Fans of the upcoming film Arthur and the Invisibles will be pleased to know that Atari did not screw up the movie licensed game. However, that doesn't mean they've released a triple-A product, either. Instead of creating something truly stupendous, the developers merely copied ideas from previous adventure games. On the positive side, children will enjoy the simplistic missions and movie clips. Everyone else, unfortunately, has played this game before.

The Invisibles revolves around Arthur, a young and adventurous lad who, while visiting his grandmother (and nosing around the attic), stumbles upon a mysterious telescope that shrinks and transports him to the land of the Invisibles, a race of troll-like beings only millimeters tall. He soon meets up with a few of the creatures, most notably Betamax...ahem...Betameche, as well as Selenia, the Princess of the Invisibles. Together, the trio set out on a quest to rid the land of equally pintsize henchmen. The game closely follows the film, so players should avoid it until they check out the movie.

Like most movie licensed video games, this third person adventure revolves around collecting items, activating switches, pushing blocks, activating more switches and then activating even more switches. Atari keeps things interesting by letting players ride bugs, drive a miniature car and swap between all three characters on the fly (all of which have special abilities), but the game feels too familiar. Even being able to earn new skills (such as...wait for it... "acrobatic moves") won't hold gamers' interests, not after having to push several rocks and killing nameless bug men.

Fortunately, Arthur and the Invisibles provide plenty of entertainment for people that have never played games like it, and Atari deserves credit for creating a technically sound product. Some added originality would have been nice, but considering the disastrous movie licensed games wallowing on store shelves the world over, Arthur does stand out amongst the garbage.

In addition, the game looks decent. Featuring large blades of grass, gigantic bugs and humongous trees, the developers did a nice job capturing the essence of the film while at the same time injecting it with good fantasy music. Character voices get annoying, especially when the same lines get repeated but children (clearly the game's target audience) won't mind the repetitive ramblings, nor will they balk at the simplistic puzzles and grainy video.

Yes, Atari could've done a much better job, but one cannot blame it for traveling the safe path. At the same time, while Arthur and Invisibles: The Game won't be remembered even months from now thanks to its overused design, it still makes for a solid gift, especially for kids.

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Arthur and the Invisibles Game Guide

Atari

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