THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES, Xbox 360, Sierra, rated E for Everyone, reviewer's rating: 6.5 (out of 10)

Even without his having seen the "The Spiderwick Chronicles," this game proved to be fun for my 10-year-old son.

"The Spiderwick Chronicle's" playable characters include Jared, Mallory, Simon or Thimbletack the Brownie. What seemed boring and tedious for me was downright fun for my son. Every step of the way was planned out to seemingly follow the movie's script.

To start, you search through the house and find little symbols. Some are as innocuous as crackers, which you'll need later. When you click the crackers before you need them, you get something innocuous like "I'm not hungry." It seems pretty senseless; however, it's sort of like a matching game where you find something early on and then later, when you need it, you have to remember where you first spotted the item.

"The Spiderwick Chronicles" is a closed game, which means you can't get out of the confines of the path laid out before you. Unfortunately, the claims of each child having his own unique abilities were exaggerated. They all seem to play basically the same. The only diversion is Thimbletack the Brownie, who lives in the walls and kills cockroaches with a needle. My son found him to both fun and frustrating.

Graphics: The Spiderwick Chronicles isn't going to blow anyone away, considering it's on the Xbox 360. You could imagine the game looking the same on the Playstation 2.

Audio: There are a lot of scripted segments and that adds to the fun of the game. Brownie has rhymes that you might find your kids repeating.

Parent's take: "The Spiderwick Chronicles" is made for kids. Ten minutes of play was enough for me to become bored; however, my son played five or more hours over the weekend, which proved to me that he found it thoroughly satisfying. The only reason he didn't play longer is he has imposed limits or he would have played through the night.

Final word: "The Spiderwick Chronicles" is fun for kids, not so much for parents.

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E-mail: ccraine@desnews.com