Jumanji: The Video Game

Jumanji: The Video Game is a 2019 action-adventure game developed by Funsolve and published by Outright Games for mh:awesomegames:Microsoft Windows, mh:awesomegames:Nintendo Switch, mh:awesomegames:PlayStation 4, and mh:awesomegames:Xbox One. Based on the films Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Jumanji: The Next Level, the game was released on November 8, 2019 to coincide with the release of Next Level. The mh:awesomegames:PlayStation 5 version was released on October 22, 2021.

Gameplay
The game allows you to play as either Dr. Smolder Bravestone, Franklin "Moose" Finbar, Ruby Roundhouse, and Professor Shelley Oberon, travelling through different locations, they have to do three things in order to progress, such as finding the four Jumanji pieces hidden in the levels to open a door to the next section, lifting a obelisk while attacking enemies to progress, and going through a dungeon with spikes and swinging axes.

Why It Should Be Left to the Herd of Rhinos

 * 1) Much like other movie tie-ins, this game is unfaithful to both movies for the following reasons.
 * 2) * The biggest example being that the characters now have guns in this game, which was never a thing in both of the movies.
 * 3) * There is no mention of either Professor Van Pelt or Switchblade anywhere, despite them being villains from the two movies.
 * 4) * There is now Jumanji pieces they need to collect in order to progress, instead of holding onto a gem that has to be brought back to the Jumanji statue at the end of the game.
 * 5) * For some reason, Moose has now a pet monkey as an attack, which he never befriended a monkey in both movies.
 * 6) * Seaplane McDonough is absent from this game for some reason, he isn’t even mentioned in this game at all. Which is strange because he was (depending on your view) one of the main characters from both movies.
 * 7) * The Jumanji statue is just a mini-statue at the end of every level, instead of one enormous statue near the end of the first movie where they have to put the jewel back in place, and call out Jumanji's name.
 * 8) * Due to them not getting the rights, the song "Baby, I Love Your Way" doesn't play on the boom box, instead, it's replaced with generic techno music, which doesn't fit the setting of the game.
 * 9) * To make matters worse, this game was released six weeks before The Next Level hit cinemas just like Wreck-It Ralph, which is a very bad sign because movie tie-ins are supposed to be released around the release of the movie, not before the movie!
 * 10) Shockingly horrendous graphics, despite using Unreal Engine 4, the whole game feels like a pre-built shovelware mobile game thrown together in a month and a early mh:awesomegames:PlayStation 2 game more than a 2019 console game. The models feel cheap and rushed, the textures feel non-existent through the game, and the character models are flat and textureless, and very uncanny when viewed closely, especially Bravestone and Oberon.
 * 11) Boring gameplay, all you do in this game is collect all the Jumanji pieces in levels, lift an Obelisk while attacking enemies, and going through a dungeon. Not once does a new gameplay style get introduced, or change, it's basically all the same for the whole game.
 * 12) Speaking of WIS #3, the dungeon sections are extremely easy to get through, because all you can really do is damage-boost through the sections without real strategy, and complete the section in under a minute. To add on, there are only a few obstacles in these sections, such as swinging axes, and spikes, and that's it.
 * 13) Bland and forgettable soundtrack. It tries going for an atmospheric style, but fails to make it memorable, and lacks the suspense of the recent movies (the ones this game is based on), and just like Despicable Me: The Game, it's easy to forget what a level song sounded like, even after playing the level, and like Superman 64, most of the time, you forget the music was even in the level.
 * 14) Much like SpongeBob SquarePants: Underpants Slam, every time you finish a level, you're kicked back to the main menu instead of being teleported to the next stage, which could be annoying for some people since they would prefer the latter over the former.
 * 15) No cutscenes at all, which is unacceptable for a game released in 2019. There is no opening cutscene showing the team getting sucked into the game or some backstory how they got into this, it just immediately starts at them being teleported to the game with no real build-up, which can be confusing to people who never seen the first movie.
 * 16) * The only thing that counts as a cutscene are textboxes, which is first found in the tutorial of the game.
 * 17) The achievements can be easily unlocked without real skill whatsoever, such as the achievement "I'm Invincible!", rewarded for not dying in 5 minutes, which all you can do is just wait for 5 minutes until the achievement pops out, and the "Where's my Medal" achievement, all you have to do for this achievement is just be the first one to go to the safe room.
 * 18) * But the easiest achievements of this game are "Jungle Survivor", "Peak Performance", "Trading Up", and "Twilight Triumph", these achievements are unlocked by completing the levels with at least one life remaining. Combined with the simple and boring gameplay, these achievements are extremely easy to get with no real skill.
