Let me start this by saying I have not yet seen the movie Zathura, so I can only compare the game's visuals to what I have seen in trailers. That being said, Walter and Danny, the two kids from the movie, and the astronaut they meet up with, played by Dax Shepherd in the game and movie, look pretty darn good. The levels are appropriately space-like where they need to be, although they can get a little repetitive. Instead of using actual clips from the movie to tell the story, Zathura uses in-game CG, which is nice. This makes for a seamless transition from story to gameplay.

The voicework is excellently done by the same actors from the movie. I instantly recognized Dax Shepherd's deadpan attitude, although it was a while before his face was shown. The background music is appropriate and theatric, picking up speed when you are in a fight and calming back down as you explore your area.

Zathura begins as brothers Walter and Danny are left home alone for a short time by their dad. Danny, the younger of the two, wants something to eat, but Walter doesn't want to be bothered. A tussle ensues and Danny runs to hide in the basement dumb waiter. Bad idea, as Walter sends him down to the horrifying basement, post haste. When Danny bravely decides to look around, he finds a dusty old board game called Zathura. This is where their true adventure begins. Danny begs Walter to play and then all hell breaks loose. The first card drawn is for a meteor shower and then meteors actually begin raining down all over the house! The kids have to escape the falling rocks. This is one of several styles of play that you will encounter in Zathura. Others include escaping from insane robots, fighting lizard-like Zorgon aliens, working your way through dusty planets, jumping from platform to platform, and so on. This game is a platformer for sure, so if that doesn't interest you, this game will probably annoy you.

At different times during the game, you will play as Danny, Walter or the "Protect and Serve" Robot they acquire and each has a slightly different set of weapons and moves. Little Danny can kick things to destroy them and also acquires a slingshot which gives him never-ending projectile weapons. Walter has a robot arm that he uses as a melee weapon and is more powerful than Danny's kick. However, he doesn't have an infinite projectile weapon. He instead picks up more powerful, but limited in amount, weapons as he goes along, as do Danny and the Robot. The Robot can melee fight and also has a projectile weapon.

There are many levels to play through and although they are locked until you beat them, you can see a snapshot preview of each locked level, so you can gauge what you are up against. Most levels consist of Danny or Walter running around, avoiding and destroying robot or Zorgon enemies and stationary turrets, while jumping on platforms or up into areas - the goal is usually to press a button to allow them further access into the level. This grows repititious and is what I meant by the game being annoying to those who don't dig platforming. Still other levels have you playing as the Robot to save Danny and Walter from whoever grabbed them up.

There are 2 cool levels that throw a little something different into the mix and I found them really enjoyable. One has Walter in a gauntlet of sorts, on a platform being shot at by stationary window turrets. Your goal is to twitch hit the corresponding button (either Circle, Square or Triangle) and by doing so, he takes out a stationary window turret. This level was cool, but ended all too quickly. Further into the game, Danny has to retrieve the Zathura game, which was taken by Zorgons and sent to the incinerator. This requires some fancy footwork on a deadly conveyor belt complete with saws and crushers, and finally, an incinerator. Although this level was quite frustrasting, it was different, challenging and better for it.

Now, although I did find a lot to like in Zathura, the game has some very painful control issues which rendered it unplayable at times. I will go into more detail on this in the Game Mechanics section.

Zathura is a game targeted at kids, but don't think for a second that it is easy-breezy because of this. There are some tough platforming elements to be found here. However, what makes Zathura more frustrasting than you can imagine are the control issues (see Game Mechanics) and the cheapness factor. At one point, I had killed a Zorgon enemy on a platform, and then consequently died due to control wackiness. When I came back, the Zorgon was right there again, beating the snot out of me, which just felt kind of cheap. In other spots, Zorgons would spawn out of mid-air, so if you killed one and stood there to wait for the health that would drop from his kill, another Zorgon would spawn on top of you. Cheap!

Yes, there is the fact that you have unlimited continues, but when a game gets so frustrating that you simply turn it off rather than continuing to play, something is wrong.

Now, here's is the biggest black mark against Zathura: the control problems - and they are numerous. To elaborate, in one instance, I was playing as Walter on a platform in a room of many platforms, most of which were haunted by a Zorgon enemy. After having killed the Zorgon on my platform, I jumped to the steel rope in front of me and then had to jump to the next platform. Simple, right? Well, as in any platforming game, I assumed I would jump to the rope, then face the platform and jump. Not so. After a number of trials and errors of jumping off to the left or right, I realized that you must have your back to the platform in order to jump to it. This makes no sense. But at least, it was something I could logically figure out, in time.

What's worse is the fact that the targeting was really screwy. In the same platform area, there are multiple turrets posted. I destroyed the turrets and got past that part, was attacked by a Zorgon and thrown off the platform - multiple times. Each time, I would come back and the Zorgon would throw or bounce me off again. Ok, fine. Eventually, I killed him. There were more turrets just ahead, but I was unable to target on them. For some reason, my targeting system decided I needed to eliminate the turrets that I had already passed (which were no longer a threat, mind you). So I went back and destroyed them. I was required to get right to the edge of my platform before the system would target on the next round of turrets and even then, it would bounce from one to the next, giving each turret a shot and then moving on. Again, this makes no sense and was the source of such frustration that I cannot even convey.

Another annoyance was the fact that the system would randomly change my ammo as I was going along. Although I specifically was not pressing the D-Pad up or down, which is what changes the ammo, my ammo would rotate about while I was in a firefight. Also, every time I picked up some new ammo, it would change to that ammo, even if I was trying to save the better ammo up and wanted to be using my unlimited ammo. Argh!

Then, at certain times, the camera would competely lock so that you could only view what the developers wanted you to see. This was most prevalent during the boss fight with the Lead Zorgon, but also happened during other instances. It got so that I could not see where I wanted to go and simply had to bang around in the hopes that I could destroy something and garner some health before facing the Zorgon boss again.

I have said all of that to say that Zathura is a fun game with many frustrations. If you are a hardcore platformer and dig the movie, you will probably like it. I enjoyed the game, despite the issues, however the Zorgon boss and the camera issues were the end of it for me. I wish I had been able to keep playing to see the end, but alas, I couldn't stand any more. However, I played it through to the second to last level, so there was definitely fun to be had. But it comes at a hefty price. If you aren't sure if it is your thing, rent it first.