Because it's easy for Disney to rest on the considerable appeal of their characters, their video games are often not up to snuff. Happily, Peter Pan: Return to Never Land is one of the better third-party games released for the GBA. It doesn't bring much new to the tried-and-true platform game genre, but it does well with crisp, bright graphics, smart level design, and a pleasing soundtrack from the movie's catchy original songs.
Though this game is based on a sequel, most gamers will immediately recognize the first couple of levels from the classic 1953 film. The game starts with a visit to now-grown-up Wendy's house to take her kids on their own adventure to Never Land. Once there, Tinker Bell is kidnapped, so you've got to rescue her and all of the Lost Boys spread throughout levels in the game. As on any other platformer, you must run, jump, and dispatch baddies (Peter does this with his trusty dagger, which he can also throw) to get to where you're going, but here you can also fly--provided you have Tink and enough pixie dust by your side. The power-ups and secret items are plentiful and pretty easy to find, which seems to be the right difficulty approach, given the younger audience of this game. Older kids and adults may want to play the game at the harder difficulty setting in the options menu. There are also clips of the movie that can be unlocked by finding hidden film reels, but these are short and rather bland.
The downside of this title is still very common among portable games: no battery save feature. Rather than saving your progress through the game, players are given jumbled strings of letters to mark their completion of the end of a level. It's not a dealbreaker, but it means players will need pen and paper handy if they want to continue. And there's no way to save midlevel. --Porter B. Hall
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12 of 12 found the following review helpful:
Very ImpressedSep 04, 2002
By Kionne Mitchell I was very impressed with Disney's Peter Pan Return to Neverland for gameboy advance. The graphics were really beautiful, the colors bright, and the music and words were clear and enjoyable. Unlike some of the other games put together featuring Disney movies, you can see that a great deal of effort was put into making this game. I found the it to be very engrossing. Once I began playing I could not put it down and also the passwords are short and easy to remember. The only downfall of this game is that it's not very long. However it is something that you would want to play again and again. All in all the one word that describes Disney's Peter Pan Return to Neverland is Fun.
17 of 20 found the following review helpful:
Watch part of the movie on Your GBA!!!Jan 28, 2002
This game is awesome. Not only is it fun, but I was also able to unlock mini-movies from the real film! Peter Pan fly's really well and is fun to play!
IT'S BORING AND IT REALLY SUCKSSep 23, 2007
By ACEMAN1
"HERE TO PISS YOU OFF"
The only good thing about this game are the graphics. Other than that all you'll see is a pile of crap covered in radio-active material. Almost everything about this game is really bad. The missions are laughably bad(Example: while flying, keep the children at your side or you fail the mission), the flying controls really suck, the combat is clunky and very unreliable, and characters are very annoying. Not even kids should be allowed to play this travesty unless it's a cruel punishment for doing something bad.
0 of 2 found the following review helpful:
BAD and GOODNov 11, 2003
This game is something that u don't want to spend too much time on. The Graphics are really good, but the game play just didn't appeal.
based on 4 reviews
( 4 customer reviews )
