Title: Lord of The Rings: The Third Age
Platform: GBA (also on most others, but reviewed on the GBA)
Genre: Strategy/RPG

I think LOTR: The Third Age is a nice change from the old hack-n-slash LOTR games. A few good things, the turn-based fighting works in flawlessly, some nice RPG elements in it (but the hack-n-slash had a little bit better leveling system), and the choice to be good or evil.

When I first heard that LOTR: TTA had a turn-based fighting system I was a bit disappointed. The thing I liked about the LOTR games was that they were a much faster paced RPG than others like Final Fantasy. When I got the chance to play TTA I was surprised at how well the fighting worked using; terrain, weather, and commanding points to make use of actions for characters.

The leveling system is my biggest problem with LOTR: TTA, it just seems to lack so much. The stats are not editable with the use of gained experience, there is very little even to do with the gained experience, instead it may as well have been called gold considering it only buys you new weapons/armor and items.

The choice to play between good and evil has been used quite a bit in more recent games, but it still feels good to play the Mouth of Sauron and slice off the heads of those pesky hobbits. Along with the main hero you choose at the start of the game, in many missions you get to choose a couple notable heroes from the movie.