Charlotte's Web (Nintendo DS)

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Editorial Review

Sega aren’t normally a company you’d associate with movie licenses, although they have just nabbed the rights to make games based on the Aliens movies. This though is a very different type of film, a live action adaptation of the beloved children’s book featuring an unlikely friendship between a pig and a spider. Unfortunately the video game is unlikely to remain as timeless as the book, especially since it’s taken the slightly perverse route of turning the whole story into a series of platform jumping adventures. Even though pigs aren’t exactly known for their gymnastics you take the role of Wilbur as he collects eggs and, oddly, letters for Charlotte the spider. For better or worse, Wilbur does actually handle just as you’d expect a pig too, which means he barely makes even the simplest of jumps, scrabbling cutely to make it onto a ledge.

Wilbur’s defensive abilities are similarly low tech, with an ineffective kick and a repartee of songs to send enemies running. Obviously the game’s limited by the settings of the original book and film but you do get the feeling that this really isn’t a story that makes much sense translating into a video game. In the end the best bits are the various mini-games, including a number of special touch screen games on the DS. In between platform levels you can get to pamper Wilbur, as Fern his human owner, in something like a mini version of Nintendogs… but with pigs. There are also several separate mini-games such as parachuting with baby spiders and a fun puzzle game with Templeton the rat. Even so a ticket to see the movie again is probably better value.
HARRISON DENT

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