Unless you've been living in an area cut off from all forms of pop culture, entertainment, and fun (in other words, a red state), you're probably more than a little familiar with the phenomenon that is Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling's stories of the boy wizard and his young friends have been nearly impossible to avoid, and their huge success has led to the inevitable imitators trying to cash in on the child-empowerment trend. One series of books that took a slightly different tack was Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, which proved to be enormously successful despite (or perhaps because of) their formula of "kick a kid when he's down, it's easier to reach him that way." The first three books of the series have been made into a movie, and as you might expect, a licensed game based on the film is now on the shelves, doing its part to lure tykes into the theater. What you might not expect, though, is that the game is actually pretty darn good.

That is one seriously bad day

Man, the Beaudelaire kids are having some really bad luck. First, their parents are killed in a mysterious fire. Then, they're shipped off to live with their creepy uncle Count Olaf, who's so nasty and cruel, he makes Cinderella's stepmother look like June Cleaver. Later, the children discover that Count Olaf will stop at nothing to get his hands on their family fortune, which he stands to receive in case of their untimely deaths. Kinda makes you think twice about bitching the next time there's a line at Starbuck's, doesn't it? The three kids, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny, must work together to defeat Count Olaf and his evil band of cohorts.

Although the Beaudelaire children are united in their misery and misfortune, each has a unique ability that will help in the battle against their uncle's treacherous plans. Violet, the oldest, was apparently touched by the spirit of Rube Goldberg when she was a mere babe, and has since grown into a brilliant, if somewhat unusual, inventor. Her younger brother, Klaus, has an encyclopaedic knowledge of just about everything, which makes him the natural choice to solve puzzles and interpret clues. The baby, Sunny, has a disturbing, though useful, habit of chewing through things like a termite through a redwood.

The gameplay elements of Lemony Snicket are primarily all fetch missions: the kids are presented with an obstacle, Violet thinks up an invention that will solve the problem, and the children wander the current environment to find the necessary objects to assemble the invention in question. Since this is a children's game, the hunting and fetching is never terribly difficult. Items that can be used in an invention are all out in plain sight, glittering to make sure they're easy to see. Only the currently necessary objects can be picked up, avoiding any confusion when it's time to make the final invention. Combining the items to make Violet's latest bit of brilliance is disappointingly simple, though, even for a kids' game. The first item is displayed in a window as Violet describes its function. From there, it's just a matter of rotating the image until an "X" appears indicating the place to attach the next item, and hitting the A button. Lather, rinse, repeat, and voila: invention ahoy.

There is no "I" in team, but there is an A, a B, an X, and a Y

Although players will control all three children during the game, the majority of the action naturally falls to the two oldest. Klaus and Violet control identically, making it easy to switch between them when necessary. X is the attack button, A jumps, B performs context sensitive actions, and Y switches between Violet and Klaus. Each character has one or two special commands as well, such as pulling the left trigger to extend Violet's stilts or hitting A twice to activate Klaus' propeller-powered shoes. Which character is required when is often fairly arbitrary, but it does divide the gameplay nicely between both Violet and Klaus. Sunny's levels are all variations along the same 2d side-scrolling theme, as she jumps and chews her way to her goal.

Ok, actually, let me just digress here for a moment to mention that Sunny totally creeps me out. First of all, she has these massive rat-like teeth and she enjoys chomping her way through scenery way too much for my taste. Add to that the disturbing coos and gurgles she makes as she skips along and the unsettling victory dance she does upon successful completion of a task, and it wouldn't surprise me if one of the unlockables in the game was video of her spitting out pea soup as her head spun all the way around.

Jigsaw puzzle pieces are sprinkled throughout each level, and for every 25 the kids collect, a secret picture is revealed. The picture indicates a location in the nearby area that contains a hidden package. Locating the package unlocks something in the Extras menu. The puzzle pieces aren't too hard to find, but the unlockables aren't really exciting enough to make hunting around for that last hidden piece worthwhile. For the most part, the hidden packages unlock stills or scenes from the Lemony Snicket movie. While I appreciate the brilliance of making the player do the work to unlock marketing material, it's just not that much fun. Still, younger players will enjoy the sense of accomplishment that comes from finding all of the pieces in a given area.

My mom used to make a great Lemony Snicket

Fans of the books, the movie, or games that simply look good will find much to enjoy with Lemony Snicket. The environments are bizarre and fantastic, but still grounded in a storybook kind of reality that seems to spring from kids' imaginations. The characters are all well animated and dead ringers for the actual cast. (Ok, Sunny looks like the centerfold of Possessed Baby Weekly, but I covered that already.) The voice work is excellent, especially the narration, done with consummate perfection by Tim Curry. It's worth failing a few times just to hear his various reactions. The music is that ultra-generic soundtrack that accompanies every licensed game for kids, from Jimmy Neutron to Shrek to The Haunted Mansion. It's the sort of pleasant, non-offensive musical pablum heard in elevators and dentist's office everywhere.

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events is a licensed title that won't actually make parents cringe as they buy it for their kids. The difficulty level is perfect for Snicket's target audience of youngsters, and the atmosphere is completely in keeping with the books and movie. With only 16 levels, though, it may not keep older kids busy long enough to justify the price, but younger children will enjoy assembling Violet's inventions and tracking down every last unlockable.