KungFu Panda - PS3
Ages: Everyone 10 +

I almost missed playing the season's best movie-to-game experience. The problem was in the scarcity of game instruction in the manual and the insufficient and poorly done in-game instruction. On-screen instructions disappear too quickly instead of waiting for a button response from the player. Hey - this is a game for KIDS. I played the introductory Po's dream, picking up coins, eating dishes of noodles and finding vases. Enemies appear so fast that there was no opportunity to indulge in the Iron Belly counterattack so I simply button mashed. I did make use of the defensive bubble shield. My awesome meter filled up and there were shouts of "good". Finally, a cut scene - at least 6 giant boars surrounded and bashed me even as I pressed the circle on the screen. Eventually Po pulled away exhausted and I was returned to the beginning of the Tea room fight. I tried everything. I thought that after the cut screen, Po would awake from the dream sequence.

We tried all the cheats, buying all the upgrades possible, and after many many hours of work, nothing that we were able to do would get us past this step in the Tea Room Fight of "Po's Dream" at the "Student" level. As a result, we cannot report on the rest of the game, as we could never get there.

Fun Factor: Totally unable to get past the first part and into the game.

Reviewed by: Editor - 07/08