It is almost a guarantee that when a new animated movie comes out in theaters, it is only a matter of time before a game is released that follows up in its footsteps. The latest movie to get a game conversion is entitled Disney's Meet the Robinsons but instead of closely following the plot of the movie, this game takes place in an alternate quest from the film. Players will get to be put in the shoes of Wilber and your goal is to travel from past to present to prevent the Time Machine from falling into the hands of evil. Hopefully you are up to this heavy task as the world depends on you.

The game plays very similar to many third person action games, with the Zelda franchise being the most similar. You have a main hub, the Robinson home, and then you will go around to various spots in time causing mischief as you go. You will have an inventory that keeps track of all your items, you will auto jump instead of getting to do it yourself, and other various actions that are in all games like this. The problem is the game doesn’t try to break the formula rules and add something different, instead we are left with the feeling that you have played this game before.

To help break up some of the tediousness of the game, the players are allowed to build various items during the course of their adventures. You will be able to invent devices such as the Disassembler, which can rip up enemies and make them go back to their core parts; the Robinson Scanner that allows you to detect hidden items and find weaknesses in enemies you are fighting; Havoc Gloves allow you to bury under any obstacle and resurface with power; and many more that help keep your adventures exciting.

What I really hated during the entire game was the camera system. It has difficulty keeping up with you and all your adventures. The developers included a lock-on mechanism since you will be battling many foes at any given time, but the problem is that it always locks onto the most insignificant enemies, while you are getting pulverized by the bigger baddies. It gets even better since it is very difficult to switch to other objects. When you do finally switch, the enemy will be upon you and causing significant damage, this gets old and frustrating very quickly.

Disney's Meet the Robinsons also offers a mini-game entitled Chargeball that will help take away from of the repetition. The simplest way to describe the game is that it is very reminiscent to air hockey with minor differences. First off you must take down the enemy’s shields, once you do that you will try to score a goal. As you are playing you will find various power-ups and obstacles to overcome. Overall it is a decent mini-game that helps flesh out the game.

I would image that it is pretty difficult for developers making a game based off an animated cartoon. The reason for this is that people see how it looks at the movies, then they view the game, and the graphics can’t compare (it is getting closer thanks to the increased power of the consoles, but it still isn’t there yet). Thankfully these games are marketed towards the younger gaming audience that really don’t care that the game doesn’t look exactly like the movie, but that they can play as the characters they just saw in the movie.

This being the case, the graphics for Disney's Meet the Robinsons gets the job done, but it could have been a little better. That doesn’t mean that it is a bad thing, but there is plenty of room for improvement. The good thing is that the character animations and models are nice and fluid, but the problem lies with the fact that the environments that you will transverse are very sparse in detail and have a very low resolution look to them.

One of the high points of the game is that it doesn’t use in film cut-screens. Instead the developers made them from the ground up using the in-game engine. All of the cut-screens look very impressive and it is completely obvious that the developers spent plenty of time on them. It is a shame that they couldn’t have made the entire game look like the cut-screens as that would have resulted in very nice looking game.

The audio is pretty good. First off the developers were able to get the voice actors to reprise their roles for the various characters, which is always a nice thing. The sound effects that you will hear and the music are also taken from the movie so there is plenty to appreciate there, especially if you love the sound from the movie.

Disney's Meet the Robinsons is rated Everyone 10+.

Gameplay: 6.5
Disney's Meet the Robinsons gameplay is nothing that you haven’t seen in many other third person action games. You will do all the normal tasks that you have done millions of times in other games with very little variation. The camera needs some serious work as well.

Graphics: 7.0
The graphics for Disney's Meet the Robinsons are decent, but I have seen better movie to game conversions then this. What really stands out is the cut-screens, and you can tell the developers put lots of time into creating them.

Sound: 7.5
What really stands out is that the actors from the movie voice their characters for this game, so players will feel that much more in line with the game as they play it. The music and sound effects are decent and get the job done.

Difficulty: Easy
This game was definitely made for the younger gaming audience, as you will have no trouble breezing through it.

Concept: 6.5
One of the better aspects of the game is that it has an invention system. During the course of the game you will be able to build a range of devices that allow you to better complete various missions.

Overall: 6.7
Animated movie to videogame conversions are always a tricky business, and a highly profitable one if they are done correctly. Meet the Robinsons is a game that would have been a lot better if the developers ironed out a few of its flaws; instead we are left with a game that could have been a lot more. If you are a fan of this movie then check it out, otherwise this game should be filed under rental only.