''A Sound of Thunder'' is an

action-adventure The action-adventure genre is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Typically, pure adventure games have situational problems for the player to solve to complete a storyli ...

survival horror Survival horror is a subgenre of survival of the players as the game tries to frighten them with either horror graphics or scary ambience. Although combat can be part of the gameplay, the player is made to feel less in control than in typical ac ...

for the

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...

. The game was developed by former

Möbius Entertainment Rockstar Leeds Limited (formerly Möbius Entertainment Limited) is a British video game developer and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Leeds. Ian J. Bowden, Dave Box, Gordon Hall, and Jason McGann founded the company as Möbius Entertainmen ...

and published by

BAM! Entertainment BAM! Entertainment, Inc. (formerly Bay Area Multimedia, Inc.) was an American video game publisher based in San Jose, California, that was founded by Ray Musci in October 1999. BAM!'s partnership with Cartoon Network in 2000 led to the developme ...

. It was released first in

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on February 28, 2004 before arriving in

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on February 1, 2005. The story is based loosely both on the original

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and r ...

of the same name and follows more closely the

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of the 2005 movie. The game was originally also planned for home sixth generation game consoles, including

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Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...

Nintendo GameCube The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the Wii ...

and the

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, but these were canceled as of December 2006.

Plot

The game mostly follows the plot of the film and retains some of the characters. Travis Ryer is a guide and biologist for Time Safari Inc. (TSI), a company which provides time-travel hunting safaris for the rich. After a time tourist alters the course of events in the late

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

, the future begins to change as "time waves" bring further consequences due to the butterfly's absence from the course of history. Dinosaur-like creatures soon run rampant, and the world becomes progressively overgrown with tropical vegetation. Travis learns from Dr. Sonia Rand, inventor of the time machine, that a butterfly was brought back from the past on the last safari. He tries going back to reset the timeline, but is turned back by a "cleanup crew" from TSI. The crew disappears, however, due to the changes in history. Ryer gets in contact with one of the tourists, Ted Eckles (spelled Eckels in the film), who informs him it was his friend Christian Middleton who was responsible. On the way to Middleton's place, Eckles is killed as a time wave arrives. Middleton is discovered dead, but Ryer manages to retrieve the butterfly, get back to TSI and enter the time machine. Right afterwards, a time wave arrives and gets rid of the vegetation and animals, implying the timeline was set right.

Gameplay

The game is an overhead shooter, played from an isometric perspective. The objective is to complete each mission by killing mutants, solving push-the-crate puzzles and completing the occasional driving stage until the end of the level is reached. Along the way, the player can earn points for collecting items, killing enemies, completing the level within a certain time and exploring all the rooms. The player can resume progress via a six-letter password-based save, which does not, however, retain the player's scores. The game provides an array of collectible weapons, which automatically lock onto enemies. One of them, the Time Freeze Disruptor, can slow down the player's surroundings while allowing the player to move at regular speed (similar to

bullet time Bullet time (also known as frozen moment, dead time, flow motion or time slice) is a visual effect or visual impression of detaching the time and space of a camera (or viewer) from those of its visible subject. It is a depth enhanced simulation of ...

). Most weapons rely on collectible ammo, but the electric prod only needs to be charged by holding down the fire button before use. The game can be played alone or in co-op via Link Cable. The Link Cable also allows for a single-cartridge deathmatch with up to four players in a special arena.

Reception

The game is better received than its critical and commercial failure film counterpart which the game is based on. The game received criticism for its password-based save system and praise for its single-cart multiplayer mode.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sound Of Thunder Action-adventure games Game Boy Advance games Game Boy Advance-only games Horror video games Cancelled GameCube games Cancelled PlayStation 2 games Cancelled Xbox games 2004 video games Video games based on films Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games set in prehistory Dinosaurs in video games Video games based on adaptations Works based on short fiction