Set in the world of Middle Earth, this detailed, one player fighting/strategy game follows the story of the Tolkien's The Hobbit novel and is best suited for children ages 10 and up. Players steer Bilbo Baggins through places like Mirkwood Forest and Lonely Mountain, battling trolls and collecting gems for courage and health. The graphics are cartoony (like Zelda), but this doesn't take away from the game. We tested the Game Cube version, and found it to be very rich, with eleven different areas to explore. Strengths include a design that is really easy to either zoom through, or take more time and explore. For example, in the first level, all you need to do is fix a bridge and find a walking stick, and you're done. But you can take much more time and explore if you want to. The only thing we'd fix is to add a running mode -- Bilbo is a little slow at times, and our 16 year old seasoned tester found some of the puzzles really tough. One maze of islands, that requires specially timed jumps, stood out as being frustratingly hard. The bottom line? Buy it, if you're at all interested in The Hobbit book.Copyright © 2001 Children's Software Revue