The Hobbit heads out to stores

With director Peter Jackson remaking King Kong soon, the film version of The Hobbit is at least five years away. However, the video game inspired by author J.R.R. Tolkien's prologue to The Lord of the Rings shipped out today.

While unrelated to Jackson's films--though its cartoonlike style is reminiscent of the eponymous 1977 animated film--The Hobbit does feature three of the same characters: Bilbo Baggins, Gollum, and Gandalf. Published by VU Games and developed by Inevitable Entertainment, the game also loosely chronicles the quest that first uncovered the Ring of Power, which goes on to cause so many problems later on in the series.

Rated "E" for Everyone, the Hobbit will be available for the PC, Xbox, GameCube, and PlayStation 2 with an MSRP of $49.99. The Game Boy Advance version, developed by Saffire, will retail for $29.99.