Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Critic Reviews

It follows the beloved storyline with a wonderful cinematic flair, top-notch audio design, colorful yet simple graphics and a basic set of gameplay mechanics. However, a lacking of innovation and overall gameplay and graphical polish stunt the game’s full potential and leave it as a just-above-average title only fans of the material and/or genre will find any value in.

Charlie and the Boring Factory. It's hard to make a fun game based around these kinds of properties, but that doesn't justify bad gameplay, or a lack thereof.

With all of the gameplay and control issues, the game simply isn’t any fun.

It could have played like a slimmed down version of Pikmin crossed with quirky, yet solid platformer elements. Unfortunately, bad control and poor execution ruin the experience.

Started with brilliant presentation and gameplay and deteriorated from that point on. Although the novel twist of trying to save the ‘bad’ kids does add something for fans of the book, they’ll be advised to rent this title before the sugar sweet memories turn into a sour aftertaste after shelling out for this lacklustre platformer.

This has to be one of the worst games I've had the displeasure of playing in quite some time.

A bare-bones run-of-the-mill 3D puzzle-actioner saturated with eye-bleeding color and overflowing with tired devices and clunky gameplay.

The surreal visuals occasionally impress and the voice acting is fair (no Depp though), but there's too little fun.

Budget release or no, this is a pretty disappointing effort and a waste of time for most.

This factory comes off more like a real industrial complex than the fantastic playground of a fop who makes candy with magical midgets.

Kids aren't going to want to rescue the bad guys of the movie, kids want to explore the factory, swim in the chocolate lakes and hijack cars.

One of the most celebrated children's tale turns out as a dreadful platformer, sporting way too many flaws to be a remotely fun game.

As I painfully maneuvered my Charlie from room to room, I grew more and more desperate in my attempt to find redeeming qualities in the game.

Atrocious. And not "atrociously good fun" either. Simply atrocious. It's like biting into an Oh Henry and discovering that it is indeed, a big fat solid chunk of stanky human dung and undigested peanuts.

The game play is too repetitive and a combination of poor controls and poor visuals make it frustrating to complete the levels. It's hard to imagine many people, whatever their ages, having the supreme patience to actually sit through more than a few hours of this game.

Even if you loved the film, even if gullible children are tearfully begging you to buy them this game, even if there's been a nuclear holocaust and the only games to survive are this and "Army Men: Green Rogue"; please, just say No.

Give this to your kids only if you hate them, or want them to stop gaming, or feel like being asked how to solve "the next bit" time and again. Life’s too short. Play something else.

It's clear that the game is aimed at a younger audience, but this is no excuse for repetitive levels, broken controls, lazy design and releasing a game that's so frustrating, it'll make you turn off the console in disgust.

The product just feels unfinished, likely rushed to launch alongside the film, lacking the polish and additional development time that would have made this a worthwhile experience.

Allowing your kid to play this game is considered child abuse in 29 states.