King Kong (XBox, PS2, Gamecube, PC, Nintendo DS, Gameboy)

Herald rating: * * * * *

I'd seen enough demos of the King Kong video game based on the upcoming movie to know it was taking shape well. And I'm happy to report the finished version is well worth owning.

The intro sequence where you are lowered in a boat from the Venture and rowed to shore in the middle of a howling storm, sets the scene for a visually impressive and immersive experience.

It reminds me of the very realistic Russian river crossing in the war video game Call of Duty. But Kong is a superior game. The scenery is so cleverly put together you'll find yourself staring over a cliff watching the surf break against the rocks or the seaplane flying past.

Then the prehistoric beasts greet you and they're frightening.

The giant centipedes are the worst - they appear with a hiss and a rattle and move quickly towards you.

Up close they are ugly and the thump of the vibrating controller only adds to the unpleasantness of fighting them at close quarters.

The man against beast conflicts become more desperate as you run out of ammo and have to resort to spears or the bones of dead animals to fend off attackers.

In the role of scriptwriter Jack Driscoll, death can come relatively quickly and frequently. But auto-saves are regular so you'll only have to go back a short distance.

Your fellow adventurers, such as leading lady Ann Darrow, share their weapons with you, fight beside you and they help drag each other to safety when injured. There's a built-up camaraderie that has you feeling isolated and scared in scenes where you are alone.

Ann, for her part, is incredibly resourceful, always ready to give you a new spear and handy at slaying giant centipedes herself. On the other hand, filmmaker Carl Denham, exceptionally well-voiced by Jack Black, is shamelessly exploitative.

The few guns you have will regularly become useless as you exhaust your supply of bullets. Still, you can torch whole areas of gorse frying the beasts within and offer fat grubs as bait to lure hungry animals off the path.

The lack of an on-screen information panel is a smart move.

The B button tells you how much ammo you have left: "Two clips in back-up" or "I'm almost dry". When you're seriously injured, the screen blurs and you have to pause to recover.

Playing in third person view as the impressively animated Kong is liberating: suddenly spears and bullets seem irrelevant. You can knock prehistoric birds out of the sky, jump chasms and throw boulders at dinosaurs.

The game is quicker to get through than I thought it would be. Progress between deadly encounters on Skull Island is charted by Xs on a map - and they notch up pretty quickly.

There were only a couple of awkward moments graphics-wise, where characters got stuck in a door entrance or the frame rate slowed visibly.

The second half, set in New York, is relatively brief after the Skull Island adventure but again, the visuals are beautiful and the civilised setting is refreshing.

I feel like I've already seen the movie after one run-through of the game. Peter Jackson had a lot riding on his first hands-on video game adaptation and he has delivered in style.* R16, $110