2009 | Griptonite Games | Playstation 3
Griptonite Games
Originally founded as Realtime Associates Seattle Division in 1994, Griptonite Games primarily specialized as a developer for hire for handheld games. In 1999 the studio was acquired by Amaze Entertainment as a subsidiary division to help with the development of various games based on movie licenses. During the period of 2005 to 2008 the studio fully merged with Amaze Entertainment. Amaze itself was bought in 2006 by Foundation 9 Entertainment. Under Foundation 9, Griptonite and Amaze were merged under the Griptonite name. The studio kept focusing on movie licensed games, and in 2009 released Where the Wild Things Are on the same day as the movie from the same year. A DS version of the game was developed by WayForward, known for the Shantae series of games.
Not quite as I remember
Where the Wild This Are is a rather strange title. While it adheres to the basic premise of the original source material, and the 2009 movie, it deviates from nearly everything beyond that. The original story is about a boy in wolf suit, Max, who, after going on a tantrum, is sent to bed without supper. While bored in his room, he retreats into his own imagination, and his bedroom transforms into a lush jungle on a strange island. Even stranger are the monstrous, fuzzy creatures that inhabit it. These are the Wild Things. The Wild Things try to scare Max to no avail, and eventually become friends. After a night of particularly high volumes of mischief, Max ( now king of the Wild Things) is forced to send them to bed without supper. This causes him to become homesick and lonely. The story ends with Max leaving the island of the Wild Things, and sailing home to his bedroom, where he finds a hot supper waiting for him.
The 2009 movie of which the game derives its framework follows many of the same story beats. It does take a few extra leaps to help establish character, but the general idea is the same. The game that released as a tie-in to the movie, however, drastically differs from its cinematic counterpart. In the game, Max arrives on the Wild Thing island on his sailboat and finds one of the Wild Things lingering around the beach. He then decides to follow him, which leads Max to the Wild Thing village. At first the Wild Things can’t decide whether to scare Max, or to eat him, but they quickly develop a fondness for the kid. From here, Max goes on adventures throughout the island with the Wild Things. Eventually start to notice that a black, viscous liquid is taking over the island. At first they try to stop it, but they end up having to escape to the moon, or get swallowed up alongside the island. The game ends with Max dancing around a campfire on the moon with the Wild Things, celebrating their victory.
There isn’t really much else to say about the game’s story. The best way I can describe it is weird and disjointed at best. The game barely bothers to establish the names of the Wild Things, outside of a few names getting dropped, and Max says a line or three in the entire game. It presents itself as a game based on Where the Wild Things Are, but it feels more like someone took the blueprint of a different game and slapped a new logo on it. That isn’t to say that the game isn’t without charm. There is a weird merit to the moon logic of the game’s story, and it somewhat fits within the frame of a children’s book. It might be because I’m so fond of the original book, but I rarely found myself bothered by the lack of cohesion. I’d rather sit there and smile to myself that it met the exact expectations I had going into the game. Which feels strange, considering the game is like a cooked potato without seasoning. It’s getting the job done, but it certainly isn’t a tasty meal.
Wild Things and even wilder bees
The game is divided into two major bits of gameplay. The first is a selection of platformer stages that has you, as Max, explore the island alongside one of the Wild Things. You have a scepter at your disposal to defend yourself, and things are definitely abuzz on the island. The primary enemies you’ll be facing are various varieties of bees. Some of these bees you can whack with your scepter a few times, but other require you to hold the attack button for a charged attack. Some bees will turn into bombs you can pick up and throw at things. When getting attacked you have to either block the attack, or jump over things smashing the ground. The rest kind of plays out exactly as you imagine for a 3D platformer. You’ve got branches to swing on, ledges to shimmy along, and, of course, platforms to platform. It all feels extremely basic, and somewhat shallow at times. There isn’t much to combat outside of swinging a big stick and blocking bees.
Each stage sees you accompanied by one, or two, of the Wild Things. They will mostly be there for you to point at things to smash, get tossed by, or save from becoming primordial ooze. Every once in a while you can point them in a direction by whacking said direction with your stick. During the later parts of the game, you’ll frequently find yourself attacked by viscous blobs. When fighting the ooze, the Wild Thing that’s accompanying you is going to get caught in a pool, and will slowly start to sink. It’s up to you to save them from being dragged into the abyss by, you guessed it, hitting the pool with your stick. This does provide a bit of a challenge in the later parts of the game, but once you’ve heard the song once, you’ll quickly find yourself humming the same tune.
The other major bit is the village. Throughout the game you’ll frequent this little collection of huts to freely roam around in and interact with the Wild Things. There are collectibles throughout the game that open up new parts of the village. Each Wild Thing prefers a different collectible, and you’ll be rewarded with more collectibles when you collect collectibles. You can also interact with the Wild Things, mostly by hugging them, but you can also start a mud fight. Max can throw rocks at the Wild Things, and they’ll throw Max sized clumps of mud back. The biggest mystery is Max’s lack of spinal injury after this. There isn’t really much more to do in the village outside of this.
Ico, is that you?
I haven’t really done a good job of painting this game in a positive light, have I? While this might seem the case, I did really enjoy my time with it. For as little as the game feels like it offers in terms of depth, it makes up for in charm. The biggest draw for me was to simply experience what a game would be like in the world of Where the Wild Things Are. My best theory of why the game is the way it is, is likely due to a last minute change from the publisher. It simply doesn’t feel like the correct game for what we ended up getting. My best guess is that Griptonite made an action platformer about a world being swallowed by the ooze, but couldn’t find a place to get it published. So, they’d get approached by WB Games to get the game published, if they made it a Where the Wild Things Are game. It certainly would explain why the game feels so much more grim in tone compared to the source material, alongside fitting the movie licensed catalog of games from the studio.
Where the Wild Things Are manages to capture the visual charm of the book. The Wild Things all look fantastic! The music that accompanies the game is a nice addition that encapsulates, to a limited degree, the whimsy of the story. I would’ve liked a few more tracks in the soundtrack to help elevate a few scenes. There is a stand-out scene of Alexander and Max sitting in Max’s bedroom while looking out over space. The scene depicts a surprising level of nuance and vulnerability that I didn’t expect. Maybe if the game had more time in the oven it could’ve managed this level of consistency across the board.
For now though, Where the Wild Things Are is an okay game. It doesn’t do anything special, or elaborate. Instead it decides to play it extremely safe. The gameplay can feel a bit repetitive and the story makes little sense, even within its own context. The best part of the game is the presentation. The Wild Things are really well designed, and some of the later areas are quite pleasant to look at. It’s ultimately a very safe feeling game, with an attempt made to make it feel cozy and warm. It’s a game that is firmly mediocre without being bad.
Surprise moon tower/10
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