When it
comes to B movies, I enjoy all sorts ranging from horror to stupid comedy, so
“Bee Movie” was a clever play on words in my opinion, and an entertaining new
Dreamworks movie to boot. So, as history has shown us … along with a Dreamworks
movie in the big screen, we get a game on a smaller screen to coincide with the
release. As history has also shown us, most of these aren’t very good and won’t
do more than offer up a brief amount of thrills, and the Bee Movie game, while
clever, isn’t going to prove to be much exception to the rule.
The game
focuses around the movie hero, Barry B. Benson, as he is just out of graduating
and ready to start his new life training to be a “pollen jockey” … or one of the
hive that heads out to collect pollen amongst other things for the benefit of
the hive’s well being, meeting up with characters to train up in stamina, speed,
or strength and unlock new “personal favor” kind of tasks on the side of the
main quest and storyline. Controls are primarily done with the control pad, with
the stylus being used to complete mini games (presented during the
aforementioned “training exercises”) and help Barry get through the game.
The controls
are easy to get into, and the game overall consists of basic “run and fetch”
kind of missions that have you doing various things like collecting special
pollen outside the hive while avoiding and finding ways to get around obstacles
like sprinklers, dogs, birds, and the occasional rain shower. Some of the ways
these are presented was interesting, like finding a bone to distract a dog or
ducking under a birdbath to refill the rain meter and keep the dark skies at
bay, but overall the lack of diverse gameplay tends to make the story dull and
the game repetitive. Even training mini games only seem to have a few different
variations which get more challenging as you progress, but remain the same which
takes some fun out of the experience.
In order to
train up and get more side missions, you have to collect pollen, which is used
as a kind of currency to pay the trainers for their time and good advice. This
again adds to the repetition of the game as it pretty much plays out with you
doing a mission, getting pollen, collecting more pollen, training up, going to a
new mission, getting more pollen, not having enough and going around getting
more, training up, etc. Granted I understand that this game is geared towards
kids, so my 9-year old enjoys it, but you can probably imagine that this will
quickly cause interest to wane with an older player.
The game has
some neat little toss ins, with happy music standard to Dreamworks movies and
games, and some little cut scene-style movies on the top screen to watch during
and after training exercises, but overall the presentation looks a bit washed
out in my opinion. Buildings in the hive have a little Smurf-like mushroom house
style, and the outdoors has standard grass, flowerbed, and fence touches which
don’t look terrible, but again they just have a sort of faded look to them.
Overall, Bee
Movie game is probably going to be a good bet for the younger Dreamworks’ fan in
your life who enjoyed the film or wants to go see it, but for the older fan it
probably won’t hold out enough to really be a good buy for your money.
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Gameplay: 6.0
The controls are
easy for everyone to get into and having some side missions and things to look
out for was a good idea, but the overall style of the game is repetitive both in
missions and in mini-game training and doesn’t really offer any major excitement
to get you from A to B during the story.
Graphics: 6.8
Again, they
weren’t bad, and there were some neat additions like runway lights at the hive
entrance and a very handy and detailed mini map so you won’t get lost, but they
just looked washed out to me personally.
Sound: 6.9
Again, typical
happy style Dreamworks music to listen to, and some decent voiceovers from
characters here and there. Barry does tend to make the same “Yippee” noises over
and over again while doing a dash while in flight, but nothing over the top
annoying, just repetitive (noticing a pattern here?)
Difficulty: Easy
Older gamers
won’t find enough challenge to keep them rolling, but younger gamers should find
it easy to get into and play with minimal Mom and Dad assistance.
Concept: 6.5
Well, it’s
another movie to game title to add to your collection, offering about the same
as we’ve come to expect in a grand scale. Not bad, but just could be a lot
more.
Overall: 6.2
Here we are at
the end of another kids game, and probably with about the same expected results
as stated earlier. This is a cute little game that offers up some enjoyment and
some interesting gameplay ideas, but the overall story and lack of gameplay
options or variation just make it drone (no pun intended) on without too much to
look forward to. Again, get it for younger gamers but walk on by for your older
ones.
