Stories about magical gateways to fantastic lands have been a staple of storytelling and the subject of games for decades, but C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia book series was is one of the best examples of how to do it right. Even though the series has been pigeon-holed as a "children's stories" or "Lord of the Rings for kids" Lewis' classics are appealing across a wide spectrum of age groups.

So it's no great shock that Hollywood would want to adapt the first book, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe to film, and that a game publisher would want to create a game based on that film. The first effort, created by Buena Vista Games and Traveller's Tales, may not be a perfect endeavor but it is a good game that adults will marginally enjoy and that youngsters will get right into.

The game is designed in a way that appeals to both girls and boys, offering the four main protagonists as playable characters. The game also serves up moderate doses of adventure, some nice action, light role-playing and play that lends itself top teamwork. The package is further tied into the movie with both 3D rendered scenes and clips from the movie that make it fun for everyone. If adults can get by the obvious juvenile leanings of the game then they should be able to find some fun times within the game as well.

The story begins with the Pevensie quartet escaping their London abode as World War II rages across Europe and the Germans are taking the crown jewel of England to task by bombing them back to the stone age. While the film doesn't dwell on this whole ordeal for too long, the game spends a little more time, using the burning and collapsing homestead as a means of training players in the use of their unique skills, and in collecting various coins which will be used later on in the game to buy upgrades for each character. After escaping this first location in the game, the Pevensie children are shipped off to the quiet countryside, where they first encounter the mysterious wardrobe - the gateway to a fantasy land called Narnia.

While the game starts out feeling more like an adventure game, things change after the elder and younger pairs of children partake in short and separate adventures, followed by a final jaunt into the world all together. While the game follows the movie's storyline pretty closely and borrows a lot of vital movie scenes, the focus of it isn't just to promote the movie. When things really get rolling players will realize that this isn't just a simple adventure game geared towards teens; there's some neat aspects to the game that everyone can enjoy.

For one there's a lot of action. the eldest Pevensie, Peter, uses his strength to fight off various bad guys with things like sticks and sword, while the middle child, Edmund does the same to a lesser degree. Susan the eldest girl in the group, uses ranged combat to take down enemies and the youngest of the Pevensie children, Lucy is the healer of the group. As players progress and collect coins, they can purchase upgrades for each child. Some are global (meaning everyone gets them) and others are specific to one or more of the clan. Beyond their own unique abilities, the children can also team up in pairs and use special attacks and moves that help them interact with the enviornment and do other things to remove the various "puzzling" obstacles they'll encounter along the way.

The Chronicles of Narnia does a nice job of balancing all of these elements to make the game a lot of fun for fans of various genres (RPG, adventure, action) and offers characters that both boys and girls will enjoy playing. The fact that one other player can jump in at any time (and exit quickly in the selfsame manner) for a qwuick cooperative jaunt is also an added value for the title, making the adventure a little more family friendly.

From a presenation stand-point, The Chronicles of Narnia is as slick as any other Xbox game on the markety; it delivers the world of Narnia in crisp and beautiful splendor. Players that have read the C.S. Lewis books will be pleased with how Traveller's Tales took the time to make the world as close to what we've all imagined as we took our journeys to meet Asland and defeat the Witch.

In the end, The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe does a good job of following the film closely and offers a lot of cool film extras that everyone will enjoy. While the gameplay isn't perfect and probably could have used a little more depth, what is there is great for youngsters and marginally entertaining for adults. Adults should give it a rental and parents should have no qualms about buying this one for their kids - it's a grand distraction away from the myriad of Harry Potter games.