Madagascar (video game)

Madagascar is a 2005 action-adventure video game based on the animated movie of the same name. It was released on May 24, 2005 in North America and on June 30, 2005 in Europe. The Nintendo GameCube, Microsoft Windows (XP or newer), PlayStation 2, and Xbox versions were developed by Toys for Bob. The Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance versions were developed by Vicarious Visions. Madagascar: Operation Penguin was the next Madagascar video game to be released on the Game Boy Advance.

Gameplay
The player mainly controls Marty the zebra, while in other levels the player can control Gloria the hippo, Melman the giraffe, and Alex the lion. Each character in the game has his or her own ability. To gain their abilities, the player must first find three cards, known as power cards, to gain the character's ability.

Plot
Marty the Zebra (Phil LaMarr), Alex the Lion (Wally Wingert), Gloria the Hippopotamus (Bettina Bush) and Melman the Giraffe (Stephen Stanton) live in the Central Park Zoo in New York City, New York. On Marty's tenth birthday, Marty starts to have doubts that the zoo is where he belongs, and finds that life in the zoo is boring. That night, a penguin living in the zoo named Skipper decides to break out of the zoo, and invites Marty to come with him, and gives Marty directions on how to clear paths. Skipper, in order to escape himself, is forced to abandon Marty in the process, but gives him more directions. Marty manages to make it to the main exit and leave.

Alex, Melman and Gloria realize Marty is gone and conclude he escaped, and look for him throughout New York City. They catch up with Marty at Grand Central Terminal, but they are surrounded by police who fire tranquilizer shots at them and they are knocked unconscious. They get locked in crates on board a cargo ship heading towards a wild life reserve in Kenya. Skipper and his team of penguins: Private, Rico and Kowalski are also on board, and escape from their crate and head for the bridge where they knock the captain unconscious and turn the ship around to Antarctica. Marty, Alex, Melman and Gloria fall into the ocean in the process. Alex is washed onto a beach unconscious, and soon wakes up. He believes he is in the San Diego Zoo in California, and finds an opened crate which belongs to Marty on the beach, and concludes that the his friends are there too, and goes off to find them. In the jungle, he helps different animals with their tasks, and in return they give him his friends' whereabouts. He finally reunites with his friends.

They go search for help, and find an entire tribe of lemurs having a party. The lemurs introduce themselves, and explain that the island they are on is called Madagascar, but as they talk, they are attacked by the Fossas, the enemies of lemurs. The animals protect the lemurs, and then start helping the lemurs to collect food for another party: Alex helps Julien collect cave onions and mushrooms, Melman helps Mort, a small and cute lemur, protect the Noogie nuts, Gloria smashes watermelons and protects carrots. After the party, Gloria finds that Alex is acting strange because he didn't eat any food during the party, and tells Melman to go find steak while she goes to find Marty, Melman fails in finding steak, and meets up with Maurice, Gloria and Marty. Marty announces that Alex bit him on the butt. Maurice explains that lions are supposed to eat other animals, and that Alex never harmed animals before because in the zoo food was given to him, and the four flee to the beach. A warthog named Wilbur (whose real name, Guigley, is revealed at the end credits), who falls in love with Gloria and agrees to give them information if she gives him a kiss after the work, tells them that the rescue beacon on the beach is broken, but there are many things lying around the beach that they can use to rebuild the beacon. They collect enough materials for the beacon and finally, a beacon like the statue of liberty is built. Gloria now has to do what she promised and kiss the warthog, but she tells Melman to do it instead (the scene in which Melman kisses the warthog is censored).

Marty decides that he must go back for Alex. He asks Mort for the fastest route to him. Mort suggests that Marty should take the No Chance of Survival Trail, and tells Marty to meet him on the other side. They miraculously survive (despite the name of the trail) and meet up at the end of the trail and after going through a series of caves, they slide down a rapid river. They see a whirlpool after a while. Mort says that to get to Alex, Marty must jump into the whirlpool, but Marty has doubts. To prove he's right, Mort jumps into the whirlpool. Marty follows. Meanwhile, Alex is hiding in the lair of the Foosa, feeling ashamed of himself. He soon encounters some Fossas and he manages to battle them. He then encounters the Fossa leader, King Fossa (King Fossa is not mentioned in the film). Alex defeats King Fossa. Marty suddenly falls through the roof and rescues Alex. They go back to the beach where the penguins, who saw the beacon signal from the ship, dropped anchor their boat, thought the penguins do not tell the animals some important news: the ship is out of fuel which is why they stopped at Madagascar.

Development
The game was originally going to be rated E by the ESRB but because of Gloria the Hippo's butt stomp attack that uses the word "butt," the game was rated E10+.

Reception
The game received generally positive reviews. Metacritic calculated an average score of 69 out of 100 for the game. On Metacritic, PGNx Media gave the game a positive review, giving it 85 points, and had said "The game boasts respectable gameplay, and an impressive audio-visual combination, as well as a comical plot from the folks at Dreamworks." On the GameSpot website the game was awarded 7.0 points for the PC version. On IGN, the game was also awarded a positive 7 out of 10.

Sequel
A sequel, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, was released on November 4, 2008.