Game: "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

Console: PlayStation 2 (also out for Xbox, GameCube, PC, and GameBoy Advance).

Developer/publisher: Backbone Entertainment/2K Games.

Genre: Action/adventure.

Number of players: 1.

ESRB: E, for everyone.

Premise: For the first time ever, the enigmatic Willy Wonka is offering the public a chance to tour his factory. However, the tour will be given only to the five lucky people who find golden tickets wrapped inside his famous Wonka Bars. You are Charlie, the title character, a poor young boy who finds the last ticket and goes on the adventure in the Wonka Factory. This game is based on the film starring Johnny Depp, in theaters now.

Game play: As with my previous reviews of movie-based games, this one contains no spoilers, so don't be afraid to read on.

"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" starts off with a level where Charlie is chasing after a dollar bill he uses to buy the candy bar that allows him to go on his adventure. Later levels are a tad more complex — a description being used very loosely — as they require jumping, platform hopping, ordering Oompa-Loompas to fix machines, collecting candy for power-ups and health, and throwing balls to plug oozing pipes. (Yuk yuk.)

Sounds like your typical action/adventure platform, right? Except there's no real action or adventure anywhere in this game — no big bosses at the end of levels, no mind-bending puzzles, no searching for items placed in arbitrary locations, no anything that makes the platforming genre what it is. Add a very linear environment, and you have a game that offers as much intellectual stimulation as candy does essential nutrients.

In fact, the most difficult thing about this game is the controls, which are not only unresponsive, but awkward. For example, in order for Charlie to pick up a ball, he and the ball must be completely still. That is odd by the standards of any game, but for a title developed for children in elementary school, it's downright weird.

Good/bad: As bad as this game is, there are a couple of saving graces, namely level design and score. The environments in this game are something to see, full of brilliant colors and rich textures; unfortunately, they don't look nearly as good as the PS2's power allows. In fact, this game could easily have been created for the PSOne without sacrificing a pixel. The sound is excellent, provided by Winifred Phillips, the composer who worked on "God of War." The music and sound effects work well together to create a peaceful, yet invigorating, mood to the game; rare is it that a game's standout quality is its score, but Phillips is an exceptional talent.

My take: "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is a sloppy attempt to cash in on a movie tie-in, especially with a game obviously created for an audience not old enough to have played "Super Mario Bros." or "Sonic the Hedgehog." Maybe you can't completely blame the developers, but this game is so loyal to the movie that there's no room to express their own creativity. You walk away from this game with a bitter taste in your mouth.

Jeremy Castillo is a student at Windward Community College.