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Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa Review for Xbox 360

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa Review for Xbox 360

A Great Buffet!

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa does everything thing that you’d expect it to do. However, there are a few golden aspects to the game that surprised me on a whole new level for the kid-movie-turned-video-game franchise.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa screenshot

For starters, they don’t treat the player like a complete idiot when they are playing.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa delivers the story of the movie very admirably. Alex, Marty, Gloria, Melman, and the rest of the cast are leaving Madagascar and heading home. Unfortunately, they decided to listen to the flightless birds, the penguins, when they said they fixed an airplane that would get them home. They end up landing in mainland Africa, which is a lot farther than I expected the penguin airplane to make it. The group now has to find a way to interact with their own kind and find out more about who they are. Of course, this isn’t easy for some. It’s definitely more of a challenge than trying to impress and be a part of a group of lemurs, especially when the group is lead by a ring-tailed lemur like King Julien.

Very early in the game, you discover that the developers wanted to make certain that fans of the film were able to play as their favorite character. There are always specific “mission-type” objectives that you have to be one of the primary cast. For example, Alex is used whenever there’s a lot of running, jumping, or climbing, Marty is used more for racing and kicking missions, Gloria for the aquatic aspects, and Melman, well, Melman is basically used for whatever a giraffe hypochondriac can be useful for, usually a lot of head butts and gliding while spinning his body. Using this approach is a good way to show support for the entire cast, but it also can be quite annoying. Something so simple as boarding the plane in the beginning of the game is turned into a multi-tiered mini-game where you have to play as each animal to get on the plane.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa screenshot

That’s not to say that the mini-games are not fun though. Most of them are. Especially anything that involves Melman using his head to defeat an enemy. There’s also another game that involves Melman that is part Dr. Mario and part Operation. I’m not exactly sure how a giraffe holds a medicine bottle, but this is an animated character we are talking about, so it is forgivable. There are tons of mini-games that you will play with each character; everything from the Melman doctor game to musical chairs with Alex the Lion. Yes, that’s right, musical chairs. There’s a lot to this game, so you will be hard-pressed to not find a mini-game that you like to play. Thankfully, the developers thought of this as well. In a fashion mimicking the Mario Party games, you can replay the mini-games you have unlocked and some that you may not have yet. This is also, regrettably, the only place where you can have a friend join in on the fun. It would have made more sense to allow two players to be the characters in the main storyline, but it falls short in that area reducing you to experience the mini-games with friends outside of the actual game.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa screenshot

There’s also an item shop that holds some goodies for the characters as well. There are a few apparel items that you can stick on the characters that will make fans of certain looks for the characters happy. The item shop is, of course, run by King Julien in all his comedic lemur fashion. I wish there was more to the item shop, but it serves its purpose in the end.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa screenshot

Graphically, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa blew me away. I was half expecting the traditional thrown together graphics we are usually treated with movie-themed games. Thankfully, I was surprised. The definition in the characters matched very nicely to the cinematic counterparts. While not perfect, there was a stronger resemblance to the full on character models from the film than the first title; the environments are equally colorful and wonderfully rendered. However, I do have to point out that in some cases the landscape is flat and bland and could have used a little more use of the color wheel, but this is supposed to be Africa after all. There was a small issue with lag, especially when racing as Marty, but nothing too distracting from the game.

An animated movie without the original voice actors reprising their roles for the game usually hurts in the long run. However, there are some great impersonators that make it difficult to discern them from the actual voice actors. Alex is probably the worst though; the voice actor tries to be Ben Stiller to no avail. Other than those few annoyances with the voice acting, they all do a decent enough job. The music is very catchy and makes you immediately think of the film, which is good considering it is supposed to be about the movie.

There are, of course, issues with the title, but they are so small that it won’t matter to the player it is designed for. Heck, even those that are an older audience will have a hard time faulting the game, for its presentation and scope of gameplay are quite nice. As a general rule, movie-based games have been surprising me a lot lately with actually paying attention to what makes the films enjoyable and allowing the player to have fun as well. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is a perfect example of a game that is designed for kids and plays nicely for the adults that love the film franchise. Could Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa change the way these types of games are handled in development? I certainly hope so, as long as they get the original voice actors in future titles.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.8 Graphics
Solid graphics – only a few issues with popping and inconsistent details. 4.0 Control
Concise maneuverability makes the experiences in the game’s varied tasks enjoyable. 3.5 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Repetitive, but not too bad. However, the lack of the stars from the film providing voiceovers annoyed me more than simply having them repeat the same lines over and over again.K 3.6 Play Value
The variety is great, but without a strong line to follow for the story it may give some a reason not to continue. 3.7 Overall Rating – Good
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • Play As All Your Favorite Madagascar Characters Plus New Ones: Your favorite characters from Madagascar return and you can play them all! In addition to Alex, Marty, Gloria, and Melman, you also get to play as the crafty penguins, the wacky King Julien, and new hippo character Moto Moto!
  • Experience Unique Combat Moves for Each Character: Learn all the moves and choose which character is best for the situation at hand.
  • Adventure through Twelve Levels and Six Tournament Mini-games from the Movie and Beyond: Experience the characters, settings and situations established in DreamWorks Animation’s new Madagascar movie. Unique new environments include the Watering Hole, a free roaming area that’s been expanded for the game, the volcano, and the plane wreck.
  • Master New Gameplay Challenges and Twice as Much Multiplayer: Master new and expanded tournament mini-games including twice as much multiplayer action as the first Madagascar!

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