“A console MOBA?” you ask while scratching your head and looking shiftily at your League of Legends client. “How would that even work?” As it turns out, rather well, if Guardians of Middle-earth is any indication. The truth is, hobbits and elves bring the traditionally PC-centric genre to home consoles with flying colors.

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While anyone who learned to play the DOTA-inspired genre on PC (“inspired” is actually be too weak a word here) is probably shaking their heads and mumbling about a lack of precision with a controller or something. Sorry to disappoint you guys, but this Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (hence the acronym) is damn near every bit as hardcore as the genre's biggest entries during its explosion over the past couple of years. All it had to do was make some very clever choices to adapt to the console set.First off, and perhaps most obviously, there's no mouse and keyboard support on the 360 and PS3. Therefore, developer Monolith has chosen to go with a more area of effect (AOE) attack approach, giving each champion – called “Guardians” here – a cone or column of attack range. Also, there are very few single-target special attacks, making it so I rarely missed having a mouse in my hand. In fact, I can see simplified controls being a boon to both new players interested in the MOBA experience while still retaining the hardcore appeal.But the biggest change comes in the form of the lack of in-match item buying. Whereas in games like League of Legends, where you're constantly heading back to home base to buy the next bit of gear you need, Guardians of Middle-earth allows you to choose a loadout at the beginning of each match in the form of your Guardian Belt. As the round progresses, the Gems and Relics that you've chosen unlock, giving you stat bonuses. It's a really smart way to get around the clumsiness of a controller-driven item store, and even makes the game more accessible for those who have been turned off by the slightly terrifying item store in PC MOBAs.One of my favorite changes, though, is the addition of an optional 20-minute timer in multiplayer. We've all been stuck in hour-long League of Legends games, and that can be daunting for incoming players. So, with that little addition plus a points system that determines a winner upon time running out, GOME brings another level of accessibility that a lot of MOBAs simply lack. Of course, if you'd prefer a full-length match, you can go ahead and do that too.I've heard rumblings of imbalance amongst the Guardian ranks, but I never really had a moment where I thought that any single character was overpowered in relation to anyone else. Sure, you're going to see a lot of Legolas and Sauron on the field, but I suspect that’s primarily because they're such well-known characters rather than an indication of excessive imbalance. Granted, with a fairly large roster (22 Guardians in total), and more being added via DLC in the future, we’ll see how the balance shakes out. But for now, it's pretty solid.Unfortunately, things aren't exactly ideal on the visual end. Sure, GOME uses its source material extremely well. Everyone looks great here, from Gandalf to Legolas to newcomers like Hildifons and Runsig have that distinct Lord of the Rings look down to a T. Not only that, it sounds like Lord of the Rings, right down to original movie voice actors and the sweeping soundtrack.However, the UI is a bit of a mess. Because MOBAs have a ton of information they have to convey at any given point, there needs to be a ton of stuff on the screen at the same time. Unfortunately, that means the minimap and stats screens can be a bit tough to read on an average-sized TV. It's a minor gripe, but in the heat of battle, that kind of hard-to-see information can really lead to issues. It's too bad, because the actual combat looks amazing.The biggest problem with GOME, however, comes on the technical end. Online matchmaking takes way too long, often forcing players to wait upwards of five minutes to find a match. And once they're in, huge lag spikes mix with fairly regular disconnects. I probably dropped out of every fourth game, only to lose all the experience points and in-game currency that I would have received upon completion. It's a huge bummer, and one I hope is fixed, but in its current state, Guardians of Middle-earth can be an extremely frustrating experience.