Games

The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge

Platform: Xbox, PS2
Price: £29.99
Publisher: Capcom
Buy it now from Amazon.co.uk

A stop-motion animated musical from ten years ago may seem like a rather unusual choice for a videogame spin-off, but Tim Burton's festively ghoulish treat has retained a considerable cult cachet over the years and his oddball visuals certainly lend themselves to the interactive arena.

It's a pity, then, that the end result manages to capture the ambience of the film but falls flat on the gameplay front.

Playing as Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, the game picks up shortly after the events of the movie. Jack has been travelling, and returns to his domain to find that the evil Oogie - the phantasmagorical villain who tried to usurp his throne and kill Santa - has returned.

Armed with a "soul robber" - a sort of ectoplasmic whip that can thrash and grab enemies - Jack must rid Halloween Town of his nemesis, and voyage through all the other holiday worlds to do so.

The presentation of this fiendish adventure is spot-on. The music, such an integral part of the movie, is present and correct and an early encounter with Oogie plays with convention in a fun way. There aren't many videogame boss fights that involve the protagonists singing threats to each other, before segueing into a monstrous dance competition.

But all the lush graphics in the world can't hide the fact that the gameplay is repetitive - a neverending slog through respawning enemies, defeated by hammering the attack buttons non-stop - and the fixed camera angles are a constant hindrance in this rigid gameworld. The forced perspective makes it hard to see where Jack is in relation to the enemies, and you'll take more hits through bad luck than through lack of skill.

Add some confusingly vague objectives into the mix and you've got a game that means well, but can't quite disguise the plodding mechanics beneath the vibrant exterior. Tim Burton's imaginative landscapes shine through, but you can't help thinking they'd have been better served with a less frantic, more subtle adventure title.