Chris Molina // Game Designer

"Gamers should always approach licensed games with caution. More often than not, the tie-in tries to coast on the brand name rather than provide a fun gaming experience. I’m happy to report that The Spiderwick Chronicles sidesteps this pitfall and offers a surprisingly enjoyable adventure for the younger gamer. It immerses the player in a lighthearted, fantasy world filled with an impressive amount of mythical creatures.
Combat is mostly button-mashing, but it’s pretty satisfying smashing in a goblin’s skull with a metal baseball bat. As you defeat enemies you’ll pick up goblin teeth, which (for some reason or another) unlock new attacks. Of course, these usually only grant you another press of the A button, but there are a few cool abilities to be unlocked. Jared, the sibling you begin playing as, has a rather awesome ”launcher” attack that lets him hit goblin home runs.’
The Spiderwick Chronicles recreates that feeling of being a kid and suspending your disbelief in fantasy. Much of this success in setting a mood and creating an intriguing world to explore is attributable to Holly Black’s original books. But I have to give credit to developer Stormfront for creating a fun game to go inside the Spiderwick license… …there is a big area to delve into, the music is great, and there is a lot of gameplay variety. There’s something new to find around every corner, and that’s something I can’t say about enough games. The Chronicles could get younger players hooked on adventure gaming."

"Games based on family movies often look and play like cheaply made quickies, but that’s not the case with Sierra’s pleasantly bright “The Spiderwick Chronicles,” which turns in a surprisingly enjoyable if brief performance… …”Spiderwick” is a well-made tie-in to the Par/Nick fantasy film opening next week and should sell well with fans of the books and pic."

"Reviewing a children’s game can be a pretty tough prospect. The standards you apply to every other game don’t always work here. Well, that’s not entirely true. You can’t just foist crappy games on kids because they are kids. That’s just wrong. To be more accurate, the set standards for critiquing a title apply a tad bit differently. Things like difficulty and story need different judging criteria. To a certain extent, this same line of reasoning applies to licensed games. It’s hard to just attach a flat number score to these games. Fans of the license will obviously get more out of it than someone who has never seen or read the source material.
This article isn’t really an editorial on the review process, so I’ll spare you my rantings (for now). The point is that Spiderwick Chronicles is unmistakably both a licensed property and a children’s game. When I started playing, I wasn’t quite sure how to approach my review. Turns out that I shouldn’t have worried, Spiderwick Chronicles is actually a pretty decent game by any set of standards."

// The Spiderwick Chronicles