Hey, did you miss me?

When I first started this blog, one of my earliest and longest running ideas was It Came From The Bargain Bin; each article being a review of a game that now costs a quid or two, evaluating whether or not they’re worth playing despite whatever the original critical (or commercial) reception was.

It was fun, but it’s something I hadn’t had time to do justice to for a long while – my 26th It Came From The Bargain Bin article was published almost exactly four years ago!

So yes, it’s been a long time – but here we are, back with another look at a cheap title that may or may not be worth spending your pennies on.

In the midst of a Doctor Who rewatch ahead of the 60th anniversary specials and the return of David Tennant to the role of the Doctor, I’ve reached the Matt Smith era – after devouring Eccleston and Tennant’s episodes over the last month or so.

Which made it the perfect time to give 2010 Wii title Doctor Who: Return to Earth a spin.

Is it worth travelling through time and space for, given that it can now be purchased for around £1?

Or should it be launched into the nearest black hole?

Well, things start off promisingly, with an exciting introduction featuring the then-new title sequence and even a faux-credits intro that presents the game almost like a lost episode of the series.

Though the animation – or lack of – in the cutscenes is disappointing, the voice acting by Matt Smith (the Eleventh Doctor) and Karen Gillan (as his assistant, Amy Pond) is genuinely excellent, so it feels almost like a charmingly under budget episode of the show.

Yet sadly, the charm pretty much begins and ends there.

Though the developers seem to have had their hearts in the right place, the third person adventuring and puzzling is made next to impossible by a wayward camera and awkward use of motion controls in mini games and first person segments.

It’s the old Wii curse; just because the motion controls exist, doesn’t mean they should just be slapped on willy-nilly, though they often were – and Doctor Who: Return to Earth is no exception in this regard.

It is a real shame, as there are some nice ideas here, some decent presentation and even reasonably clever puzzles.

Yet it’s let down so badly by the camera often not letting you see, well, anything, along with the shoddy motion control elements, that it quite quickly becomes a chore to progress through.

Is it worth a quid? Maybe for real die hard Whovians or completists.

The thing with Wii games these days is that there are some genuinely spectacular experiences to be had for a few quid or even less – so unless you really must have this Doctor Who game in your library, I’d suggest getting back in the TARDIS and leaving it on the shelf for another unlucky traveller to find.