Games

Ironically for a game entitled Brave, this licensed tie-in to the latest Pixar film plays it incredibly safe. Sure, some people might argue that it doesn’t need to be particularly imaginative as it’s aimed at family audience. But the same thing could also be said for Disney’s enjoyable Toy Story 3 or Cars 2 games. And what about Traveller’s Tales’ Lego games, which are still phenomenally popular with players of all ages?

Brave casts players as feisty teenage princess Merida, who must battle through a series of levels to save her mother from a curse that transformed her into a bear. Naturally, this is achieved by hacking and slashing your way through magical beasties and solving rudimentary puzzles.

It’s a fairly inoffensive combination of elements, but one that is hamstrung by surprisingly shoddy graphics. Indeed, you’d expect excellent graphics to be the saving grace of any game based on a Pixar movie. But no, instead we get a combination of unrefined character models, muddy textures and drab colours that frequently conspire to make it difficult to make out what’s happening on even the biggest screen and render the two-player mode almost unplayable. Extremely disappointing.

Disney Interactive, Xbox 360/PS3/Wii, £45 Approx, On sale now
HCC VERDICT: 2/5