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Iorek's parts will, predictably, be the action scenes. In the demonstration of the game we were shown, we saw two levels with Iorek in, in the first (Which was the first level of the game - the prelude starts off with Lyra and Iorek together so you get to sample Iorek's game play, then it cuts back a few months to Oxford, and you play as Lyra, before the story brings Lyra and Iorek back together), we saw Iorek battling with wolves, and running obstacle courses involving jumps, bear traps and collapsing floors. The combat at this early stage was fairly simplistic, with just two moves, but as you progress through the game, more complex and damaging moves will be opened up to you.

The second Iorek level we were shown was the battle with Ragnar (Iofur). The combat here was of a different nature, firstly a minigame involving a sequence of button presses decided who was attacking and who was defending, and then the combat began, and is very similar to wrestling games of recent times. There are five or six different attacks you can pull off (or five or six defensive moves if Ragnar is on the attack), ranging from clawing at him, all the way up to picking Ragnar up and throwing him. Then it's a case of lowering his health to zero before yours gets to zero.

Lyra's level that we were shown was set in Trollesund. In complete contrast to Iorek's levels, Lyra's are far more puzzle based, and often involve choosing the right shape for Pan to be in at the time. Pan has four shapes in the game, all of which have a specific use to help Lyra progress through the level. The first is an ermine, and when Pan is in this form, you can zoom in on various things on the map, and get an explanation of what they are. The things you can zoom in are numerous, and range from pick-ups such as Courage Orbs (The equivalent of health packs) to specially designed parts of the map that some of Pan's other forms can use. The second of pan's forms is as a wildcat. In this form he can climb up areas of the map covered in netting, with Lyra hanging onto his back, allowing her to reach ledges previously inaccessible. The third form is a hawk. In this form, Pan helps Lyra to glide, allowing her to cover greater distances than she could with her jump alone. The final form is, in my opinion, the most bizarre: a sloth. In this mode, Lyra uses pan as a trapeze to get from one place to the next, as shown in the video below.

Or view video here

Whilst at first these mechanics seemed a little weird (Especially the sloth!), I am intrigued by the possible puzzle combinations that they could be used for. When Pan is not helping Lyra around the map, he is sitting on her shoulder, in whatever form you left him in, while Lyra goes around the level solving other puzzles. A small but cool feature is the help Pan tries to give, for example, when you are crossing a beam (a balancing exercise which on the wii will be controlled using the wiimote) he attempts to help Lyra stay balanced. When Lyra is toppling to the left, for example, he will run down her right arm to try and bring her balance back. It’s a small touch, but it is funny to watch!

The other thing implemented in the game is the alethiometer. Its implication is quite simple: dotted around the level are several symbols from the alethiometer, each symbol, when collected, with give you the first level of meaning for that symbol on the alethiometer. There are up to three collectible symbols for each of the alethiometer’s symbols. They are not compulsory to collect, but collecting them will give Lyra a certain edge and make solving puzzles easier.

The graphics that we saw are about what you’d expect of a multi-platform movie conversion, they aren’t going to set any records, but they get the job done. This screenshot of a boat was taken off the PS3 version.

The voice acting is good, several of the actors – including Dakota - have voiced their characters, so there’s no problem with authenticity, but the one worry I have is how many of the little one line snippets they have that play after actions your character performs. If there are too few of them they could get repetitive and annoying.

Overall the game demo has piqued my interest. I haven’t seen enough of the game as of yet to judge it’s quality, but in my mind there are three things I can think of that will make or break it. Firstly, and most importantly, bugs. There is nothing more irritating than a game spoiled by bugs, and movie tie-ins, with their fixed release dates are especially vulnerable to this. Fortunately, Shiny have experience with working to this sort of deadline. Their first Matrix game (Enter the Matrix) was marked down by many reviewers for its bugs, and this hopefully will have helped them in their work on this game.

The second point is the difficulty of the puzzles. This is a hard balance for the developers to strike: too difficult and younger audiences won’t be able to complete it, too easy and older players will loose interest. This is a problem made all the more difficult by the books. The wide age range of readers makes picking a suitable challenge level difficult for the developers.

The final make or break for all platform games is the camera angle. The game is going with a fixed camera that you can’t move. While this is great for making impressive looking screenshots, and for ease of play when moving quickly, many platformers have failed in making this useful. If the camera is at the wrong angle when you are trying to jump it can make it very frustrating, and make an otherwise fun game infuriating.

If Shiny can overcome these things, and SEGA release the game at a decent price point (Amazon are currently offering the games for pre-order for between £25 and £40 depending on which platform you want them on) then this will be a worthwhile addition to your His Dark Materials collection.

The Golden Compass is released on all platforms on November 30th.