie tie-in, through the course of the game you'll explore the movie's events inter-cut with obligatory full motion video taken from the recently released blockbuster. Extending beyond the bounds of the film, the game kicks off with an additional battle completely unique to both the book and film, which tells how the Castle of Cair Paravel fell to the raging Telmarine hordes. Fans will also be excited to know that the game includes exclusive scenes not featured in the film to bridge everything together as well as selection of unlockable behind the scenes titbits.


To describe the videogame adaptation of Prince Caspian in simple terms, it plays like a blend of the Lego Star Wars-style of gameplay that Traveller's Tales is renowned for, crossed with the beat 'em up style Lord of the Rings movies tie-ins released by EA. Like with Lego Star Wars, you traverse the game as a large group of assorted characters, each with their own distinct abilities. Short characters can crawl through tunnels, large characters can break large objects, some possess grappling hooks and some possess ranged weapons, all of which must be interchanged on the fly to put these abilities to use as the game requires. Simple puzzle solving is the main objective of the game, but this is a title designed with the young ones in mind after all.

In a step away from the typically linear style of the Lego games, levels are broken into smaller branches that can be tackled in the order you choose (also making it less of a task to replay sections and obtain all the hidden bonuses). With the lack of laser pistols and lugers in the Narnia universe, the emphasis in combat is placed upon swordplay and the weapons of old. Combat becomes a lot more close quarters and the battles more impressive as war is waged with literally hundreds of enemies on screen at times. Drop-in multiplayer makes a return to help make things all the more enjoyable, but sadly there's no online support,

Given that Narnia is not a part of the Lego universe, the cutesy Lego[i] graphics have been ditched for more realistic representations. Characters still act in an overly expressive manner, but without the lovable yellow blockheads on screen, much of the expression and character is lost. Similar to the [i]Lego series of titles, cut-scenes are often short of dialogue but it just doesn't work without those simple expressions to let us know what we should be feeling. The humour that made the Lego titles such a joy to play is sadly lacking, which makes the often-repetitive gameplay a chore to play.


Prince Caspian might fail to capture the same lovable character of the Lego series, but this is not alone in a wave of new problems. A fixed viewpoint isn't anything new to the style of game, but the camera in Prince Caspian is just horrible. Half the time it is facing against you so you can't see where you're going and at times you will be completely hidden from view, even in areas that you are meant to explore. With minimal dialogue, time-limited objectives and a lack of specific directions, when all coupled together with the bad camera it becomes a one-way ticket to frustration. The game is certainly nothing too taxing, but it becomes unnecessarily difficult at times. To make matters worse the automatic targeting just feels plain clumsy, not always targeting what you intended.

What we have here is a title that feels so much like the terrific Lego series of action-platformers but fails to capture the same magic. Fans of the film will enjoy the expansion the game offers, but the game itself is nothing exceptional. The simplistic puzzle solving is enjoyable in bursts, particularly with a friend, but problems with camera, targeting and the overall repetitive nature of the game will limit that appeal. If you're looking for more of that simple platforming style, you'll be better off waiting for Lego Batman to hit shelves. Younger fans might still find the title enjoyable through its faults, but it ends up feeling like a second rate effort from Traveller's Tales when you look at it alongside the Lego series.