Flushed Away is probably the best animated film of the past year. Forget Cars, Monster House and all those others; when it comes to well-timed comedy, Aardman are the kings. No other film could make so many on target jokes about the simple incorrect hearing of "innocent bystander" (watch the film, you'll see what I'm on about!) and so it would make sense that they could translate this into a funny, entertaining and fun game. Sadly this isn't the case, and Flushed Away, the game, once again falls to the curse of the 'movie tie-in' that has claimed so many victims.

The main problem with this game is that the it breaks no moulds and falls strictly into the 'platform game for kids' market that makes it both too easy for any gamer over the age of eight and doesn't take any advantage of the charm of the film as it should. The sad thing is, after the failure (to some extent) of every other Aardman-related title, they should have not bothered with this game at all. Maybe it's because they haven't changed their actual game design since the release of the Chicken Run game, with each one following the platform format perfected by Crash Bandicoot, with only one problem - they forgot about trying to perfect it and so the games never felt right. The controls were always a little too jerky and awkward, and the gameplay was either too easy or frustratingly difficult, so because of this the game ends up being no fun at all.

The plot of the game is fairly close to the film, with you taking control of Roddy or Rita as you travel around the sewer, trying to thwart the plans of the The Toad. Obviously, the game loosely follows the plot of the film with you beating up baddies (rats and frogs mainly), trying to steal treasures or attempting to escape from the underground waterworks, and while this can be fun at first, it soon falls into a groundhog day that even the inclusion of rides on Rita's ship, the Jammy Dodger, cannot solve. These are a nice break away from the platforming, but then once again you're back on the treadmill of levels featuring the same thing over and over, to the point that you can almost predict what you'll have to do the next.

When you begin to play, you can choose between Rita and Roddy. It would've made more sense to have levels specific to certain characters, as all this means is that if you enjoyed the game the first time around then you can go through it all again with a different character. This is a good theory in terms of increasing the longevity of the game… but it falls flat if the game is not good enough to warrant another few hours spent on it. The only real difference between Rita and Roddy is that Roddy's weapon is an umbrella that he can use (Princess Peach style) to float across short distances and Rita has a grappling hook to latch onto faraway grapple spots. Playing as Rita is far more fun because of this, although the controls for both are terrible and at times you can't tell what type of game this is trying to be. As a Mario/Crash Bandicoot style game it fails because of the poor implementation of the 'double-jump' function that is so sensitive you'll need a number of goes to make even the simplest jump. As a beat-em-up, it couldn't fail any more than it does; with a lack of actual attacks and no real action, it seems that all enemy are easily defeated even though you have only a two or three hit threshold before it's back to the beginning of the level. As a puzzle game it's a moderate success, not holding your hand as much as other games tend to do, and incorporating some stealth elements to sneak past guards, requiring you to move objects to climb or bridge gaps. However, this is hampered (as the whole game is) by a terrible camera that won't give you the view you want and has a mind of its own. As a racer, well, forget it; what should be (as it is in the film) a great sequence is spoilt by terrible water rendering, very badly designed controls that feel too sensitive and a simple lack of speed throughout the race that makes playing it no fun, and once again feels like not enough time has been spent on it.

The sound is average, adapting the film's score, but it never gels properly, reminding me of the music from the X-Men game. Rather than complimenting the action, the music chafes against it, not making it an enjoyable aural experience and you will probably turn it off pretty fast. Within the film the main characters were wonderfully voiced by Hugh Jackman (Roddy), Kate Winslet (Rita) and Ian McKellen (Toad), but for some reason they did not use their voices for the game, which seems ludicrous when you consider the amount of voicework and multiple takes that must have gone into the recording of the film. Because of this, the game feels even more cheap and while the substitute actors do a passable job, having them contribute more than just a few lines (the amount of voiceover here is pitiful to say the very least!) may have helped show that some care had gone into the game's creation - but instead it again feels rushed.

Graphically the game is fine and able to recreate the look of the characters from the film, but they are cartoon characters after all, so we don't have to worry about the realism of the look, or the movement. I mean, who am I to say that a mouse in a suit wouldn't walk in that way? Other than the main characters, the rest of them look like they were created in twenty minutes and then Xeroxed, changing the colour of their outfit as they went. This is slightly disappointing, as the ability to recreate their characters had been one of the few highlights of all previous Aardman-based games. They are recreated well in the between-level cut scenes, but they only serve to show how bad the in-game visuals actually are. Maybe if ten percent of the effort made on these had been spent on the rest of the game then this might have been a different review altogether.

The levels are well constructed and make sense in terms of the flow of the gameplay, although as I've said before, this is as simple as you can get. For most of the levels, the game follows the 'find the exit' model that has been in existence since the dawn of time, with the usual inclusion of collecting objects and ousting the various bizarre enemies that litter the surroundings. This is nothing that you haven't seen done better in another game and it's sad that as I played I thought "Hey, this is like Donkey Kong Country… only not half as good!" Why is that sad? Well, of course I'm talking of a game over ten years old, not one designed for one of the most powerful gaming machines around. The look and sound of the game could and should have been one of the highlights and with a bit of polish it would have been. But it's not.

There was a time when games based on movies were perfect (Aladdin, Terminator, The Lion King) but there hasn't been a truly decent one in a long time. Because of the quick turnaround from the point of a film being announced to its release, it worries me that more games will be on the shelves to coincide with a cinematic release and not have as much development time as they should. If this trend doesn't change then we will continually be bombarded with this type of game and developers should take note and think about releasing to coincide with the DVD instead. Flushed Away isn't a terrible game, but it does nothing to encourage me to go and see the film again, and tarnishes what is easily one of the funniest films of the year.

Reviewed by David Simpson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).