The game is split up into four rather large levels, accessible from the Grinch's stony mountaintop retreat. Thankfully, the voice acting in the game is of a suitably decent quality and while the game doesn't exactly follow the plot of the book, it retains much the of the charm of the original story.

So given the widespread fame of the tale, it's somewhat surprising that Konami chose to make said story into a game given that the majority of film licensed games end up being somewhat under par. The original story of The Grinch has already been the subject of a Chuck Jones animation, and more recently, the aforementioned live action film starring Jim Carrey. It's a mixture of platform hopping, object collecting, puzzling, Thief style sneaking about a mixture of gameplay that comes together to make a strangely entertaining game. You view the Grinch-manufactured mayhem from a third person perspective, a la Tomb Raider, although there's yet to be a Lara Croft game that revolves around wrecking Christmas gifts with her arse or using bad breath to her advantage, something that's a regular occurrence in The Grinch.īut on the other hand, while the Grinch can grab the edges of platforms and pull himself up like Ms Croft, The Grinch isn't just about platform hopping. Instead, you have to wander around Whoville and the surrounding areas spoiling the Who's Christmas by smashing presents, destroying snowmen, firing rotten eggs into windows and performing all other manner of cold-hearted tasks. This is definitely a good thing since an entire game spent swapping presents and pleasantries with other Whos, hugging and dancing around would be too much to bear. The Grinch casts you not as little Cindy Who or any of her equally appalling brethren, but as the Grinch himself, mean spirited, green fur and all.

We've been informed that rumors of a bloody shoot-em-up sequel Grinch 2: Red Christmas are completely unfounded, fortunately. In perfect timing for the holiday season, as well as the recent mega Blockbuster Jim Carrey movie (just announced as the biggest grosser of 2000), Konami have released a rather decent platform game in the shape of The Grinch, the Christmas-stealing cartoon fable based on Dr Seuss' The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

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