E3 ’09: Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest

Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest is a game built for kids, using the conceit that an older Samwise Gamgee (voiced by the movies’ Sean Astin) is telling the story of Aragorn to a group of young Hobbits in the form of a fairytale. As such, the design is more cartoonish, the story a bit tamed-down, and the gameplay simplistic enough to be done with basic button mashing and swinging the Wii Remote.

The level I played through found Aragorn leading the Fellowship of the Ring through the Mines of Moria, with Gandalf at his side. The game supports co-op play with Gandalf being the only other playable character. Much was added to this brief sequence from the films to elongate the play time, but most of it was of the “go to one area, kill all the goblins, go to the next area, kill all the goblins, etc.” format.

From what I saw, Aragorn’s Quest will probably be family-friendly fun for the whole family, but serious gamers — who are still waiting on that one truly awesome, based-on-the-movies, Lord of the Rings gaming experience — won’t get no satisfaction.

Image: Copyright 2009 ©Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.