‘Night at the Museum’ lacks gameplay

• By MILES THORPE
• 2theadvocate.com staff
• Published: Jun 15, 2009

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Here is another movie-to-game release that seems to forget that even though the game may be suitable for younger gamers, you still need to have some form of gameplay to keep it entertaining.

In “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian – The Video Game” players assume the role of former night guard Larry Daley, voiced by Ben Stiller. Larry must make his way through several museum locations including the Lincoln Memorial, the Federal Archives, and of course the Smithsonian.

Armed only with his flashlight, keychain and some fairly dull wit, Larry must find the pieces of the Magic Tablet, the tablet allows everything in the museums to come alive at night, in order to stop Akhmenrah’s evil brother from raising the Army of Horus and taking over the world, of course.

There are some bits of the game that do entertain, but unfortunately the gameplay is constantly interrupted by game cutscenes. This leads to a lot of watching with small doses of actual play.

The graphics and audio do their jobs well enough for a game of this caliber. Ben Stiller’s humor is lost a little without his boyish puzzled expressions though, leaving many of the wisecracks coming across as flat and pointless.

“Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian – The Video Game” is aimed at the 10–12 year old crowd, but with so little actual gameplay, its not really worth the time for just a few giggles.