Ask any elementary
student who their favorite character is and one is bound to answer Shrek. The
Dreamworks franchise is a ludicrous series that continues to reel in new fans
with every new movie. Relying on humor, wit, pop culture references, and
outrageous characters, it’s easy to see why Shrek has become the phenomenon it
is today. Thankfully – especially for video game fans – the movie, Shrek the
Third, has a new game to go along side it. Titled after the movie, Shrek the
Third is the routine movie-based game and is available on virtually every
console and handheld this side of the Mississippi.
Following in the
footsteps of the movie, the game picks up after where the second movie ended.
The kingdom of Far Far Away is seeking a new king and Shrek wants no part in
becoming the heir to the throne. So, it’s up to Shrek and his ragtag crew of
outcasts per se to embark on an epic quest to find Fiona’s cousin, Arthur, to
take the throne. Arthur, inspired by the Knights of the Round Table version King
Arthur, has competition with the conniving Prince Charming who wants the throne
to himself.
7 Studios, the
developer, didn’t exactly try to create an original game, but rather they
followed the undemanding instructions of how to create a movie-based game. For
the most part, brawling with enemies is where a majority of the time is spent.
What’s great to see is that the combat is simple in nature for everyone to pick
it up and play. Children will have no problem with playing Shrek the Third,
which is a definite plus.
If you have ever
played an arcade-brawler, you’ll remember that they usually include: basic
attacks, strong attacks and then of course the special attacks to resort to.
The special attacks will change when you reach a new level. Blocking is
integrated, but it’s not needed in order to advance through the levels.
Actually, I barely had to block any of the attacks since the enemies are
worthless. What the enemies will do is move at a constant fast speed and rush
to attack you. Realistically though, completing the levels without even
fighting the enemies isn’t the most entertaining way to play Shrek the Third.
In terms of recommendations on how to play Shrek the Third, I strongly recommend
not using the strong attack that often since it’s too slow of an attack.
One great feature
for fans to enjoy is the ability to play with a wide variety of characters.
Using Shrek will give you the advantage of his raw brute strength. Meanwhile,
Fiona has finesse on her side and Sleeping Beauty can charm foes to combat each
other. There are many others found in Shrek the Third that are available to
use, but I don’t want to ruin any surprises for those who haven’t watched the
third film yet.
Technically, Shrek
the Third isn’t a full out button smasher – there are adventure aspects thrown
in to find and collect items. Unlocking items in the game’s gift shop is a
noteworthy addition of replay value. There are also mini-games and puzzles to
put your mind to a test. In total, there are six mini-games that consist of:
collecting frogs, shuffleboard, throwing tomatoes at your enemies for as long as
you can, and a few others. The puzzles are quite basic with jumping and finding
your way around an object.
Typically, like in
all other games, 7 Studios added in the ability to slow down time, ala the
Matrix. The controls are used with the mouse and keyboard, WASD to move and the
arrows for different attacks. Then of course, the space bar or right mouse
button is used to jump. If you end up falling off the level, don’t worry,
you’ll respawn at the spot where you fell to your death. You can remap all the
attacks to particular keys if that’s your sort of thing.
What are the
benefits for buying it on the PC? The game looks better than every other
version besides the Xbox 360 counterpart. The graphics are decent, but do feel
rushed. The characters, such as Shrek and Puss in Boots, look great – the same
cannot be said for the enemies. There are a lot of jagged edges and blurry
textures, so be prepared to jump in a time warp to 1999 when that was still
popular. The animations do feel stiff, like a pole is up their shirt making
them walk like Frankenstein, but it’s not a gargantuan problem.
The PC version
does support higher resolutions up to 1600×1200. The PC version probably one of
the better versions of the game you’ll find in stores compared to the rest
(outside of the Xbox 360 version of course). The framerate is for the most
part, stable. A few pre-rendered cutscenes can be found to move along the
storyline. Regrettably, you cannot skip the pre-rendered cutscenes to hurry
along with the game.
The soundtrack and
audio is superb – it ties-in with the movie perfectly. Sadly, the actors don’t
return to represent their characters in the video game. Activision did a good
job at finding actors that can pull off impersonating Mike Meyers, Antonio
Banderas and others from the cast. The best part of the audio is that the humor
is all there by means of the dialogue.
While it isn’t the
best representation of the Shrek the Third, the game does an overall good job at
finding the right things to do and things to say. There was no risk used in
creating this game, but they didn’t need to reinvent the wheel to sell copies of
this game. Shrek the Third has got the humor, it’s got the title characters,
and it’s got cuteness written all over it. This should be a nice pick-up for
your children to spend their summer months playing video games.
Minimum
Requirements:
Windows XP
Operating System
Pentium(R) III
800MHz or Athlon(TM) 800MHz or higher processor
512 MB of RAM
3 GB of
uncompressed hard disk space
Direct X 9.0
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti
4200 64mb
or
ATI Radeon 8500
64mb
Gameplay: 6.9
Shrek the Third
offers 20 various levels to play through – some that are from the movie, some
that aren’t.
Graphics: 6.8
Incomplete
animations hurt the graphics along with the inclusion of jaggies. It isn’t the
prettiest game on the PC market.
Sound: 8.0
The music creates
a new level of authenticity for the game.
Difficulty:
Easy
The hard level of
difficulty isn’t that hard. Think of it being retitled from the normal
difficulty.
Concept: 6.5
There’s nothing
too exciting to see here; just another run-of-the-mill movie-based game.
Though, the idea of playing several characters from the franchise is interesting
to say the least.
Multiplayer:
6.5
Multiplayer is
basic and is limited to the mini-games for the most part.
Overall: 7.0
There is a demo
online for PC gamers to test it out before playing it. I’d personally recommend
that route for older gamers. Younger games will eat this up like candy.
