Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie

Overview

King Kong is the video-game adaptation of Peter Jackson's 2005 remake of the classic monster movie King Kong. It is part first-person shooter with players taking upon the role of the character Jack, and part third-person beat-em up as players play as Kong.

Gameplay

Although games in which the player takes control of multiple characters are not exactly rare, King Kong takes this to in the unusual direction of changing the style of gameplay dramatically. Whilst most of the game is played through the first person perspective of Jack Driscoll, in the form of a first person shooter, the player also occasionally will switch to the role of the titular ape, King Kong, and with it to a third-person beat-em-up / platforming gameplay.

Whilst playing as Jack, however, the game still manages to divert from the traditional first person shooter archetype most games follow by making ammunition for automatic weapons such as guns sparse and scattered far away, meaning the player must to learn to use bones, torches and sharpened sticks to fend off dinosaurs, giant bugs and other ghastly creatures.

The notable lack of a HUD also increases the difficulty factor putting players in a position where they must judge how far and where to throw their projectiles (although cross-hairs may be turned on via an in-game option).

Due to the lack of a HUD, the game introduces various methods to keep the player aware of their remaining ammo count such as having Jack shout out how much ammunition he has left whenever he reloads his clip or allowing players to manually check their ammo with a button press in which Jack will call out how much ammunition he has remaining. Also when players sustains a significant amount of damage, the screen turns red and blurry and Jack's breathing and heartbeat will sound louder than usual. All this serves to create atmosphere within the game, which although used frequently today, was considered somewhat pioneering upon the games initially release.

Scoring System

Once 100% game completion is obtained, an extra scoring system is unlock in which players can replay each chapter and try to earn the highest score possible. Included within each copy of the game was a unique internet code which players could enter their personal high scores into the Ubisoft's King Kong website (www.kingkonggame.com), although Ubisoft later redesigned their website and made this feature obsolete. The players total score is kept and depending on the total score achieved will unlock additional extras within the extras menu as outlined in the extras section below.

The maximum high score which players can achieve for each chapter is 20,000 points. Points are awarded for performing actions such as killing enemies as well as completing the level itself and lost for dying as well as using bullets or spears. Below is a general guide for the point system in place:

• +5,000 points - Big Predators Killed
• +1,000 points - Big Predators Killed
• +500 points - Big Predators Killed
• -100 points - Bullets Used
• -20 points - Spears Used
• -5,000 points - Deaths
• -1,000 points - Injuries
• -1,000 points - Friends Injured
• -25 points - Attack Attempted
• -10 points - Time per second

Extras

Based on the players percentage of game completion and the overall score accumulated, specific things will unlock within the extras section found on the main menu.

• 05% Completion - Weta Artworks: Environments Part 1
• 15% Completion - "Old Movie" Filter
• 25% Completion - Weta Artworks: Environments Part 2
• 50% Completion - Weta Artworks: Creatures
• 75% Completion - Weta Artworks: Kong Part 1
• 100% Completion - "High Contrast" Filter, Horizontal Flip
• 20,000 Points - Weta Artworks: Kong Part 2
• 50,000 Points - Weta Artworks: Environments Part 3
• 75,000 Points - Peter Jackson Interview
• 100,000 Points - Weta Artworks: Kong Part 3
• 150,000 Points - Weta Artworks: Kong Part 4
• 200,000 Points - Philippa Boyens Interview
• 250,000 Points - Alternate Ending

Production

As the director of the 2005 remake of the movie King Kong, Peter Jackson worked very hard to make sure the video-game tie-in would be a more pleasurable experience for gamers than most other movie-game tie-ins which are on the whole considered sub-par by the video game community. Jackson's own background as a video-gamer is known to have prompted this.

The game was made alongside the film and was seen as a collaborative effort between the cast and crew of the film and the developers of the game, two groups of people attempting to tell the same story through different mediums, and trying to evoke different experiences, whilst maintaining a positive response.

Almost all of the cast from the 2005 motion picture lent their voices to the game including Jack Black, Adrien Brody and Naomi Watts. As well as that, Andy Serkis, the critically acclaimed motion capture performer praised for his acting as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies, and playing King Kong in the movie provided his services for the video game as well.

Chapters

1. The Venture
2. Skull Island
3. Necropolis
4. Scorpions
5. The Wall
6. Sacrifice
7. On Kong's Tracks
8. Hayes
9. V-Rex
10. Ann
11. Kong
12. The Canyon
13. Millipedes
14. Brontosaurus
15. Jimmy
16. On the Raft
17. Rapids
18. Fight
19. Swamps
20. Chased by V-Rex
21. The Log
22. The Skull Islanders
23. To Save Ann
24. The Cave
25. Venatosaurus
26. In the Mud
27. Call Kong
28. Kong to the Rescue
29. To the Plane
30. To the Lair
31. Kong's Lair
32. Fight in the Lair
33. Free
34. Chased by Kong
35. Heading Back
36. Back to the Village
37. Kong's Capture
38. Kong Struck Down
39. In the Streets of New York
40. The Empire State Building
41. Kong's Death

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by Chance Thomas and was released free on the official website. It contains mysterious and powerful elements, similar to motion picture score, composed by James Newton Howard.

Track Listing

• Ann Leaves The Island
• Ann's Theme
• Between Two Worlds/Vision of Ann
• Fury and Heroics
• The Island Tombs
• King Kong, the Tragic Hero
• Kong Dispatches the Tyrant
• Lost in the Jungle
• Nest of Raptors
• Panic
• Raptor Attack/Death of a Friend
• Relentless
• Sting of the Giant Scorpion
• The T-Rex Cometh
• Valley of the Brontosaurus
• Vampires of the Sky

Xbox 360 Game Installation

Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie requires 6.2GB of space to be installed on an Xbox 360 HDD.

System Requirements

Minimum

• OS: Windows® 98SE/ME/2000/XP
• Processor: 1.0 GHz AMD Athlon™ or Intel® Pentium® III
• RAM: 256 MB
• Video Card: 64 MB DirectX® 8.1 compliant
• Sound Card: DirectX 8.1 compliant
• DirectX: DirectX 8.1
• CD-ROM: 8x or faster
• Hard Drive Space: 1.5 GB minimum

Recommended

• OS: Windows® 98SE/ME/2000/XP
• Processor: 2.5 GHz Pentium IV or AMD Athlon™
• RAM: 512 MB
• Video Card:128 MB
• Sound Card: DirectX 8.1 compliant
• DirectX: DirectX 9.0c
• CD-ROM: 32x or faster
• Hard Drive Space: 1.5 GB minimum