Disneys Peter Pan Return to Neverland

Disneys Peter Pan Return to Neverland

Because it's easy for Disney to rest on the considerable appeal of their characters, their video games are often not up to snuff. Happily, Peter Pan: Return to Never Land is one of the better third-party games released for the GBA. It doesn't bring much new to the tried-and-true platform game genre, but it does well with crisp, bright graphics, smart level design, and a pleasing soundtrack from the movie's catchy original songs.

Though this game is based on a sequel, most gamers will immediately recognize the first couple of levels from the classic 1953 film. The game starts with a visit to now-grown-up Wendy's house to take her kids on their own adventure to Never Land. Once there, Tinker Bell is kidnapped, so you've got to rescue her and all of the Lost Boys spread throughout levels in the game. As on any other platformer, you must run, jump, and dispatch baddies (Peter does this with his trusty dagger, which he can also throw) to get to where you're going, but here you can also fly--provided you have Tink and enough pixie dust by your side. The power-ups and secret items are plentiful and pretty easy to find, which seems to be the right difficulty approach, given the younger audience of this game. Older kids and adults may want to play the game at the harder difficulty setting in the options menu. There are also clips of the movie that can be unlocked by finding hidden film reels, but these are short and rather bland.

The downside of this title is still very common among portable games: no battery save feature. Rather than saving your progress through the game, players are given jumbled strings of letters to mark their completion of the end of a level. It's not a dealbreaker, but it means players will need pen and paper handy if they want to continue. And there's no way to save midlevel. --Porter B. Hall

Pros:

• Crisp, bright graphics
• Flying is easy and fun
• Good level design