The Spiderwick Chronicles

Movie licensed titles are often less than satisfactory, but The Spiderwick Chronicles manages to pair decent gameplay with impressive production values.

Overall a great adventure game, would like to see a bit more "polish" to the game and an inventory system to work around the item backtracking.

There is a big area to delve into, the music is great, and there is a lot of gameplay variety. There's something new to find around every corner, and that's something I can't say about enough games. The Chronicles could get younger players hooked on adventure gaming.

An entertaining movie tie-in that should keep kids and fans of the film engrossed throughout the duration of your game-rental period.

Fans of the film will enjoy this - especially the surprisingly enjoyable combat. [Apr 2008, p.56]

The game is not spectacular but looks and plays well enough to keep the players entertained, and it doesn't entail much frustration, unlike other games of the family action / adventure genre.

An entertaining adventure game with just enough variety and inventive puzzles to please fans of the movie or books. There are certainly a few rough spots here and there and the visuals are not as eye-catching as they should be but the game has a number of fun moments that should not be missed by fans of the series.

Even for a tie-in game, SC does a pretty good job of being fun. Some of the game missions are repetitve, but kids will love it. Not recommended for experienced gamers or those who hate cutesy things.

And so it’s difficult to recommend The Spiderwick Chronicles. It’s not an awful game, but it’s nowhere near a good game either.

It manages to take some advantage from the movie license. Its gameplay is accessible but interesting, with simple puzzles, platform jumps and combo based combats. It will please its target audience. [March 2008]

Surprisingly pleasing little game perfectly tailored for kids.

For a kids game, The Spiderwick Chronicles is a pretty decent effort in providing gamers with some solid adventuring experiences.

Spiderwick is a solid videogame based on a popular book and movie. If you enjoyed reading or watching either of those, you will surely equally enjoy beating this videogame.

The limited inventory system often forces you to waste items to make room, and multiplayer is a complete waste – unless prancing through the fields collecting faeries with a net is your cup of tea. However, for a children’s movie licensed game you could do a lot worse.

Young kids will have a lot of fun with Spiderwick Chronicles, especially if they liked the books or movie. It’s suitably attractive and has tried-and-true gameplay mechanics, but it ultimately amounts to a series of fetch-quests and shallow combat.

An enjoyable run through the film's events, but it's barely a game in places. [May 2008, p.89]

Overall, this game will hit the mark for its target audience, so if you know someone who is a fan it will be perfect. It might be a pleasant diversion for the older gamer, if slightly simplistic.

The story mode can easily be completed within 7 hours and you will also unlock you the majority of the achievements (with the rest coming from the multiplayer).

Chronically average. [Apr 2008, p.86]

A harmless piece of entertainment that might amuse those who are fans of the film and too young to really steep themselves in something complicated, but it's too obtuse and repetitive for older players.

Inventory restrictions, abundance of backtracking and run of the mill production values make things pretty average.

The Spiderwick Chronicles isn’t a tough game to complete, but it can be entertaining for young fans of the books.

If its presentation wasn't so poor(wooden voiceovers, bland graphics, annoying music), it's be a much better game, but at least it nudges the genre in the right direction. [May 2008, p.72]

Overall this is a fairly solid title, nothing awe inspiring yet nothing dismal, and unfortunately for a movie tie-in that is quite an achievement.

The Spiderwick Chronicles is really a poor excuse for an adventure game and an about average game in total, it is playable but not really that enjoyable.

The bulk of Spiderwick is fuelled by what might be called the game’s ‘action’ sections, where players take on goblins and ogres by mashing just one attack button. These levels are the least inspired and try any motivation the gamer might have, which is unlikely to be great if they haven’t already seen the movie.

Sticks close to the source material though whether that is of any benefit is up for question, the story is nothing you haven’t seen before and the fetch and carry game-play is the lowest common denominator for movie games it would seem.

The Spiderwick Chronicles is a standard licensed game -- it's got just enough content to make a virtual reenactment of the Human/Goblin war worthwhile for fans of the franchise.

There's the kernel of something really interesting in The Spiderwick Chronicles. Glimmers of a free-roaming kids adventure game with RPG overtones, based on actual folklore. Sadly, it only manages to be that game for an hour or so, before steadily becoming less interesting and more generic and annoying, culminating in an ending that is absolutely cruel considering the age of the intended player.

Ultimately The Spiderwick Chronicles achieves what it sets out to accomplish, and that is satisfy fans of the source material.

For what it’s worth, you could do a hell of a lot worse than The Spiderwick Chronicles. It seems perfectly happy to get through the six or so hours of game time merely meeting criteria to an acceptable standard and never anything more.

But if you’re more discerning about your games and don’t give a crap about the film then you really should be looking elsewhere.

I was surprised at how simple and fun the fairy collection was, but the combat mechanics are a dull affair. Traipsing around in the walls isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and the game’s reliance on the field guide is a lazy design trick.

The game's control scheme is basic to the point where you could play with an Atari controller.

A button mashing affair with not enough substance.

Wandering back and forth through the same areas to collect one silly object after another will drive you "This is Sparta" raving mad, especially when you realize that you have to collect every fairy sprite and finish every last side quest just to see how the story ends.

A barely passable movie cash-in that shoehorns the film’s plot into a simplified adventure game and offers little to nothing beyond this.

The game appreciates boredom in a way that we never could. [Issue#32, p.89]