Apparently, the company that made this had the rights to make a game based on the books, not the new line cinema films. So it was more directly inspired by the books. I remember borrowing it in high school for the GBA and thinking it wasn't bad. Wandering in Moria for ages. There's something charming about it and the graphics are more fairytale inspired which is interesting. If you google the PC version there's a lot of that early 2000s charm. Obviously most people would have played the EA published two towers game which featured events from the fellowship.
I had the snes version of this which was more like a Zelda game but it had 4 person coop once you recruited the other hobbits. Was really good in my minds eye... Which means I should never attempt to replay it...
https://www.mobygames.com/game/17911/jrr-tolkiens-the-lord-of-the-rings-volume-1/
Interesting! Never got a snes growing up; my parents thought we played the nes too much, so it eventually went into the closet, and I transitioned to pc games. Looking at the screenshots, it seems to be a completely different game.
I think the pc version is still worth playing, for Tolkien fans that are willing to put up with a bit of jank.