For all the badmouthing and negative comments movie tie-ins receive, the Xbox has actually seen quite a few good ones during its lifespan, with The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay the crowing jewel of the cinematic cash-ins. But for every winner or game that doesn't suck, there's a dozen other licensed lame-ducks waiting in the wings to rob you of your hard-earned. Thankfully though, King Kong is most definitely not one of them.

Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie has perhaps one of the longest names in videogame history, and boasts an acronym nobody would even attempt to say out loud. That's where the obligatory tie-in malarkey ends, and the lovingly crafted gameplay experience begins. It's patently obvious within the first ten minutes that this is a game created by passionate people who truly enjoy what they do and the subject matter they're dealing with- no surprises that the creative director is the divine Michel Ancel of Beyond Good & Evil fame, also known as the 'Best Game You Probably Never Played.' Ancel, hand-selected by Peter Jackson if you believe the hype, brings his artistic genius to the table, while PJ himself and Phillipa Boyens were very hands-on, ensuring an authentic, but unique experience was created.

The level of immersion is second to none- there's no on-screen interface or HUD whatsoever to distract you, just an unadulterated, gorgeous view of the world through Jack Driscoll's (Adrien Brody) eyes. At first this poses a problem for those of us who grew up knowing the exact percentage of health we possessed, as well as a bullet-by-bullet inventory of the gun cabinet we carried on our shoulders. Yet somehow it just works, in an intuitive, almost primal way. If the screen is pulsing red and your heartbeat is pounding like a jackhammer, you know you're in trouble. Moreover, if you let any of the monstrous menagerie get close enough to inflict damage, there's a pretty good chance you've had it anyway. In a realistic touch, pressing the B button causes Jack to simply say how much ammo he has left, as if reminding himself or confirming it for the benefit of his companions.

Your fellow fugitive film-makers actually go a long way to creating the atmosphere that makes King Kong work so well. They chat amongst each other, will talk to you if you ask them, can heal you if they have the means to do so, and will drag wounded comrades out of the fray. You can even swap weapons or have them throw you a spear if you're unarmed, which can be very handy in a bind! It all works together seamlessly to create the impression that these are real people stuck in this unreal situation with you, and while saying that you will end up 'caring' about them is a stretch, you will definitely put your trust in their comments and abilities'.they can chuck a mean spear too!

Although King Kong is played mainly from the first-person perspective, it is *not* a first person shooter in the traditional sense. There's the aforementioned absent HUD, and unless you pull the left-trigger to aim, your weapon isn't visible either. Ammo is quite scarce too, and for the most part you will have to make use of the environment if you hope to be a survivor.

Fire represents life on the island, and should be coveted much more highly than an immunity necklace or a letter from home- you'll need it to burn through otherwise impenetrable thorn bushes or wooden barricades, and it is also the most powerful weapon you have. Throwing a conveniently located spear is all well and good, but if that spear happens to be alight you'll do twice as much damage to whatever you hit. Or better yet, use it to ignite the dry grass around a pack of enemies and you'll neutralize them all without breaking a sweat. Failing that though, you'll be happy to know that all spears or piles of bones have a ready supply of razor-sharp javelins to hurl.

This is a good thing, given that there's quite a lot that needs the shish kabob treatment. King Kong himself is the least of your worries on Skull Island; you'll spend most of your time fending off giant millipedes, bat-like monsters and a whole genus of carnivorous dinosaurs, ranging from hobbit-sized right up to the massive Venatosaurus Rex, which means 'hunting lizard king' in Latin apparently, and who is essentially the even more badass twin sibling of the family favourite T-Rex.

Spears land with a satisfying thunk and remain lodged in the scaly hide of the dinos, and if they fall you can yank them out and get to recycling. On smaller enemies like the millipedes, a well placed throw can actually skewer them to the wall, buying you time to deal with bigger threats or just finish them off in your own time. In a novel twist, you can also spear fish or insects and use them as live-bait, and this is a great way to avoid tough encounters or get past swarms of spiders and so forth.

Despite the less-than-gigantic nature of most foes, King Kong is permeated by a sense of menace, creating an almost palpable tension that will keep you constantly on edge. Jack and his companions are extremely frail, and staying alive can be quite a challenge. Thankfully the game possesses an intuitive automatic checkpoint system that can restart you just after (and usually just before!) a tough battle. Not true of the game itself however: remember to save frequently, because your progress through the story is not saved on your behalf.

Of course, creeping through the jungle as Jack Driscoll is only part of the experience; by far the biggest drawcard is the ability to play as King Kong himself. These sections are few and far between- accounting for around 10% of the game- but they're damn good fun when they do occur. In stark juxtaposition to the frail vulnerabilities of the humans, Kong is a 25 foot tall tail-kickin' machine, who is at once powerful and agile, capable of dispatching foes that would leave a stain in Jack's long-johns with a single mighty backhand. As you would expect, Kong is handled from a third-person perspective, sans interface of course, and while you sometimes have limited control of the camera, it mainly plays out automatically from movie-style angles.

