The Game Boy Advance version of The Hobbit was developed by Saffire, Inc. and first released by Sierra Entertainment in 2003. This game is based on Tolkien‘s famous book, and not the Peter Jackson films (the first Hobbit film was released in 2012, and this game actually came out the same year as The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King).

The Hobbit is a colourful game that follows the plot of the book fairly closely and is set in an overhead/isometric world. You play as Bilbo Baggins and are given tasks by either Gandalf or the dwarves and each part of the story has an obvious objective. You must explore the available landscape, solve puzzles, collect items, fight any hostiles that get in your way, and try to stay alive in the process.

Gameplay in The Hobbit is reminiscent of a 2D Zelda game (in particular The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past). You pick up and push rocks, climb vines, jump gaps, fall down holes, slice enemies with your sword, throw rocks, sneak around, and even blow stuff up using Gandalf‘s firecrackers.

Bilbo‘s health is shown at the top of the screen and if it drops to zero you get returned back to the last waypoint. Defeated enemies sometimes drop food, coins, or ammunition for your weapons. Eating food replenishes your health. Occasionally you’ll encounter the odd minigame, and of course there are also boss battles.

The Hobbit is fun to play, and is atmospheric at times (mainly due to the changing weather effects), but is also whimsical and fairly easy, as action adventures go. It does hold a few surprises, though, and is well-presented throughout. Anyone who likes the book (or the films) will probably enjoy playing this, and – to be honest – the relatively easy gameplay means that it’s a fairly stress-free experience. I enjoyed playing it and found myself absorbed by the easy-going nature of it, although it does simplify major scenes from the book.

The Hobbit was also released for the PS2, GameCube and XBox, although the GBA version is the only 2D version of the game – the others are all 3D-based adventures.

More: The Hobbit on Wikipedia