Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

Overview

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian is a licensed title based off the sequel movie of the same name. Players control the character of Larry Daley, a former security guard who befriended many of the characters in the first movie. It is a single player platforming action game that also includes several logic puzzles.

The game opens with Larry visiting the museum on the final night before many of these characters (which are actually museum displays based on historical figures and events) are shipped off to be permanently stored in a government warehouse. The game continues on to take Larry through many other types museums including Art Museums, the National Air and Space Museum, eventually culminating at the Lincoln Memorial.

Story

Larry Daley is a former night security guard at American Museum of Natural history, who has since left that job to form Daley Supplies. He stops by his old job and finds out all of the exhibits are being replaced by interactive holograms of the former exhibits. While walking the halls of the museum, Teddy Roosevelt tells Larry that the Tablet of Akmenrah (which gives the current exhibit pieces the ability to come to life after hours) is staying at the museum, and that the exhibits being shipped off will never move again.

Overnight, Dexter the monkey steals the tablet, and it is shipped off along with the exhibits being stored. Larry must recover the tablet and its magical ingots to prevent them from falling into the hands of Kahmunrah, who wishes to use the tablet to summon the dead from the underworld. Napoleon Bonaparte, Ivan the Terrible, and Al Capone have joined forces with Kahmunrah, and Larry and his friends must overcome them all.

Gameplay

The core game play is basic platforming. With each ingot recovered, the player is rewarded with a new ability. These abilities are normally focused on allowing access to new areas and finding collectibles. For the majority of the game, the player must rely on avoidance and using their flashlight to manipulate the environment to damage enemies, only gaining the ability to deal direct damage towards end of the game as one of the final power ups.

The player is also able to occasionally control vehicles such as a prop plane, the Lunar Lander, and a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Reception

Night at the Museum received generally average reviews. The general consensus among review outlets seemed to feel that while the game was an above-average movie license title, it is not long enough to justify the retail price tag, which was already discounted on several platforms.

Xbox 360 gamers will find the game a quick and easy source of Achievement points.