Rango: The Videogame
Behavior Interactive/ Electronic Arts
(Wii, X-Box 360, PS3, DS)

Editor's Note: This review is based on the PS3 build.

Rango hails from a genre of games that many despise and deride: The licensed movie tie-in. The story of the low quality cash-in video game title for an existing property is as old as the industry itself. While there may be earlier examples, E.T The Extraterrestrial for the Atari 2600 often personifies this trend most onerously, as many critics and historians point to the famously terrible title as a key element of the ‘Video Game Crash of 1983.’ The industry bounced back in a big way several years later, but the tale of the licensed movie tie in continues to be a bitter read for some. Rango is a far cry from such apocalyptic causation, and succeeds in being innocuous pleasantry for both children and adults alike.

Expanding on the narrative of the film, the eponymous lizard Rango is the Stranger come Sheriff to a town called Dirt. When a ominous, glowing meteorite crashes in the outskirts, Rango is called to his duty of saving damsels, fighting cockney lizards and collecting magical stones from outer space. I was first caught off guard by the unusual conventions of the story itself. Most of the chapters are preambled through a flashback as a Rango himself recants to the townsfolk the events preceding. This in and of itself wouldn’t be that interesting if not for the narrator being unreliable. As he tells the tale, he is frequently corrected by the locals, and the level design or even characters within change on the fly as his misremembered story is set straight. While this mainly occurs during the exposition for each mission, it is a woefully underused yet still amusing storytelling technique.

The game is first and foremost a 3rd person action adventure. If you’ve played one of these post the Playstation 2 era, you’ve been exposed to more robust versions of these systems; Most notably those here being akin to God of War in design. There is a very simple combat system used to juggle enemies that combines with a ranged attack. Smashing crates and comboing enemies is rewarded with a currency (Sherriff’s Stars)  that is spent to purchase stronger moves, more health, etc. Even the way Rango scales the designated vertical and horizontal climbing surfaces calls to mind Kratos of GoW fame.These comparisons are favorable as the game play is robust in a way that will keep the audience engaged, yet lean enough to keep one moving through an area without getting bogged down in its details.

The chapters themselves offer a variety of different game play scenarios. Some levels require combat and traversal, others vehicle sequences, and others light stealth. The first are straightforward, with forgiving platforming, and brawler sequences through placid environments. Other chapters involve riding speedy Roadrunners and Desert Bats, for a bit of on the rails shooting. The final and strangest type involves infiltrating an RV where a paranoid conspiracy theorist has holed himself up. Here Rango must stealthily avoid the beam of a this humans flashlight to proceed undetected. It’s a notable curiosity that the antagonist of this sequence is none other than the likeness of Hunter S. Thompson’s own Dr. Gonzo character. Even in death the world’s premiere gonzo journalist continues to whimsically infiltrate our media.

Overall Rango is an inoffensive and occasionally charming experience. It has play mechanics that work, characters that hit and visuals that wont turn heads, but also wont offend the senses. In a cross section of the modern gaming strata, it won’t be settling in the highs of top tier gaming entertainment. But it does do a service to the genre overall in its adequacy and in drawing attention away from it’s more darkly reputable ilk. It’s a pleasant reminder that even in an industry often driven by the financial bottom line, a derivative work can come from a place of care and decency-- That tiles like this can be enjoyed without a sense of guilt or shame. 

-Grant Pearsall