DESCRIPTION

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is an overhead-view action game featuring five playable characters as they battle through more than 100 levels inspired by New Line Cinema's first two movies in J.R.R Tolkien's epic trilogy. Players can assume the role of Frodo, Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, or Eowyn. The game blends real-time fighting action with some role-playing aspects in character development. As players fight with their character's melee weapon or special abilities, such as Gandalf's spells, they will gain experience over time and can find randomly generated items in the form of weapons and armor to improve their character's battle readiness. Collecting gems and trading them in at shrines found throughout the game earns additional items.

Each time a character earns enough experience points to advance to a next level, he receives five ability points and one skill point. Ability points can be spent on improving five distinct attributes, including defense, strength, accuracy, courage, and health. Skill points can be assigned to one of two areas: active skills or passive skills. Active skills can be initiated at any time during battle, at the cost of Spirit Points, which each character possesses along with Health. Passive skills are permanently awarded to characters without penalty. As players journey through Weathertop, the Mines of Moria, Helm's Deep, and other locales from the book and films, they will confront such creatures as orcs, Ringwraiths, the cave troll, and the dreaded Uruk-Hai.

In between levels are movie stills as well as brief full-motion video sequences. Howard Shore's orchestral score has been digitally re-created for the Game Boy Advance to enhance the battle scenes, which typically involve fighting multiple creatures at once. To help, players can enlist the services of a friend for two-player cooperative action. Three difficulty levels are also available, and each character follows a slightly different path to the game's conclusion. A sixth hidden character will be revealed once the game is completed with two characters, and finding eight hidden artifacts will unlock a bonus feature. Up to four games can be saved via battery backup, allowing players to save their collected items and level progress once the system is turned off. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide