I’m back with another family-friendly game review! Today's game is Night In The Museum Battle For The Smithsonian. This action/adventure title is based on the 20th Century Fox movie of the same name. You play the role of Larry Daley, the former night watchman for the Museum Of Natural History, who is trying to save all of his friends in the museum. The exhibits are being moved to the National Archives in Washington D.C., home of the Smithsonian Institute. However the Pharaoh has the ancient tablet of Ahkmenrah that brings Larry’s friends to life when the sun goes down, and he is trying to use the tablet to take over the world.
Controlling Larry is really easy, most of his actions are taken care of with the X button, and jumping is done with a press of the A button, typical of most action games. Larry does have a few special actions that are performed in different ways. The LT is used to throw out Larry’s keychain so that he can swing over gaps or grab items and pull them closer to him. When Larry gains possession of the tablet he must find different ingots that fit into it to give him different abilities. An example would be the gear ingot, which allows Larry to shine his flashlight on machinery and bring it to life so to speak. The animal ingot gives Larry the ability to befriend wild animals. All in all the controls are very easy to use and you will quickly pick them up.
Graphically, this game is not the best to look at. The visuals could have been polished a lot more than they were. The voice over work does make up for the poor visuals though; Ben Stiller lends his voice to the main character Larry Daley. The other voices are done well and closely mimic their counterparts in the film, but aren’t done by the actors from the movie.
Now for what everyone is waiting for, the achievements. For the most part the achievements are a piece of cake; a good 6 to 7 hours and you can easily complete all 1000 gamerpoints for this game. There are a few achievements that will require some collecting, but the items needed are pretty much out in the open and easy to spot. If you are having problems there are guides all over the Internet to help you out. There are a couple of mini-games that might take a few tries to get, but have no fear because you can always go back and replay any level you have already completed.
I really enjoyed this game as well as the movie. The easy 1000 points didn’t hurt either, so if you liked the movie or you really want the easy gamerpoints then give this game a try; you won’t be disappointed and neither will your kids. I give this game a 6.5 out of 10. It would have gotten a higher score if the visuals were a bit more polished and if the game was a little longer.
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