'The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn' takes its inspiration from both the recent blockbuster animated film and Herge's original Tintin books. It takes a number of forms, including platformer, third person adventure and driving / flight simulation to encompass a variety of scenarios seen in the film. For the most part, these work very well, and although seasoned gamers may find elements of the game a little simplistic, it's very enjoyable, and particularly suitable for younger players. The strongest levels are the platform ones, where Tintin (or his faithful friends Snowy or Haddock) must negotiate his way through a series of locations, thwarting crooks and solving puzzles. The methods for dealing with the villains are particularly creative - whilst some can be laid low by an old-fashioned right hook (with the customary cartoon stars whizzing round their heads to indicate their dazed state), others can only be dealt with by clever use of items and the locations our hero is in, requiring a certain amount of creative thinking. However, the other kinds of level are good fun, too - you can fly the yellow sea plane or drive the motorcycle and sidecar as seen in the film, or engage in sword duels with pirates as Sir Francis Haddock. I don't have the Playstation Move controller, but for those who do, I imagine this is the part of the game where it comes into its own.
There are co-operative and challenge modes to keep players occupied when they've completed the main narrative, which should extend the life of the game. What may also be interesting for fans of the books is that the game's main story, whilst very similar to the narrative of the film, owes a lot more to the original Herge books on which it is based. Why this should be, I don't know, unless perhaps it is based upon an earlier draft of the screenplay. It does at least mean that you're not left slavishly re-treading the plot of the film, which is welcome. Ultimately, whilst not perfect, this is certainly an above average film tie-in game, and one that is likely to provide hours of fun for all the family.