If you love Ben Stiller and Rex, it's time for you to save the world. The game is very short but very entertaining while it lasts. If you combine simplicity with amusement, this is what you would get.
Introduction
The story takes place in the American Museum of Natural History, where the brother of Akhmenrah is threating the World with his dark power allowing him to bring to live the museum exponats. In ancient Egypt people believed that a name carries a particular meaning, and the name of the Egyptian Pharaoh, Kahmunrah, translates to Bad News, more or less.
Centuries later, in the American Museum of Natural History the evil pharaoh puts the world in danger for a second time. And it is your task to stop him, congratulations!
| Gameplay - simple, yet amusing | Rating  |
As I said, if you love Ben Stiller and the movies (two in total), you will probably like the title also. There is one condition, however: you must not care about serious gameplay and challenge. The game is suitable for kids, so older or more experienced players might find it too easy - the ability to choose difficulty levels may have helped. However, if you are young at heart you will kill some time with pleasure.
A similar franchise many people enjoy is Harry Potter, no matter that the book was originally written for kids - it has some appeal with many adults as well.
The mess we have to handle this time is a broken magical artifact, rent asunder by the evil pharaoh and spread around the museum. The player have to collect the parts and gain new powers and abilities on the way. The only good thing is that every new ability is a separate type of spell - lightnings, fixing broken obstacles, controlling beasts and others. Way better than upgrading some limited abilities. The goal is to find which are the powers you will be needing in a certain situation and combining them into mini-games within the game.
| Graphics and Features | Rating  |
Another cool idea is riding the skeleton of the Tyrannosaurus, throwing bones for him and so on - like a real dog. Rexy shows how thankful he is by moving his tail around, and if he had a tongue - you'd be wet. In addition, there are lots of "Do you know?" type of information at the loading screen, presenting historical facts and other information - a great use of a loading screen, espcecially for younger players.
In general, the mini games are fun if you don't pay much attention to little bugs and shortcomings. The graphics are average, but they somehow fit the game type and goal so I won't grumble, though the various collision detection problems when operating vehicles are frustrating. Regarding the sound, it also fits the game - it's nice that you can hear Ben Stiller's voice here and there which contributes to the overal feel and makes the game more authentic.
Conclusion
I'd say thumbs up despite the criticism. The game might be short, yes, might be too easy, yes, but as an experience gamer I also found entertaiment and killed some free time. You can expect a simple, amusing and undemanding game based you will get a kick out of if you liked the movies.
Happy playing.
System requirements:
- Operating system: Windows (R) XP Vista
- Processor: 2 Ghz Intel Pentium IV
- RAM: 512 MB
- Video: Video Card compatible with DirectX ® 9.0c, 256 MB RAM
- Free disk space: 2 GB