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Do not waste your money...horrible, poor software

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 23 / 24
Date: December 31, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Working in the software industry, I know how things work. QA finds problems during testing, Development claims it takes too long to fix problems, Marketing ignores everything and give Sales the "go ahead" to sell the product anyway...and this is the result. Here are the reasons I gave 1 star (would have given -1 but...)

1. Very difficult to install (you must be comfortable with computer internals). It requires configuration changes to eliminate sound and video glitches unles your PC is brand new and has the latest and greatest in terms of video and sound cards.

2. Even though there are several Chapters with 2-3 games in each, you can only select the first game of the first chapter. Due to the level of difficulty, we (my son and I) have not been able to complete the 1st game so we haven't seen how the other ones are.

3. The (poor) booklet that comes with the S/W mentions a SAVE option, which in reality, does not exist. So, every time the little boy runs out of "lives" or if you want to quit the game, you can not save it. The S/W kicks you out and you need to start from total scratch.

4. Very poor customer support. The 800 number does not get you anywhere and the website does not have any entry for this particular S/W.

All in all, I strongly suggest that you save your money until something better comes up. I also bought my son the GameBoy version but since I haven't given to him yet, I'm seriously thinking about returning it.

Polar Express

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: November 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

DO NOT BUY THIS CD ROM. YOU ARE WASTING YOUR MONEY. This product made by THQ, priced at $19.99, for my grandson for Christmas 2004, is still sitting on his CD shelf. I installed it on our new computer and then un-installed it. The software is very poor. I have purchased approximately 50 CD ROMs for my grandson and never had problems like I had with Polar Express.
It was very difficult to install. I called Customer Support and they told me I needed to install an additional video and sound card on my NEW top of the line Dell computer. I could tell the representative did not know what they were talking about, because this was the same thing they told me when I called Customer Support when I had problems installing the software on my old HP computer. Forget about getting help on their website. Basically, we have a pretty Polar Express box sitting on our CD shelf.

Christmas Express

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: December 26, 2004
Author: Amazon User

THQ did a good job in the annimation of the characters, and the plot line is good.

There are several severe drawbacks though which would prevent me from :
No cameral angles. It is straight ahead only. No panoramic views, which means keyboard only and no mouse controls.

No ability to change the controls.

No manual save, the game designates save points, and on top of it, you have to go through many scenarios before a save point arrives. You only have 5 chances of getting through them all before the game ends, before you run out of "life" or "heart," Your "heart" level doesn't increase between scenarios.

Objects are sometimes difficult to capture. The game requires several complex jumps in order to capture objects, but because there is no camera, it is difficult to determine how close or far you are from the object.

All in all, I feel that they rushed this to the shelves to meet the Christmas season, and even though it wasn't expensive, I am still disappointed when games don't perform to a satisfactory level.

Awful software

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: December 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This software makes it extremely difficult to grab objects, then penalizes the frustrated child by preventing the child from saving the game (because the child can't progress far enough to have earned the ability to save a game).

Avoid this software.

Great Graphics but Poor Design

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: October 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is a very frustrating game. This reminds me of the first Harry Potter game where there is one section of the game in the beginning which is very challenging. Once you get past that first part, the rest of the game is fun. Except getting past the first part in Polar Express game is harder than playing Half Life and much less rewarding. It is really sad because the graphics in this game are very nice. The game has the potential to be absolutely fantastic. Instead, it will just drive you nuts.

ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: January 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game for my son and found it extremely frustrating, to say the least. You have to complete the first game before you can go on to the the next game. You cannot pick and choose. Also, you cannot save the level you are on. You have to start over and over again. THE MAKERS OF THIS GAME SHOULD BE UTTERLY ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES FOR MAKING THIS GARBAGE IN ORDER TO MAKE SOME MONEY.

this game even looks boring!!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

when i bought it i was so excited (i hoped it would be better than the movie) it wasnt. it was worse. i go bored in about an hour. i traded it for shark tale on gamecube. it was sooooo much better. buy anything but the polar express.

Fun Family Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Im always amazed at reviews that downplay a game when its not the games fault or the publishers. Yes, this game is going to require newer PC specs, which is good, makes the graphics outstanding! The requirements are listed and if purchasing for something other than whats listed it goes without saying that problems will occur. The game also does save. You cant manually save, it auto saves when you clear certain areas. No different than half of the games on the market. And no, you cannot jump around from level to level. Why would you want to? This game is based on the movie, your playing a storyline so you must play the levels in order. Thats like jumping from Chapter 1 in a book to the 13th chapter. You would have no idea whats going on.
For the kids the goal is to see Santa near the end of the game. Just like Santa only comes on Dec 24th (not always when the kids want him to, all year long sounds better) In the game you are rewarded with "Santa" near the end when you play the game out as it should be. The game would be pointless and no fun at all if you could simply jump to the middle or end. Some spots in the game are hard, which is also good. This encourages parents to help out and I suggest playing the entire game with your kids. Its fun, rewarding, and great family time during the holidays. Last year I spent 30-60 minutes a night in December playing this with my little girl. We completed the game in 3 weeks and it was time spent that me & her will never forget. Overall the game "probably" deserves a 4 star rating but I am giving it a 5 simply because it really does contribute to the holiday season for kids. I believe the publishers designed this one thinking parents would "want" to enjoy this game with their kids ( we didnt send them to the movie alone did we?) If your looking for a game thats a "babysitter" theres plenty of them out there, and I use them for that as well but this is not one of them. Take some time out, relax, and play this one together as a family during the holidays. You will be glad you did.

Nice game to play

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: February 08, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Graphics are beautiful and I had no problems installing the game at all. There are plenty of sub levels are mini games. The games vary from racing games and side scrolling platform. I can see how some parts of the movie had to be changed to make a better video game. For example there is a boss battle in the game that has you fighting against a Scrooge doll. Leading up to this battle with Scrooge has you fighting different dolls by having you throw stuffed animals at the dolls. There are several stages of these battles that you have to go through before finally facing Scrooge. If you want to challenge your childrens minds, this is a great game.

Installs fine on XP. It's fun, and it DOES save (periodically)!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: August 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Contrary to what some of you think, this game does save and it installed perfectly on our computer. We don't have the latest greatest computer, either. We have a decent one and are running XP. It installed easily and haven't had any major glitches so far.
About saving your progress...no, you can't save every tiny bit of progress you make, which is why I only gave 4 stars. The game automatically saves your progress when you complete each subtitled section of each chapter. For instace, "Scrooge's Plan" consists of a few mini games. Successfully complete them all (the last one, Food Fight, being the hardest) and your progress is saved. It helps to collect as many coins as possible so you can earn an extra continue, getting you through the more difficult challenges.
My 3-year-old really enjoys the game, as do I, a 35-year old. We sometimes sit down together and he hits the shift key (one of the major playing keys, while I do the arrows), although he can actually get through some of the mini games without my help at all. I think this is great choice for any kid or parent who loves the movie.

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