 * 19) * Some of the achievements are a bit inaccurate to the films, such as the "Just Like in the Movie" achievement, rewarded for running from a rhino as Moose, the thing that's inaccurate is that Moose wasn't chased by a single rhino, it was a herd of rhinos, and that he was chased by rhinos because he accidentally dropped the jewel around the part they teamed up with Seaplane.
 * 20) The main game can be completed under two hours, mainly because there are only four levels in the entire game, which is pathetic for a game released in 2019. mh:awesomegames:Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair came out in the same year as this game, and has over 40 levels, with over 10+ hours worth of content, so this game has no excuse for its little content.
 * 21) While most of the voice actors do an alright job at their characters, Phil LaMarr's voice as Moose Finbar is very poor, mostly because he feels severely miscasted for the role, and makes Moose sound like Chris Rock more than Kevin Hart.
 * 22) Lackluster enemy variety, with almost no changes whatsoever. Every enemy would be the same things over and over again, copy pasted onto every single level, as if the developers were too lazy to think of other enemies. To make matters worse, the smaller enemies are literally the same model used for Bravestone but with a mask, which shows that the developers were even more lazy.
 * 23) While there are Relics to shoot for a higher score and to add more replayability, you basically get nothing for it other than just more points to boost your score, all you get for shooting most of them is an achievement/trophy on the PS4, Xbox One and PC versions, and basically nothing on the Switch version since the system doesn't have achievements.
 * 24) Levels tend to drag on and on, and despite the fact that each level is 20 minutes long, they feel like they go on for around an hour, mainly because the developers decided to make the gameplay styles go on for three times in every level just to pad the game out. The Obelisk sections are the worst offender to this, because not only does the Obelisk take a long time to power up, but the ammo for the guns are placed in areas that are far away from the obelisk, meaning if you run out, you have to run around the area to find more ammo, which gets extremely tedious, very fast.
 * 25) Some of the voice-overs can get annoying to some people, most of the time, characters say the same thing over and over again, such as Oberon's "I got it!", and some of them point out the obvious, such as Ruby Roundhouse's "Watch out, bad guy's ahead!" whenever you're in a new area, with she repeats for most of the game, which can get on your last nerves, even in the first level.
 * 26) Little to no replay value, since the levels themselves aren't memorable due to how long they drag on for, and that the game having no other collectibles other than different outfits for the characters.
 * 27) Incorrect age rating. In North America, this game is rated a T, despite featuring nothing that qualifies for that rating, it would've been better if it was rated a E10+. Other games have proven that you can have some level of violence while keeping it E10+. However, other regions have rated this game appropriately, and this is not an issue, for example, Australia gave it a PG rating (their equivalent of E10+) and PEGI got an "against the odds" 7 (it would've likely ended up with a 12). It should be noted that PEGI ratings can be self-assigned if the game's rating doesn't show up on their website, like the case with mh:awesomegames:Shantae and the Seven Sirens getting a 7 rating instead of 12. The USK however gives it a "12", which shows that USK ratings may not always match the PEGI ratings despite popular belief.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Alright voice acting for the most part (except for Moose Finbar), who manage to sound like the cast from the movies, even if Smolder Bravestone can sound a little off.
 * 2) * Speaking of voice acting, Rhys Darby did reprise his role as Nigel Billingsley, and he still gives an excellent performance as his character.
 * 3) While they take no skill to obtain, the game has a lot of easy achievements to get, which could be helpful for trophy/achievement hunters.
 * 4) The character special attacks are satisfying to use, such as Finbar's pet monkey, which can obliterate any enemy with one hit, and Bravestone ground-punch, which can be used to knock out close-by enemies.
 * 5) The game runs well, mostly at a stable framerate around 50-60 FPS without any lag.
 * 6) The controls are well-implemented and work most of the time.
 * 7) * The hit detection works very well.

Reception
Jumanji: The Video Game received generally unfavourable reviews from critics and players alike.

mh:rottenwebsites:Screen Rant gave the game 1/5, saying that "What's most frustrating about Jumanji: The Video Game is that the developers had the opportunity to take the fun premise of the movie and turn it into an equally entertaining game."

Super Gamesite 64 gave the game a 3/10, stating that the game "feels like the greediest of movie tie-ins."

Videos
CYzY4s_Y0r4 3hvCW5hbsUU nTvxaUaT57c eFsJXuHgZNE