#5: Tarzan (PS1)
1999 sadly saw Disney’s acclaimed Renaissance era draw to a
close. Their swansong, Tarzan, based
on the novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, could be seen to be a combination of the
successful elements of the productions that preceded it as well as a forerunner
of what was to come; it had the catchy songs, appealing characters and brilliant
storytelling of previous features, while simultaneously maintaining the dark
and surprisingly mature atmosphere characteristic of some of their subsequent and
less successful attempts. Since its initial release, Tarzan, it could be argued, has not achieved the status of some of
Disney’s more renowned features, such as the likes of The Lion King and Beauty and
the Beast. Regardless, wherever you stand on it, it was yet another success
for the apparently infallible Disney Studios, whose output, by this point, had
encouraged cinemagoers worldwide to anticipate nothing less than a masterpiece
with their every release. Coinciding with the film’s theatrical debut, Disney
Interactive and Eurocom released Tarzan for
the PlayStation One, which attracted mostly positive feedback. In retrospect,
was this game really as good as it could have been?
Well, yes and no. The aspects of the game that work well,
work very well. The locations and levels are entertaining and detailed, with
certain areas capturing the atmosphere of the film almost flawlessly. By today’s
standards, of course, the graphics are very dated, but despite the washed out,
still backgrounds and blocky rendering, the game’s creators did well to stay
admirably close to their source. There are no scenes that feel incongruous, and
the game progresses very smoothly, which culminates in a generally satisfying
experience. The music is perfectly suited to the gameplay – nothing stands out
as being especially off-putting. For the most part, the music is near enough
identical to the film score, although it is a little watered down at times,
occasionally sounding like elevator music. Regardless, this hardly detracts
from the game’s overall enjoyableness, which I cannot emphasise enough.
The game, for the most part, adopts the guise of a sidescrolling
platformer, though there are a handful of 3D levels. It follows the plot of the
film tremendously, with allusions to particular scenes and subtle details
throughout. For example, in order to gain access to bonus levels, you need to
collect all four pieces of Jane’s baboon sketch. Other collectables include the
letters T, A, R, Z, A and N, which, if collected in one level, unlock that
level’s movie clip, and tokens which you need to collect in order to achieve
100%. In this sense, it’s essentially just like Eurocom’s previous movie tie-in
Disney’s Action Game Featuring Hercules. It’s
pretty standard stuff, yes, and hardly original, but none of it is overly
taxing, and it doesn’t feel as though it’s covering old ground, mostly because
the way in which it is executed is near enough faultless. Most of the
voiceovers return to reprise their roles too, which is always to the game’s
advantage.
However, there are a few issues. Tree-surfing, while fun and
at times challenging, can get quite frustrating if you’re intent on collecting
all the tokens, as you don’t always have time to lean left and right, depending
on their situation on the branch. After a while, there’s no skill involved in
this – it’s just basic trial-and-error. Furthermore, as enjoyable as the bonus
levels are, there appears to be at least one technical fault, as Terk and Tantor’s Great Escape is unable
to be completed due to the fact that there aren’t enough purple ‘time-boosting’
fruits in your path. There is also an occasional delayed response onscreen,
which, though infrequent, can prove frustrating and fatal (for the onscreen
character, I mean, obviously). These are, admittedly, fairly insignificant
flaws though, juxtaposing them alongside the game’s qualities; my biggest issue
is that it is too short. With only thirteen levels (excluding the bonus levels),
it’s over too quickly, which considerably hinders its durability.
Otherwise, the game is very well done, but it does,
admittedly, fall short of being a masterpiece, mostly due to its unfortunate
shortcomings. As mentioned previously, there are few flaws, but those that are
there are distracting and obvious. As an adaptation, it undoubtedly does the
film justice, and the gameplay is, mostly, compelling. But the technical faults
will more than likely make you go ape.
7/10
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