The Scorpion King, one of the bigger action movies to hit the theater in a long time gets an expected video game counterpart. The movie was your new age Barbarian type movie, where your job as the viewer was to just enjoy the amazing fight scenes and special effects. Universal Interactive put forward their attempt to match the movie in the action adventure title, "The Scorpion King: Rise of the Akkadian." While their efforts are appreciated, lets discuss and break down the good, the bad, the ugly and the uglier.

The storyline can be summed up as same old, same old. It follows the same basic plot as the movie, which wouldn't be a horrible thing if the gameplay was better. You take the role of Mathayus, a man who desires greatly to become a master warrior. The Rock himself did voice over for Mathayus, which is a really excellent addition to the feel and set mood given by the beginning of the game.

Playing the game is simplistic. Enemies surround you, and you bust out a punch - punch - kick combo, and then work your way to the next group of baddies. There are fighting combinations such as throws, special maneuvers and blocks, but they are all such as hassle to perform during combat. You will most likely find yourself using the same combos over and over. It is also mentionable that enemy animation during combat is incredibly repetitive. You have the classic slight bending of the knees, heavy up and down breathing, and of course the fall over and evaporate technique is used on defeated baddies.

One of the best aspects of The Rise of Akkadian is the large amount of unlock able goodies. From different weapons, gear, special attacks or the many different collectable gems, it is fun to make this the new mail objective of the game. The bad part about this is the fact that none of these items will actually help you in your quest. It is almost just as easy to complete the game with Mathayus' fists than with a sword. This really takes a gash out of the final impression. Other unlock able attributes and features include game artwork, to advertisements and commercials.

The graphics leave a lot to be desired, but yet are not completely grotesque. Just below par is a more appropriate explanation. The character models are dull and textures look painted on. Graphical glitches will be found a plenty, so I wont even bother listing them all. It is evident that most of the time and energy was spent of Mathayus, and frankly it shows. Mathayus's animation is much more detailed and fluid than the rest of the characters. Overall though, it isn't very convincing that he is a huge killer warrior because of his light weight and skippy movements.

The greatest attribute of the game is the audio, and the greatest attribute of the audio is the voice acting. Universal Interactive was able to score original voice actors such as The Rock, Billy West, and Mark Hamill.

The sound effects are also of quality, which was greatly accomplished by an appropriate soundtrack. Point of view did a pretty good job making a good first impression with the audio, but sadly once again they forgot about repetitiveness. Hearing the exact same sounds over and over really gets frustrating.

In closure, The Scorpion King: Rise of the Addadian can be summed up as a rushed movie counterpart. If you look past the obvious errors and try to focus on what is good, it is still an experience that you have played over and over again before. My suggestion is for older gamers to stay away, but as for younin's or hard core fans of the movie, you all should give it a rental first.