This Review sent to us on the Fellowship of the Ring for Gameboy Advance by Girl of the Shire!
This game is wonderful and almost flawless! You begin your journey in the Shire which is detailed beautifully and really makes you feel there. It is fun and helpful to talk to other hobbits there, and it’s very enjoyable to explore. There are sub-quests you can go on as well, such as delivering messages for people to receive beneficial rewards. While in the Shire, you can go several hobbit holes and find all sorts of things. It’s lots of fun!
Once you’re out of Hobbiton, you encounter a few enemies to challenge in a turn-based battle. It gets harder as you go on in the game, but it is never too difficult to defeat the enemy. Just be sure and save the game before you begin the battle, so if all your players die (which only happened to me once), you can start right before the fight and try it again.
Along the way you encounter favorite characters such as Tom Bombadil, Goldberry, and Farmer Maggot, and even get to go inside their homes. Exploring is half the fun of this game! You really feel like you are there and all of Middle-earth is accessible through your Gameboy Advance. There are friendly pubs and other stops along the way as well.
Collect gold coins to buy weapons, food, health supplies, etc. Try to solve riddles (some more important than others) and relive the books! Just playing this game will give you a craving to go back and read the book, or at least it did me.
Now for the flaws. There aren’t any as far as boring parts or inaccuracies or anything bad or unenjoyable — but there are many bugs and glitches in the game. Most everyone who bought the game experienced something wrong with it at some point. Although most of the problems happen in Moria, and you aren’t able to go any further, I and many other people have experienced ones elsewhere. You really need to save your game often in order to ensure that you don’t have to start all over and lose all your progress. There are times when your character will walk in mid-air, or just freeze and not be able to go anywhere without exiting out and not saving. Also, sometimes people are supposed to give you things that they say they have given you, but they never show up anywhere. At one point, Gimli is talking to you but his body is invisible! He must have the ring on or something 😉 But as for the Moria glitch, apparently the technical team came up with a solution and there are steps you can take to get past the glitch at the website.
Other than those glitches (and there are many, some are serious and some are actually beneficial, like I got a re-occuring coin at one point!), this game would be PERFECT. It is a must-have for any Lord of the Rings or Tolkien fan. It is the best game I have ever played. However, the glitches get very annoying, especially when you have to start all over, as I did. But I wasn’t smart enough to save very often. You have been warned. If you don’t have it yet, I’d wait a month or so until stores get new shipments of the game in, so maybe the company eliminated the majority of the glitches for that batch and all the games to be sold from now on. Anyway, happy gaming! 🙂
