I don't care what other people say. this game has great graphics, and it rocks!!!!

Please note that this review is for the PC version of this game. There's no doubt about it, the game is very cute and truly fun as it is based upon the exact premise and story of the movie. As I've found so very often these days, the creators of these games are in such a hurry to capitalize on a book or a movie's popularity that the game is thrown together in a very slipshod manner (see EA Games' Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets for PC..shame on them for releasing it the way they did...ugh). The programmers obviously took no pride in their workmanship here. The graphics are fair, at best, and there are times when you may target something and the program fails to respond right away, necessitating the repositioning of the cursor several times to get it to work. The scenes where you must jump from one platform/rock/box etc. to another is just downright annoying. The characters are difficult to position and the run-jump coordination of the program is all off. The poor graphics give the player little help in depth perception in these scenes. There are also areas in which the graphics are incredibly annoying to the eyes...when your character is moving about the scene, the scenery moves in a very stilted, stunted sort of flashy way (I'd say strobe-like, but it is a dark game, not a bright flashy one). This annoyed not only my 43-yr-old eyes, but also both of my childrens' eyes (8 & 11yrs). Overall, it was fun, but if you're keen on gaming, and glitches and poor graphics bother you...avoid this one. If you're looking for a cute adventure for the 7-11 year-old crowd...you'll probably like this one. Another game along these lines, but with better graphics and much more of a challenge, was the first Harry Potter game for PC- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

A sweet little game with a decidedly off-center sensibility, just like the bizarre books it's based on. If you're familiar with the books, you'll know what to expect; if you're not, perhaps you'd better read one or two first to get an idea of what's coming.

Game play consists of directing the Beaudelaire children around various locations trying to survive their greedy "uncle." The game is divided into problem-solving sections and fighting sections; the former is mostly brain work, though there's some rather annoying jumping in places, and the fighting is mostly hand-eye coordination, though a little strategy is required to survive. (Fighting in this case means squirting mosquitoes with eau de cologne and throwing bags of horseradish at evildoers. There's no blood involved.) All the voices are done by the actors from the movie, most notably Tim Curry and Jim Carrey, what a team-up! Graphics are good enough. I had no difficulty loading or running the game on my 3-year-old machine with Windows ME.

The game as a whole is a lovely fun quirky thing; it might be a bit too complicated for kids under about 10, and it might be a bit bland for kids over about 16. Oh, and it includes a free child's admission to the movie, good till the end of the year (2004). Lovely!