Wallace & Gromit in Project Zoo – GC – Review – GC – Review

Wallace and Gromit are the stars of three short, claymation-style films from the UK firm of Aardman. Wallace, a simple man who loves the simple life, yet invents outrageous gadgets, and Gromit, a highly intelligent dog, have become cult classics in the UK, and lately have gained popularity elsewhere. Bam! and Frontier Developments Ltd. have brought this loveable pair to the console, in an adventure to save the zoo from that nefarious Penguin, Feathers McGraw.

The basic plot involves rescuing animal babies that have been captured and held as hostage for their parents’ cooperation. Through more than twenty levels in six different zoo locations, Gromit will need to work out puzzles, jump across platforms and take out occasional enemies in order to rescue all the babies and thwart Feathers’ plot.

The game begins with an incredible cartoon that introduces Wallace, Gromit, and Feathers and the preliminary story set-up to the game. It’s Archie the baby polar bear’s birthday, and since Wallace is a proud zoo sponsor of Archie, he and Gromit decide to visit the zoo and deliver the present personally. Once there, though, they soon discover that all is not well at the zoo. This mini-movie is almost a stand-alone cartoon in itself, and is quite the best animated introduction I’ve personally ever seen in a video or computer game.

After the introduction movie, players will participate in a short level that introduces basic game controls and game information in a very easy setting. Then it’s off to the next level, which is more involved. Most of the game consists of platform jumping and puzzle solving, with occasional confrontations with enemies, that are very easy to beat for the most part. The jumping is very forgiving mostly, but at odd times and places can suddenly morph into an extremely difficult exercise. This can be frustrating, but fortunately Gromit can’t die permanently, which is the only thing that ultimately saves this game in terms of gameplay. Yes, sad to say, although this is a charming presentation of Wallace and Gromit, there are some issues as relating to actually playing the game that detract from the overall experience.

The main problem is the camera. It’s never steady while in motion, and dips and sways while running around the levels. Oftentimes the camera’s angle doesn’t show what’s in front of Gromit, who ends up running blindly into the unknown, which frequently means death from a long fall down. This death isn’t permanent, but is still annoying after several falls in various places. Gromit frequently gets boxed in corners, and trying to maneuver the camera viewpoint in some spots while he’s standing still, doesn’t improve matters any. And the boss battles, which of themselves aren’t very difficult, become difficult because of the fact that half the time Gromit can’t even see most of the room, let alone the boss.

The camera also presents some minor problems in puzzle solving, specifically the targets that Gromit will have to shoot now and then to activate. The problem is that many times these targets are too high to be seen unless Gromit is standing back a good ways, or if the user remembers to pan the camera manually upward.

Gromit is the character that users will control, with Wallace lending a hand whenever a gadget is required to be rebuilt. Gromit will spend his time running around the levels, collecting nuts and bolts, coins, and tools. The nuts, bolts and coins are easy to find and collect, but the tools are a little harder, mostly due to the fact that it’s not always discernable where Gromit needs to go. Most of the levels are built upwards, rather than spread out, and again the camera isn’t very helpful in scoping out these areas.

Gromit has some pretty cool moves, and can butt stomp, jump high, roll, and even break dance! Remembering the buttons can be a trifle tricky at times, but with practice most players will soon have the combos down pat. There are many “hint” areas scattered around that let Gromit know what he should do next, in the form of poles that look like coin meters.

Wallace is the guy who fixes the weird contraptions, which often end up automatically in Gromit’s possession, but again, this sometimes leads to confusion as the item doesn’t announce itself when it appears in Gromit’s inventory. Users won’t know the item is now in their possession until they access their inventory.

The interface is easy to access and contains all the necessary options in one menu. Players can continue, save, and look at a goal list with a tap of the “start” button, nothing could be easier.

Wallace, Gromit and pals all look fantastic, and the designers have captured the essence of their personalities wonderfully. Everyone moves and acts as expected. However, part of the charm of the animated shorts is the use of visual humor, which isn’t really represented as much as it could be in this game, aside from the cutscenes. The objects scattered around are also drawn well, but the backgrounds aren’t as clearly delineated and appear somewhat blocky in comparison.

The music is decent and matches the tone of the game well. There are sound effects, but of a minimal nature.

This is one of those games that “coulda been, shoulda been”. There is potential all over this game, waiting to be let out, but unfortunately it is locked away. Wallace and Gromit’s innate whimsical nature is present and imbues this game with charm, but it all could have been so much better. More humor, especially of a visual nature, is just begging to be added, and the gameplay, which for the most part is designed perfectly for kids with a good variety of platform jumping and puzzle solving, and mercifully not a ton of baddies, suffers greatly from a lousy camera, especially in the boss battles. Also, for some reason Gromit moves like he’s in molasses in some of these battles, which can be frustrating when trying to run out of range and he’s moving in slow motion. It just feels like this game wasn’t tested enough and was let out of the gate too early.