Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie [PS2]

Visually, King Kong is top-notch, pushing both the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox to their limits. A number of lighting effects are used to indicate different status effects, such as the yellow hue that floods the screen when Kong is in a frenzy. Characters are well animated and all of the creatures in the game move fluidly. Watching Kong battle it out with a V-Rex is an amazing sight. There were the occasional visual glitches, but by and large the whole thing is solid.

Perhaps the biggest compliment goes to the current gen systems, though, because aside from a few extra effects, the Xbox 360 version doesn't look all that much different. Proving you need more than tools to make stunning visuals, King Kong on current generation systems looks better than quite a few of the Xbox 360's launch games.

Audio is also worthy of note, as all the lead actors have lent their voices to the game. Environmental effects are superb, especially on the 360 when played through a surround system. Oddly enough the Xbox version of the game refused to output 5.1, even though it claims to do so on the box.

The only real mistake that King Kong makes is in the enemy placement. In the later levels, it's not uncommon to have creatures attack you in pairs, where the first hit stuns you and the second hit kills. It's never a big setback, but it's still frustrating to experience a "cheap" death. Similar instances occur when you're supposed to be protecting your comrades, but aren't quite sure what to do. They'll die, and you'll get to reload and try again until you get it right. Thankfully these sequences are few and far between.

King Kong is a linear game that simply doesn't feel linear, and that's a major achievement. By tightly focusing the action and constantly engaging the player, the developers have managed to make you feel a part of the action without holding your hand. You don't really notice that the game sometimes goes on rails, when you're running for your life or desperately trying to save a friend. By tapping into the player's emotions, the game slyly sidesteps the natural tendency to explore. All in all, it's a masterful illusion.

Ultimately, King Kong succeeds because the developers used the film as an inspiration, but never let it drive the necessities of gameplay. The result is an interactive entertainment experience that ranks up there with the best action-adventures available. Kong is undoubtedly king in the jungle of movie licensed games.