Strengths: Charlie's Angels license, voice work by several of the film stars, original storyline, 3D beat-em-up action, weapons and special moves, "Angel Time" mode, budget price
Weakness: Weak graphics, stilted animation, loose controls, repetitive enemies and level design, invisible walls, short overall length, linear gameplay, limited replay value
Since the pinnacle of 2D beat-em-up games (Final Fight, Streets of Rage, etc.), game developers have struggled to bring this genre into the 3D realm. Where 2005's The Warriors video game (based on the cult film) did justice to both the movie and the gaming industry, Charlie's Angels shows just how poorly a licensed game can be put together.
Based loosely on the Charlie's Angels and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle films, the Charlie's Angels game follows our three female crime fighters Alex, Dylan and Natalie as they try to solve the mystery of a series of stolen national monuments. The story doesn't make a whole lot of sense and doesn't get advanced beyond a few brief cutscenes between levels.
While the FMV cinemas between levels are passable, the actual in-game graphics lack any kind of detail or polish and appear to be roughly PSone quality. Given more recent games like the Resident Evil and Splinter Cell series, the low quality graphics of Charlie's Angels should be an embarrassment to the developer.
The character animation is pretty robotic as well, and each of the playable characters has only a handful of moves. Given the loose control system and a restricted environment (the ever present invisible walls), you don't have much freedom to move around or experiment with your attacks. You're forced down a linear track of repeating environments while you fight more repeating enemies.
Providing a handful of voice overs during cutscenes and each level are film stars Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu and Drew Barrymore. You can use some objects in the environment (chairs, boxes, etc.) against your enemies, and on occasion you'll find (or steal from enemies) a handful of blunt object weapons. There's even an "Angels Time" slow motion mode (a la Max Payne) where you can temporarily slow your enemies while you pummel them.
Unfortunately, the whole of Charlie's Angels comes across as a pretty weak ensemble. Where The Warriors had a solid story, freedom of movement and a variety of moves and attacks for each character, Charlie's Angels cuts back on all three of these. When you combine these flaws with weak graphics, repetitive enemies/environments and loose control, there simply isn't much left to recommend.
It's obvious that developer Neko Entertainment spent most of its budget on the film license and cast voice overs because everything else here reeks of the bargain bin. The sad part is that this really could have been a decent game; the potential was there. How is it even possible to take the concept of three hot chicks beating up people and then screw it up?
Neko Entertainment found a way to do just this. The result is below average even for the usual below average licensed film-to-video game translation. If you're a really big Charlie's Angels fan, have a sense of humor and can pick this up for less than $5, you might get a few laughs out of it. If you're anyone else, leave the game where you found it and back away slowly.
Testseek.com has collected 1 expert review for Charlies Angels and the rating is 19 of 100. Click below and use Testseek.com to find all ratings, product awards and conclusions.
Charlies Angels receives an overall TopTenREVIEWS rating of 0.92 out of 4.00. It is ranked the #16,097 game of all time and #569 GameCube game of all time. The rating and ranking is based on an average of 21 critic scores, awards and other criteria. To see a breakdown of the game ranking, read individual critic reviews, or see how other games ranked, click on the link below.
Textbook example of a bad licensed-game. . .
Strengths: Charlie's Angels license, voice work by several of the film stars, original storyline, 3D beat-em-up action, weapons and special moves, "Angel Time" mode, budget price
Weakness: Weak graphics, stilted animation, loose controls, repetitive enemies and level design, invisible walls, short overall length, linear gameplay, limited replay value
Since the pinnacle of 2D beat-em-up games (Final Fight, Streets of Rage, etc.), game developers have struggled to bring this genre into the 3D realm. Where 2005's The Warriors video game (based on the cult film) did justice to both the movie and the gaming industry, Charlie's Angels shows just how poorly a licensed game can be put together.
Based loosely on the Charlie's Angels and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle films, the Charlie's Angels game follows our three female crime fighters Alex, Dylan and Natalie as they try to solve the mystery of a series of stolen national monuments. The story doesn't make a whole lot of sense and doesn't get advanced beyond a few brief cutscenes between levels.
While the FMV cinemas between levels are passable, the actual in-game graphics lack any kind of detail or polish and appear to be roughly PSone quality. Given more recent games like the Resident Evil and Splinter Cell series, the low quality graphics of Charlie's Angels should be an embarrassment to the developer.
The character animation is pretty robotic as well, and each of the playable characters has only a handful of moves. Given the loose control system and a restricted environment (the ever present invisible walls), you don't have much freedom to move around or experiment with your attacks. You're forced down a linear track of repeating environments while you fight more repeating enemies.
Providing a handful of voice overs during cutscenes and each level are film stars Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu and Drew Barrymore. You can use some objects in the environment (chairs, boxes, etc.) against your enemies, and on occasion you'll find (or steal from enemies) a handful of blunt object weapons. There's even an "Angels Time" slow motion mode (a la Max Payne) where you can temporarily slow your enemies while you pummel them.
Unfortunately, the whole of Charlie's Angels comes across as a pretty weak ensemble. Where The Warriors had a solid story, freedom of movement and a variety of moves and attacks for each character, Charlie's Angels cuts back on all three of these. When you combine these flaws with weak graphics, repetitive enemies/environments and loose control, there simply isn't much left to recommend.
It's obvious that developer Neko Entertainment spent most of its budget on the film license and cast voice overs because everything else here reeks of the bargain bin. The sad part is that this really could have been a decent game; the potential was there. How is it even possible to take the concept of three hot chicks beating up people and then screw it up?
Neko Entertainment found a way to do just this. The result is below average even for the usual below average licensed film-to-video game translation. If you're a really big Charlie's Angels fan, have a sense of humor and can pick this up for less than $5, you might get a few laughs out of it. If you're anyone else, leave the game where you found it and back away slowly.
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