Movie tie-in video games are not gone, but they are not as common as they used to be. This is likely due to the oversaturation of the pseudo-genre, as well as the speed at which they were churned and effectively burned. It’s easy to remember the many terrible movie tie-in video games because they were released so frequently. It was somewhat of an obviously bad direction following the mega-flop ofE.T.: Extra-Terrestrialon the Atari 2600, but in the 2000s, many others likeCatwoman, Charlie’s Angels, Bad Boys: Miami Takedown, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Iron Man, and many, many more came into existence. However, there were good ones—and it seemsJumanji: Wild Adventuresis, in many ways, a throwback to that era.
It may be hard to remember the good movie tie-in video games because there were so many released and so many were terrible, but games likeShrek 2, The Warriors, Spider-Man 2(the 2004 game, not to be confused with Insomniac’s recently released title), and others set the stage for the genre’s few big wins. Moreover,the success ofGoldenEye 007truly marked what this genre of sorts could be, but rapid development times, lackluster gameplay, and so forth ensured that many folks remember the bad times of this era and not the good.
Jumanji: Wild Adventuresis the second game to be based on the twoJumanjimovies featuring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, which themselves are spiritual successors to the beloved Robin Williams classic of the 90s. However, it differs from its 2019 predecessor,Jumanji: The Video Game, in a key way. It obviously features the same characters, the plot is very similar, and the focus on co-op is there. Yet,Jumanji: The Video Gameis very much a modern action-adventure game with these features, andJumanji: Wild Adventures' art style, gameplay, presentation, and so forth are more reminiscent of games likeShrek 2. It’s a throwback in all the right ways.
Jumanji: Wild Adventures Screenshots
In it, players must find the stolen Jaguar’s Eye to escape thedangerous world of Jumanji, with players facing predators, militant factions, and various traps across appropriate jungles, mountains, caves, and swamp areas. However, just like the movies and the core premise ofJumanjiitself, no two playthroughs are going to be the same. The Jumanji Drums ensure that players are met with different challenges, whether that’s combat, platforming, or puzzles. In this way, it’s almost like a roguelike take on classic movie tie-in video games, but even just looking at the gameplay and screenshots of the titles shows purely how reminiscent it is of the classic, good movie tie-ins.
Of course, players are able to take on the role of theJumanjimovie ensemble:Smolder (The Rock), Ruby (Karen Gillan), Mouse (Kevin Hart), and Shelly (Jack Black). Players can level up their heroes, purchase heroes, and discover secret rooms and lost treasures to progress their characters. As aforementioned,Jumanji: Wild Adventuresis one of the few modern games to properly support couch co-op with up to four players, ensuring that fans can have plenty of fun with friends and family. It’s worth noting, however, that it falls into the all-too-common co-op game trap of being much less fun solo, but that is nothing surprising.
Overall, while it’s a much more modern game in some ways, it’s a blast from the past from others. Hardly anyone will likely ever wish for theera of constant movie tie-in video gamesto come back, butJumanji: Wild Adventuresis an ode and homage to the good ones, all while being its own thing.
Jumanji: Wild Adventuresis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
