Video Game Review: Tron Legacy: Evolution – XBOX360 Review

Let me start off by discussing the positive – the box art is really very pretty. Now lets move on to the rest. TRON: Legacy is the highly anticipated film sequel to the 1982 cult classic TRON. While the original is by no means a great film, it was ground-breaking in its own way. Interestingly the movie-based video game went on to be much more profitable than film itself…will history repeat itself? Probably not.

TRON: Evolution is a multi-platform release that has all the necessary elements to be a great game; however the execution of these elements leaves much to be desired. The Prince of Persia, parkour style of navigating the environment is hindered by sloppy camera work and sluggish controls. Get used to “derezzing” because your character will be more likely to miss his mark and tumble off a platform than stick his wall-running acrobatics.

Combat is also hindered by the lack of a functional camera and as cool as the light disc should be, it feels weak when wielded. The combat system, especially with “bosses” is very retro at times…and I don’t mean that in a good way. I can’t recall the last time I’ve seen such a poor use of the “fight boss for a while, he runs away, then fight hordes of lesser bad guys, boss comes back” style of combat. Perhaps this was an homage to the Ninja Turtles style of gameplay popularized in the late 80’s and early 90’s but it just comes off as lazy and somewhat insulting to a big budget game in 2010.

If there would be any redeeming qualities of this game it would be within the light cycles and multiplayer. The light cycles are redeeming only because it’s always fun to race motorcycles, but even they suffer from the poor retro-handling of Bowser in Mario Kart. Multiplayer offers a variety of maps and a limited number of game types, but at least you don’t have to deal with the simplistic and glitchy AI of the main game.

If you’re a die-hard fan of the TRON universe, you may want to pick this up to get a taste of what it might be like to interact on The Grid, but for anyone else, even casual fans of the series, stay away…far far away.

*In these dire economic times, I’ve decided to start my own financial-based rating system.

Worth your money

-Not worth your money-

Worth somebody else’s money

If you’d still like to purchase the game:

TRON: Evolution on sale for $52.99