The characters are exactly what you’d expect from Disney. The main character, Jim Hawkins, is an adventurous youth in search of the famous Treasure Planet. He is aided by his loveable sidekick (yes, of course there’s a loveable sidekick – it’s a Disney game) named Morph, who can – you guessed it – morph into different forms. Jim is also assisted by his friend, Dr. Doppler, and the sneaky John Silver.

There are two types of gameplay here – typical platform action and Solar Surfing. Most of the levels put the player in the role of Jim as he jumps, runs, and climbs through various environments. The major goal is to activate the many beacons scattered throughout each level. The activated beacons will supposedly lead Jim to the mythical Treasure Planet. Though it may sound somewhat interesting, the actual process of activating the beacons is horribly monotonous. The player has to perform a variety of seemingly pointless tasks in order to activate these beacons, such as collecting 100 doubloons or breaking precisely 7 red crates. What does that have to do with unveiling a map, anyway? Most of the game seems like a constant fetch quest with nothing particularly exciting to keep the player’s interest.

Solar Surfing is an event found on several levels in which Jim hops onto something that resembles a surfboard and races to the finish while collecting items along the way. It could have added a bit of excitement to the game, but due to poor controls and a lack of originality (did someone say “Tony Hawk rip-off”?), Solar Surfing is just as frustrating as the other levels in the game.

The controls are also a major problem with Treasure Planet. Jim can double-jump in the air, and while this may seem like a good thing, it really doesn’t help much at all. When Jim leaps in the air, he falls like a 10-ton weight. As you can imagine, this makes the platform levels rather difficult and very annoying. Prepare to fall down many cliffs and restart each level over and over again. It’s a good thing that the player is given unlimited lives, or I would have put this game down halfway through the first level. Despite Jim’s jumping difficulties, however, the controls work fairly well in the platform levels. Solar Surfing, however, is a different story.

You’ll have to try and retry many of the surfing levels just to get used to the controls and manage to make Jim go where you want him to go. In order to avoid the many obstacles along the way, you don’t jump over them or duck under them (believe me – I tried). Instead, you have to steer Jim up the side of the wall to go around the obstacles. This can be especially frustrating when the obstacles are waiting for you around a sharp corner. Basically, the only way to do well on the Solar Surfing levels involves complete memorization of the courses and a lot of patience. Those who have never played any sort of skateboarding or surfing game will have even more difficulty with the controls. Have fun!

The graphics look all right, but considering the power of the PS2, the visuals could have been much more impressive. The FMV sequences, which were taken directly from the movie, are of very high quality. Unfortunately, the actual gameplay graphics are somewhat disappointing. Although the character models look very similar to their 2D movie counterparts, it would have helped if their faces showed more expression and detail. Everyone knows what the PS2 is capable of by now, and Disney Interactive really needs to keep that in mind when creating games like this one.

The background music features part of the score from the movie as well as a few original tunes. Nothing really seems to stand out, but none of the music seemed particularly bad, either. The same voice actors from the movie also returned for their respective roles in the game. Although the voices sound good for the most part, a lot of the dialogue seemed a bit awkward and forced. Aside from a few minor complaints, though, the sound in Treasure Planet is generally quite pleasant.

After finishing the game, there is really no good reason to play it again. There is nothing worth going back for, unless you somehow really enjoyed the gameplay. Aside from several FMV sequences that become unlocked as you play through the game, Treasure Planet doesn’t feature many bonuses at all. Why replay a game that’s difficult enough to enjoy the first time through?

Where this title falters most is in the innovation department. It could have been something big, but instead it’s just another frustrating platform game. It seems that every Disney game I’ve played lately has become less and less original. I think it’s finally at the point where the developers just take a general formula and apply it to each of the movies in order to turn it into a game. It’s most definitely time for Disney Interactive to consider doing something completely radical before customers completely lose faith in the company.

In summary, Treasure Planet is yet another typical movie-based fetch-quest game with awkward controls. If you like high-quality platform games, stay away from it. If you want to see the movie, I suggest that you don’t play the game until after you see it. Not only will it be disappointing, but the FMV sequences in the game will undoubtedly spoil a lot of the movie for you. I would only recommend this title to huge fans of the movie who happen to be unnaturally calm and patient. Even then, just rent it instead of purchasing it. Nobody wants to waste a bunch of hard-earned money on yet another mediocre platform game.

· · · Ren