GameSpot's Kevin VanOrd rated the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions 4.5 out of 10, the Wii version 4 out of 10, and the PSP version 2 out of 10. He called the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions "a muddled mishmash of gameplay ideas that lacks focus and certainly lacks any sense of fun." He criticized the Wii version for failing to utilize the Wii Remote; "Shiny wasted a good number of opportunities to use the Wii's motion-sensing capabilities [...] for the most part, minigames are performed using buttons and the analog stick, leaving the platform's unique potential woefully unused." Of the PlayStation Portable version, he stated "it suffers from incomprehensibly awful glitches that essentially break the game [...] there are four- or five-second loading times in the middle of nowhere, accompanied by the furious whir of the disc. This can happen midjump or midattack, and rather than just freeze the onscreen view, the game cuts away to a black screen with a loading symbol. This occurs every minute or two during action sequences." Of the game in general, he was highly critical of the plot, arguing that if players were unfamiliar with either the novel or the film, they would not be able to follow what is happening. He also criticized the controls and camera, especially during the platforming levels; "Not only do the slippery controls make Lyra a pain to maneuver, but you can't manually control the camera, which makes it impossible to judge distance. Even worse, the camera has a tendency to move on its own in the middle of jumps and balancing acts."
