POSTED 28/3/11


RANGO

EA
PS3 (also on Xbox 360, Wii, DS)

Looks like a certain bizarre-o Johnny Depp-voiced titular chameleon has given up smoking since making his also titular animated movie. Good effort man – it’s bloody hard.

Yep, the PC crowd wins again. We know kids can be monkey-see, monkey-do, but when we’re talking a lizard that’s also shooting, brawling and killing, there may be other things for our self-appointed moral guardians to get flaptational about.

But, once again, we digress. If you’re wondering what the fuck a ‘Rango’ is, then you haven’t been paying attention. Chameleon, voiced by Johnny Depp, animated movie... yeah? As a kiddie movie it makes ace adult viewing, and is wonderfully whack-jobby. Think Blazing Saddles meets any spaghetti western with a liberal Looney Tunes injection.

But that’s not important right now. The game is though, insofar as that’s what we’re supposed to be writing about. Face it, usually movie tie-ins are crap. Rango aims higher, with an original story set after that of the movie, wherein the citizens of Dirt (the town, not the rally game – duh!) are holding out for a hero, Bonnie Tyler style.

Guess the genre and win a praise... yep, third-reptile adventuring with running, jumping, shooting, punching, collecting and stuff. You’re super-ace! However, there are some winning touches that elevate Rango from bleah to yeah. Like mini-quests blended into chapters as fun diversions. When you ride a roadrunner through a level without carking it and nab a trophy named ‘Meep! Meep!’ you know there’s some wonderful silly at play.

It’s short though, damned short – shorter than a midget Martin Short impersonator even. Still, with kids today having attention spans lik– ooh, pretty colours! Umm, Rango’s not long, but is a better class of film tie-in and has the world’s first great taste of fish. That’s gotta be good, left?

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