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Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest

by Neal Ronaghan - May 29, 2009, 9:06 am EDT
Total comments: 7

Headstrong Games puts a little Zelda in your Lord of the Rings.

Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest is Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment's recently announced adventure game based on J.R.R. Tolkien's popular series. Originally subtitled Strider, Aragorn's Quest is being developed on the Wii by Headstrong Games. It is a whimsical, fairy tale-like game where players control the heroic Aragorn through his adventures during the famous Lord of the Rings trilogy in a Zelda-influenced quest.

It technically takes place in the Fourth Age of Middle-earth, which is after the famous trilogy. Samwise Gamgee, now the Mayor of Hobbiton, and the rest of the Hobbits are preparing to welcome Aragorn, who is now king. Players begin playing as one of Samwise's kids, Frodo Gamgee. Frodo, a big fan of Aragorn, role-plays the hero as he does chores in an inventive tutorial section. After Frodo does his chores, his dad tells him and his siblings the story of Aragorn, albeit with some of the darker parts of the story taken out.

It is then that players take control of the titular hero. Aragorn travels through different levels, about 10 in total, that go through all the major points of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Some of the levels are linear, while others are expansive and contain side quests.

When appropriate in the context of the story, members of the Fellowship accompany the hero. Aragorn's Quest also has a co-operative mode where the second player controls Gandalf, regardless of whether it makes sense in the story or not. Gandalf is controlled by just the Wii Remote and automatically follows the player-controlled Aragorn around the screen. Players point at the screen and unleash various types of magic ranging from powerful attacks such as fireballs and staff strikes, to healing and buffing spells for Aragorn. Gandalf's powers become stronger as the game progresses and he transforms from Gandalf the Grey to Gandalf the White.

In the tutorial section where players control Frodo Gamgee, another one of Sam's kids role-plays Gandalf and dresses up like the famous wizard with a big hat and a fake beard. Instead of using real magic, the kid uses rocks to represent Gandalf's fireballs.

The game plays like a streamlined version of Nintendo's Legend of Zelda series in some regards. Aragorn wields a sword, which is controlled by the Wii Remote and used for his main method of attack. He also uses four secondary weapons controlled by the Nunchuk: a shield, a bow, a torch, and a spear.

The combat features context sensitive moments where players must do specific motion combinations. For example, a player might be instructed to do a shield bash, which is done by a forward thrust of the Nunchuk, and then follow it up with a stab, which is a forward thrust with the Wii Remote. There are different context sensitive events for each weapon.

Aragorn also finds numerous upgrades, called trinkets, along his quest that do things such as up the amount of arrows he can carry, give him stronger armor, or allow his arrows to hit lock-on to multiple targets. He can also ride a horse. While horseback riding, Aragorn can use his sword to attack enemies, or even joust them using his spear.

Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest is shooting for an E10+ rating and is set for release this fall.

Talkback

Smash_BrotherMay 29, 2009

Looks like it could be a lot of fun...

LOTR for kids -- it sounds lame on the surface, and maybe it is at any depth. But the Zelda comparisons and the developer's pedigree, especially on Wii (Battalion Wars 2, Geometry Wars Galaxies) could mean it's worth playing.

broodwarsMay 29, 2009

Hmm, it just feels wrong to see an E+ title for a Lord of the Rings game for some reason, and honestly this one looks a little silly with its disproportioned characters and more than a little generic.  It could be good, but I have to wonder "why now?" with this game.  I love the Lord of the Rings, but I wish developers could just let it pass on as a Legend instead of continually trying to mine games from it...especially when they have The Hobbit to milk in the future.

I saw this game at an event last week and my initial reaction was "well, this is gonna be dumb."
As I saw more of it, I liked what I saw. It really reminds of a simpler Zelda, which I guess to some people could be bad, but to me I'm interested. Plus, Headstrong makes damn good games.

I'm very excited to see the co-op mode at E3 and play more of it.

StratosMay 29, 2009

The co-op mode sounds silly. You just shoot, you can't move Gandalf around.

But the game could be pretty good. There is also mention of other LOTR games coming in the near future. I'm hoping for a sequel to Battle for MiddleEarth or some other RTS. Maybe a second Third Age RPG game.

MoronSonOfBoronGarnet Red, Contributing WriterMay 30, 2009

Quote from: Stratos

The co-op mode sounds silly. You just shoot, you can't move Gandalf around.

Hey, it's just like Jet Force Gemini!

Day 1 for Kairon.

StratosMay 30, 2009

Touche MoronSonOfBoron. I guess it is like Gemini in that respect. So I guess it is a 'girlfriend mode'.

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Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest Box Art

Genre Adventure
Developer Headstrong Games
Players1 - 2

Worldwide Releases

na: Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest
Release Q3 2010
PublisherWarner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
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