While all the Mortal Kongbat is great fun and very cathartic after playing as Jack, it's way too simplistic to be a challenge. Bongos and precision-rhythm it ain't folks, just mash the A-button to belt the Cretaceous out of your enemies. Press B to go for a grab, or tap Y repeatedly to become a mad monkey and inflict some serious rage damage on anything stupid enough to not run away. When you aren't fighting, you'll be running along the rails down a predetermined path, swinging from trees and cliffs at breakneck speed. It's essentially like playing an interactive cutscene, and despite the linearity it looks awesome and it's damn good fun.

In fact, that could be the motto for the entire King Kong experience. This isn't a free-roaming adventure filled with a world of open-ended gameplay opportunities; it's a heavily narrative-driven rollercoaster ride, where the emphasis is on action-packed adventure, not micromanaging inventory or hunting for keys. What few puzzles there are can be solved simply and quickly, and they're never frustrating. The same goes for the Jack Driscoll levels; the jungles, swamps and cliffs of Skull Island feel massive and intimidating, but the game guides you every step of the way, so you'll never feel lost or confused. Obviously this means a sacrifice in alternate paths and different approaches, but it keeps the game moving smoothly all the time.

Visually, King Kong looks absolutely amazing. Ancel and his team have done a tremendous job of capturing the look and feel of the film, thanks in no small part to the close collaboration with Peter Jackson and the team at Sideshow WETA, who provided actual assets for the game designers to model. The end result is an incredibly authentic movie-to-game experience (at least based on what we've all seen in the trailer!), that looks truly spectacular in its own right. Streams of sunlight punch through the dense jungle foliage, swarms of buzzing flies cloud the air, and the angry ocean roils and sprays at the base of heady cliffs and rock formations. In fact it's so good that there's no FMV or footage lifted from the film'all the cutscenes are rendered using the game engine, and look awesome.

Character and monster models also look fantastic; all the main players have lent their likeness to the game, although being Jack Driscoll means you'll never actually see Brody's character. Jack Black's character, Carl Denham looks almost pixel perfect, while Naomi Watt's character Anne hardly looks like the actress at all. The creature features are the real highlight though, with the bigger dinosaurs looking downright terrifying. The skin textures on the dinos look so real you can almost reach out and feel them.

Oddly, Kong himself looks a bit so-so, his fur in particular looking more like tree-bark than anything else. Maybe we've been spoilt by Rare's fur-tastic efforts in Conker, but it just doesn't look right here, especially up close. No word on whether or not Andy Serkis posed for the game to ape, well, apes, but Kong's movements look fluid and powerful. At any rate, from a distance the big fella looks pretty good, and that's how you'll spend most of your time with Kong anyway.

This can be a bit of a problem in terms of performance however, with the Kong sections taking a noticeable performance hit, especially while on the move. He may be the king of swing, but he jerks and lags along like an electroshock patient playing Xbox Live on dial-up. Combat is fine though, and the framerate is rock solid when you're playing as Jack Driscoll in first person. It's obviously a streaming issue that occurs mainly when Kong is on the move, and you could almost overlook it entirely if it didn't ruin these otherwise enjoyable canopy capers.

One thing Kong does do well is roar the house down, in fact coupled with the accompanying visual effects, it's hard not to be a little intimated by his chest-beating and screaming routine. All the homosapiens in the film also lend their voices for that extra bit of authenticity, and the sound effects and tracks are doubtless lifted directly from the source as well. The ambient audio is functional, but the real winner comes from the characters, who often talk amongst themselves or to you and make things feel a little less rigid and forced.

As you've probably already surmised, King Kong is an extremely linear game, a necessity in providing a tight, action-oriented experience. There's no exploration and only a few moments reprieve from the perils of Skull Island in between the major sequences, which does an admirable job of creating a cinematic pacing. You'll go from one set-piece battle to another, and while we haven't had the pleasure of seeing the movie yet, we'd lay money on there being a good balance of key moments being recreated for the player, as well as new areas left unexplored on the big-screen. If anything, playing King Kong will make you really excited about seeing the film'after all, if it's half as good as the game it's going to be amazing!

King Kong is also pretty easy, another trade-off to make it more accessible, and experienced gamers will have no trouble knocking it over in well under ten hours. But like Ancel's other masterpiece, Beyond Good & Evil, King Kong isn't about padding out the experience solely to meet some kind of length requirement, it's about delivering a blockbuster movie-style experience on your Xbox, and in this regard the game succeeds.

Plus, when you finish the game, you are encouraged to tackle the game again, this time playing for points, which can be used to unlock a slew of extras, ranging from Weta concept art to interviews with PJ et al. Earning points actually requires a good deal of skill, since you'll be penalised for taking damage, wasting ammo/spears and spamming the Kong attack button. Hardcore players will find this challenge mode to be quite rewarding, with the real kicker being an entirely playable alternative-ending sequence'no spoilers of course, but it's well worth checking out!