The Adventures of Tintin: The Game

Everybody knows Tintin — the seemingly immortal teenage journalist from Belgium. He has been engrained into the hearts of many, both young, and old. He made his first appearance in January 1929, and he’s a comic book journalist hero. He always gets himself into some rather… interesting situations, which sees him go from your average journalist, to adventurer, all to unravel some epic plot.

We can’t mention Tintin and ignore his faithful sidekick, Snowy. His exceptionally intelligent white fox-terrier. Or dog, to put it plainly, who accompanies Tintin on many, if not all of his adventures.

As Tintin reaches his 83rd birthday, it seems fit for him to début on the big screens in 3D and on our consoles. The story begins with Tintin purchasing a model ship at a bazaar, and just in the nick of time, as a collector appears shortly after the purchase who desperately wants to buy the model boat from our young hero. Tintin declines the offer, informing the collector that it is his boat.  The collector then walks off, but not before imparting some chilling threat. Snowy then barks indicating that the boat is not all as it seems, which leads the journalist to then find a secret compartment which contains a mysterious piece of parchment that ignites Tintin’s interest, and ultimately, his sense of adventure.

Moving onto the actual game itself. The graphics are of a very high quality, as you’d expect. The attention to detail is second to none, whether it’s the detail to the motorbikes, aeroplanes, boats, characters or buildings, I can guarantee, you will not be disappointed.

The game itself is very straight forward. There are two types of areas. There is the three-dimensional free roam and the the linear platform areas, which are very… linear. These areas consist of moving up and down onto various platforms, moving left, right, and jumping over holes in the ground to proceed onto the next area. To proceed in some areas, you need to K.O. a certain amount of bad guys. Some of which are easier to knock out than others. Some need a simple three-hit combo, but some enemies require you to use the environment and various objects lying about to knock those bad boys out. The ones in a scuba diving suit are particularly annoying, but fear not! No enemy is safe from the deadly banana weapon!

One point to note about the free roaming area is that you can’t control the camera. It remains fixed behind Tintin (or Snowy). But don’t worry, I’ve not actually come across any bad guys lurking around the corner of some building… yet.

As you continue through the story, Tintin, with the Captain in tow, has to escape torrents of water, being chased by bad guys  and other such terrible events, which you’d expect could only happen to Tintin. The camera angle at these points remains fixed, where you are looking towards Tintin, and you can see what’s behind him, but not in front: the SnorriCam technique. This ensures that you’re kept on your toes when you have about a second to bash the jump button to hurtle over a barrier or some other obstacle when it comes into your field of view. The guys and gals at Ubisoft got the length of the these chase scenes absolutely spot on. They aren’t too short, and they aren’t long enough for you to get bored, or frustrated enough to stop playing should something bad happen.

The game also boasts a variety of mini games, from throwing a grappling hook to manoeuvre across the sides of ships, to grabbing a parrot to fly you about the stage. The driving and shooting mini-games are pretty fun. I have to mention the remarkable talent of Tintin and the Captain, who are able to effortlessly move from the passenger seat of a motor bike to the driving seat without crashing!


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