E.B. White's Charlotte's Web has become one of the best-selling paperbacks ever since its debut publishing in 1952. It's nothing short of an all-time classic children's book, weaving a delightful tale of friendship, loyalty and sacrifice starring a pig named Wilbur who befriends a young girl named Fern and a barnyard full of animals, including Charlotte the spider, who fight to save Wilbur from being butchered. Proving its time-tested stature, this unforgettable storyline and character cast has already seen one successful book-to-movie adaptation back in the Seventies and this holiday season Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Pictures are retelling the Charlotte's Web tale once more, in a brand new live-action feature film starring Dakota Fanning, Julia Roberts, Oprah Winfrey, Dominic Scott Kay and many other notable actors.

With the upcoming film set for a theatrical debut this December 15th, Sega has released a brand new Charlotte's Web videogame for the Nintendo DS and GBA (there's a PC version too) based on the movie license. Don't let the whole bugaboo surrounding movie licensed games scare you away from trying it either, because it's actually a thoroughly enjoyable portable adventure for kids of all ages (particularly on the DS). The story of the game follows in step with the movie, but since the movie has yet to release and the developers probably didn't want too give much away there really isn't a whole lot of plot material to discover here, beyond a storybook with movie stills and the basic Charlotte's Web storyline that we all know and fondly remember - without being told you probably wouldn't even know this was based on a movie.

For the DS version, the film's Dominic Scott Kay reprises his role as Wilbur and does a great job providing voiceovers for the game, and that along with some fun barnyard-themed tunes makes for pleasant audio. Voice acting is missing from the GBA though, which when coupled with music and effects that sound very tinny leads to forgettable audio in comparison. Both games are fantastic visually, rendering Wilbur, Templeton and all the classic characters with crisp, fluidly animated sprites complemented by many varied and detailed environments to explore, though the foreground environmental objects mask static backgrounds that are kind of blurry and lifeless at close inspection. Charlotte's Web does look a lot brighter and more colorful on the DS, but its GBA counterpart isn't far behind.

In the game you get to play as both Wilbur and Templeton the rat on a sixteen level adventure, jumping and climbing through environments set in Zuckerman's barn, a junkyard, the County Fair and the countryside, collecting objective items and letters to form special phrases in Charlotte's web, such as "Some Pig", "Radiant" and "Terrific". Fairly conventional side-scrolling platforming action ensues, consisting of fun-filled platform hopping and simple puzzle solving. As you work through each level you'll need to pull ropes to lift hay bales out of the way, crawl under low ledges, ram through fences, climb up ladders and ledges, hop along moving and crumbling platforms and sneak past and/or jump on various enemy animals like rats, crows, racoons and bees. The levels are smartly designed and feature some tricky platform hopping sequences, and with three difficulty options to choose from there's a nice balance between accessibility for the youngsters and a little more challenge to appease older gamers. Along the way you'll also meet up with all your favorite characters from the movie, including Gussy the goose, Bitsy the cow, Ike the horse and Fern and Charlotte of course, plus many others.

Wilbur and Templeton both control exactly the same, except Wilbur can push and pull certain objects while Templeton has the ability to pick up and toss items. Each also has special power-up abilities to collect, such as Wilbur's Bucking Bronco attack and Templeton's cantaloupe disguise. Neither handheld version plays drastically differently from each other, although the game definitely has much more to offer and plays a bit better on the DS over the GBA. Activating power-ups, for example, only takes a quick tap on the appropriate item on the touch screen, while on the GBA you have to press the Select button to bring up a menu to then choose a power-up, which isn't as intuitive. Further utilizing the DS touch screen interface is a platform-specific nintendogs-style gameplay feature where you get to pamper Wilbur in various ways using the stylus (petting him, brushing his teeth, washing him with soap, etc.) in order to recover any lost health whenever he comes across Fern in a level.

These minor tweaks do make the DS version a little more exciting, but they aren't significantly game-changing features. Where the DS does outclass the GBA version, however, is in its collection of unlockable mini-games. While the GBA does get five mini-games of its own, such as bumper cars and a game like Food Catch where you move Templeton side to side catching falling food, none of them having any lasting appeal past one or two plays. Charlotte's Web on the DS, on the other hand, shares the five games from the GBA (and they're upgraded for the two-screen display at that) and introduces seven more to the roster for a total of twelve, and the seven exclusives are a key element to the game's appeal. Stylus-based games like ski ball (or Spree ball as it's called here), a ring toss game where you launch different sized hoops at a shooting gallery of bottles, water balloon fighting and a whack-a-mole variation called Apple Masher in which you double tap the touch screen as ripe apples pop up to chop them for Mrs. Zuckerman's applesauce are all good fun, highly replayable and perfect for portable playability. A select few of the mini-games even have some wireless multiplayer features supporting two to four players, but they're so stripped down and limited that it feels tacked on just to make for a bullet point on the game's box.

The main draw to Charlotte's Web is clearly its decently sized story mode and it absolutely delivers a fine family-friendly platforming romp for you and your kids to play and enjoy while it lasts. But once the story is long over it's the arcade mini-games that will keep you coming back for more. Because of this (and various other subtle improvements) the DS version is without question the way to go if you have the choice, since its exclusive mini-game collection is far better, however if the GBA is all you have available then you won't go wrong picking the game up (just don't expect to play it much after it's completed). From someone who grew up reading and watching the Charlotte's Web book and movie, I say go get both to share with your children then give them a copy of the game so they can have even more fun with their new pal Wilbur!

Reviewed by Matt Litten for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).