There's something special about reading a book before seeing a movie these days. Book cover aside, you get to stake your claim to its imagined aesthetic: what their voices sound like, what their faces look like, and the crown jewel of the reader's relationship to their story, the pacing. You want a long pause where Bilbo runs his fingers across the petrified trolls? So be it. You want Gandalf to cough out a kracken as he blows his little ship through smoke rings? Wish granted. A drunken kiss between Kíli and Glóin? Well... don't tell their great great Granddwarf. It's such a fucking mind hack. But getting to play The Hobbit on the PS2 as your very first introduction to one of the most ubiquitous fantasy worlds of all time? Now that is worth a trip to mordor.

And these days, it kind of has dibs on how i visualize these stories upon reading them. Its own inspiration clearly being the Ranken/Bass animated film from 1977 (a rank and ass classic). As by the time it was in development and the live action trilogy was coming out, it was probably too late to pivot art directions, but I wonder how much they did change.

Anyway - so fucking fun. never beat it as a kid cuz it actually gets really hard in that laggy and unspecific hitbox combat frustrating sort of way. Apparently there was new life breathed into it from the speed-running community. A good time, especially if you like to see different interpretations of your favorite stories.

Extra half a star for the uncanny cutscenes. Unironically a very special time for 3d animation.