Ratatouille

A well-cooked if slightly bland dish

Not content with stealing scraps of food while existing in the festering sewers of Paris, culinary-skilled young rat Remy needs something more substantial from his family life. Similarly, kitchen porter Alfredo Linguini, who works at the once-prestigious 'Gusteau' restaurant is in dire need of outside assistance if he's ever to gain the respect of those working around him. And so, when the ghost of Auguste Gusteau appears to Remy and tasks him with saving his declining restaurant - now run by despicable sous-chef Skinner, both rat and boy must work together to create the best dishes Paris has ever seen... including the monumental Ratatouille.

Sound suitably tenuous? Well, that's because it is. Yet, animated movies have been able to successfully weave such ridiculous narrative for decades now, relying on colourful characters and fabulous artistic technique to wow audiences and fully justify an 85-minute window of interaction when it comes to suspension of disbelief. But how does Disney/Pixar's Ratatouille (Rat-a-too-ee) measure up when shrunk to fit the videogame scene via Sony's stalwart PlayStation 2?

First and foremost, Ratatouille is clearly a game developed for the demographic most likely to seek it out on the back of its high-profile Hollywood iteration - namely kids up to the age of around 12 or 13. With a half dozen movie environments crammed with fairly straightforward core objectives, a wealth of secondary missions, and plenty of items to seek out for in-game assistance and additional bonuses, Ratatouille walks a steady line as a thoroughly inoffensive by-the-numbers adventure. Notably, while none of the game's content ever lifts the overall experience beyond the realms of 'acceptable', Remy's story does manage to hold player attention for considerably longer than the majority of 2007's terrible movie tie-ins.

Gameplay is offered through various mission builds, which include basic exploration, retrieval and enemy avoidance across the central (uninspired) environments; against-the-clock contextual mini-games; bizarre food-fuelled dream world obstacle course levels, frantic seat-of-the-pants sewer pipe travel, and race-based boss battles. And, of those differing missions, the only one that really falls flat is the latter.

Indeed, while the functional button-prompt mini-games see Remy helping Linguini to create various dishes, and the dream world levels provide relaxed run and jump platform distractions, the boss races exist as a huge development mistake.

Case in point, while the gameplay is, for the most part, open and allows the player to wander within the confines of the level environments, the boss races see Remy running 'into' the game camera (which remains controlled by the player) while frantically clambering over obstructions, leaping across drops, dodging traps, and avoiding the attentions of the pursuing giant (dog, human, etc).

The uncomfortable gameplay shift is exacerbated by a 3D scrolling environment that grants the player around a millisecond of visual information before reflexes are promptly snapped as Remy runs headlong into the flames from a burning stove, plummets between tables, or is slowed by onrushing items and caught by the boss.

Beyond the fracturing provided by the end-of-level boss races, the only other annoyances in Ratatouille are thrown up by an unreliable game camera that often leaves the player fighting with the analogue sticks to provide a decent wide-ranging viewpoint, unresponsive character interaction, controls that crop up when looking to swing, grasp, and leap onto environmental details, and a general lack of challenge.

In that sense, the player is rarely left to 'explore' and 'progress' through the game's levels because Remy just so happens to be blessed with a special sniff ability, which allows him to seek out the aroma left by his current objective. Should players ever finds themselves a little unsure of where to go, or what to look out for, a quick click of the right shoulder button conveniently brings up a misty purple trail leading directly from Remy to wherever he has to go next.

From an aesthetic standpoint, Ratatouille doesn't really impress on the PlayStation 2. While the sporadic narrative cut-scenes are pretty enough and lean more towards the Pixar source material, the actual in-game visuals are somewhat tired and blocky by today's standards. The character models and animations are passable throughout, although the cut-scene character acting, attitude and nuance always manage to significantly eclipse the in-game action at every turn. Orchestrated 'French themed' in-game music helps to bolster the appeal of Ratatouille to a degree, while environmental and atmospheric effects are largely satisfactory, and character acting work is generally well performed too.

Successful mission/mini-game completion and item collection/retrieval not only moves the game's central storyline forward, it also awards the player with redeemable points, exchangeable at Gusteau's Store, which can be accessed via the main menu. Here the player can purchase such goodies as Game Modes, Concept Art, and Ratatouille-related Movie clips, along with various gameplay-enhancing Secrets and cheat codes.

Ultimately, while Ratatouille doesn't absolutely offend the gaming palette, its frustrating boss races and dodgy environment camera do occasionally leave a bad taste in the mouth. Helping Remy and the young Linguini to rekindle the mouth-watering magic of Gusteau's restaurant will arrive as a thoroughly solid distraction for most young gamers, although the more hardcore player would be advised to look elsewhere for their challenge and thrills.

68%

By Stevie Smith