BRAVE the movie from Disney Pixar is just days away from release but Brave The Video Game has already hit store shelves. Like you, we are always skeptical about licensed products -the ‘film to video game’ adaptation is generally the most painful of the bunch. To top it off – Disney Interactive has had more misses then hits in the last few years but take note that Brave The Video Game is worthy of your attention!

Brave The Video Game comes from developers Behaviour Interactive who have handled licensed property games in the past. The game is an extension of the movie with an original story featuring Merida who is the heroine of the film as well. Kelly Macdonald who voiced Merida in the Disney Pixar film also lends her talents to the video game adaptation. Kelly’s voice acting in the game is loose, fun and free – often with humorous quips about her surroundings and/or opposition.

Brave The Video Game is a platformer with some exploration but mostly fighting off evil creatures and collecting gold coins to upgrade abilities. The formula is nothing new but the game does an excellent job of mixing things up by having the player select different core elemental abilities during combat. Merida is armed with a sword, a bow and an unlimited amount of arrows. Merida is a G version of Kratos and/or Dante – with all the same types of skills and ability. Something Merida has that other heroes don’t is the ability to switch her elemental powers from Earth, Fire, Wind and Ice. When Merida encounters a foe – they generally have a weakness that she’s able to exploit by using her elemental powers – the tricky part for her is having to fend off a group enemies with varying weaknesses.

We had a chance to play Brave The Video Game on the Xbox 360 – the graphics and gameplay are top notch on that system. The Xbox 360 version comes with a Kinect based mini-game and also features local co-op. We’ve provided hours of gameplay with commentary by Robert Welkner. Brave The Video Game was a surprisingly refreshing way to spend the weekend!