Game Summary:

Right in step with their brand-new movie, here come Alvin and the Chipmunks in their videogame debut on the PS2! The Alvin and the Chipmunks video game follows Alvin, Simon, and Theodore on their latest mission to play during the battle of the bands event "Rockathonapalooza". As the Chipmunks perform in each of the video game's musical levels?from school proms to Burning Man to Forest Arenas to the ultimate, Rockathonapalooza - players are challenged to keep in rhythm with the music. The combination of fun game play, a cool soundtrack and everyone's favorite Chipmunks, creates another way for the fans of Alvin, new and old, to enjoy and expand on their movie experience.

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Game Review:

We dismally present one of the worst games of 2007: Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Alvin and the Chipmunks is (yet another) music rhythm video game. Tough, we generally enjoy rhythm games and score them appropriately. We even interviewed experts on the cognitive value of these games. Unfortunately, Alvin and the Chipmunks comes close to not even deserving the genre description “rhythm game”. You can press buttons out of rhythm for an extended period of time and still complete a song with full stats. Yes, we could argue that forgiving game-play is great for younger kids. But really, we have to draw the line somewhere. After all, isn’t keeping rhythm the whole point of a “rhythm game”…? To make matters worse, the animation of the performing chipmunks does not change, no matter if you actually hit the colorful stars – which serve as notes– or if you stop using the controller all together.

Families planning on playing together will be disappointed to learn that Alvin and the Chipmunks only offers a split-screen Versus mode. This mode has 2 players compete against each other – bickering among siblings and friends is guaranteed. The game does not feature a Co-operative mode and songs must be first unlocked in Single Player Story Mode, before they become available in Multiplayer mode.

The game features several different locations and songs from various well-known artists. All songs received the “chipmunk voice treatment”, which may initially entertain younger kids, but it would not surprise us if this novelty becomes an annoyance, all to quickly.

Overall, Alvin and the Chipmunks is an unacceptably poor movie tie-in game, designed to return maximum profit to its corporate overlords. Stay clear.