Granted, I was probably not nearly as excited about hearing of this game sequel to the movie as I might have been had it arrived a few years ago. But it definitely piqued my curiosity to find out what had been going on in the land of Halloween since I last visited. So I picked and prodded my way through the game, and here’s what we get.

Right off the bat, I want everyone to realize that this is a Capcom game. Important, because the game is based off of the Devil May Cry engine. It won’t take but a few minutes into the gameplay for a lot of you guys and gals to realize this. You control, of course, Jack, complete with his brand new weapon the “Soul Robber”, which acts pretty much like one of those big, green sticky hands you can find in twenty-five cent (or, I suppose, fifty cents now) machines at the local grocery store. The plot is fairly simple, basically consisting of Lock, Stock and Barrel putting the evil Oogie Boogie back together again after the events of the film. While Jack is out of town, Oogie wrecks havoc, steals away Jack’s girl Sally, and just creates general mayhem. When Jack comes back, needless to say he’s not too pleased, and the story goes from there. Granted, its no Citizen Kane, but it really doesn’t need to be.

So let’s delve into the gameplay. If you’ve played the Devil May Cry games, you already have a pretty good idea of how well Jack will control. But instead of using swords and guns, you’ll be getting the most use out of the Soul Robber to swing, stick, and swipe your way thru the levels. Each level contains objectives, which do tend to get pretty repetitive, not ranging above the basic lost and found type missions from just about every other platformer/adventure game out there. Jack himself controls well, and even though some might gripe about the lack of camera controls (it’s a pretty static camera set-up) I never found it to hinder my gameplay. In fact, the biggest drawback that I came across was the overall repetitive feeling of each level. The designs were ripped pretty much straight from the movie, but each task and enemy begin to blend into one another, and the whole package comes off as fairly uninspired, which is a shame considering how unique the source material is. Also, sadly, some of the animation (in particular during combat) seems a bit stiff and not nearly as fluid as it should be. You will acquire a few extra attacks along the way, like when you pick up the two Jack variations “Santa Jack” and “Pumpkin King”, but these end up being more useful for solving puzzles than actually cruising thru the levels, and you’ll find yourself resorting to just sticking with the basic attack scheme more often than not.

As of late I haven’t found anything too spectacular to comment on in the realm of video game music, but I can’t help but say that I love the Elfman score in this game. Granted a lot of the tracks are taken directly from the film, so it helps if you already appreciate them, but it’s hard to deny how catchy they are. That’s not to say that some of them don’t become entirely worn out, because they do, especially when attacking enemies and being greeted with the same song over and over and over.

The game looks pretty damn good, but there are definite issues with the animation that keep it from being spectacular. I’d like to chalk that up to the game trying to capture some type of stop motion feel, but that’s definitely not the reason, and the choppiness of the animation tends to detract from the gameplay. Other than that, the characters look to be dead on facsimiles of their movie counterparts, and the background settings are gorgeous. Of course, being Capcom, that shouldn’t really come as a surprise to anyone.

The decision on whether this game warrants a purchase is tough. As a fan of the movie, I really love the characters, but the uninspired and repetitive gameplay really hurts it in the long run. Especially when you consider the game is stretched out over 25 levels, it’s a bit tough to truck thru the entire thing. There are a few unlockables to be found, some video, production art, etc, but nothing that warrants a second play through, which also hurts when you’ve spent $50 on it. Once again, I’d say give it a rent, even if you’re a huge fan of the movie or all things Burton, before dropping some of that hard earned cash on a pretty lackluster game.