Had it just been a new entry in the action/platformer market, "Rango" would likely be well received as a nice first try. Its strengths are its beautiful graphics, quirky sensibilities and truly fun gameplay. Its weaknesses are its short length, relatively shallow difficulty and the fact that it simply doesn't have the polish of the titles it mimics, such as Ratchet and Clank or even the similarly quirky but sadly forgotten "Metal Arms: A Glitch in the System."
And its major handicap is the fact that it's based on a movie starring the great Johnny Depp. Many think that having a popular movie as your title would help a game. Sadly, jaded gamers and gaming journalists tend to approach these licensed game tie-ins with a warranted degree of suspicion. It is generally assumed that licensed games are subpar and that assumption is typically correct.
Backlog Quest is a month long special event on Clearance Bin Review featuring daily game reviews of the games that have sat on the shelf for simply too long; old and new.
From Day 26 – Rango, Tristan Rendo writes, "Rango takes places after the events of the movie with the same name, where the wandering chameleon turned town sheriff must investigate some very strange happenings. Ultimately, Rango saves the town of Dirt and possibly the world from strange alien creatures in a surprisingly fun platformer."
NWR: Rango for the Wii is the latest in a long history of cartoon-to-video-game adaptations. The game, developed by Behavior Interactive, features run-and-gun gameplay, but never at the same time.
Impulse Gamer - Based on the amusing movie of the same name, Rango, starring the master of a million personalities, Johnny Depp, this movie-based game is actually one of the better creations of late and as we all know that movie games can sometimes be quite the stinker. At its heart Rango is a competent action platformer that is aimed at the the younger gamer as they control the chameleon sheriff.
