Reviewed: May 2, 2007
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
Activision
Developer
Vicarious Visions
Released: May 2, 2007
Genre: Action
Players: 1
ESRB: Everyone
7
8
6
6
7.4
Supported Features
There is no denying that DreamWorks is the house that Shrek built, and when you have a phenomenally successful franchise like the “Green Ogre” you are going to milk it for all its worth. Thus, in a few weeks, kids and adults will be treated to the third installment in the film series, but if you just can’t wait, why not explore the world of Shrek the Third on your Nintendo handheld system today. It probably won’t spoil too much of the movie for you and you’ll look really cool playing this game while your waiting in line for your movie tickets.
Shrek the Third loosely follows the movie plot, at least as far as painting the backdrop for the adventures of Shrek, Donkey, Puss-in Boots, and Artie (the new guy). When the king reveals that he has a cousin (Arthur, or “Artie”) Shrek and his buddies head out to search for the rightful heir to the throne of Far Far Away. Apparently Ogres, even if they are the daughter and husband of the king, are not allowed to rule the kingdom.
Shrek finds Artie but the two get into a fight on their way home and Artie wrecks the ship depositing our heroes on the beach. This is where we join our intrepid band of adventurers. Donkey, Puss, and Shrek are together and Artie has gone missing. Explore the land, collect fairies and other fun items; defeat all sorts of evil (but fun) enemies, and meet up with all of your favorite characters from Shrek and even a few surprises guests from another DreamWorks movie – I won’t ruin the surprise.
Shrek the Third is a traditional action-adventure game that borrows heavily on the “buddy system” gameplay mechanic that got its start back in 1993 with The Lost Vikings. While not as tightly integrated as the NDS version, you will get to play as any of the main characters, cycling between any two with the left and right shoulder buttons. Other times you will only be in control of a single character until you reach a specific checkpoint.
Unlike the NDS version where everyone’s abilities complemented each other, the GBA basically has you moving three characters through the same level. Shrek can jump and punch and butt-slam through sections of floor and ground. Puss can jump and swipe with his sword and Donkey jumps and has a spin kick useful for attacking and breaking apart rock walls. So everyone has pretty much the same abilities.
Enemies are fairly mindless from parrots that move up and down in a linear fashion to mindless gnome zombies and dark knights that can be punched, kicked, or finished off with a slash of the sword. Combat doesn’t take too much skill, just good positioning and a few carefully timed presses of the button.
Puzzles are also extremely simple to figure out and the game even uses diagrams and button icons to literally tell you what to do. I suppose this is great for young kids but it really eliminates any hope of making this game fun for older kids and adults. The DS version did a much better job of bridging the generation gap.
So gameplay basically consists of you moving your characters through side-scrolling levels, attacking the occasional enemy, jumping across ledges, and collecting hearts (health) and fairies or possibly some other collectible unique to that level. Unlike the DS, you cannot link your characters, which means you get to essentially play a lot of levels two or more times, and since character abilities aren’t that different, neither are their paths through the level. There are only a few instances where one character cannot proceed until another character helps them out.
I was very impressed with the graphics for Shrek the Third. I don’t play a whole lot of GBA games – in fact Herbie: Fully Loaded was the last one I played and that was in 2005. Imagine my surprise to see some really good, even outstanding, visuals when I stuck Shrek into the GBA slot on my DS.
The first thing that hit me was that this game, in many ways, looked better than the DS version. Perhaps it was the art style that made great use of vibrant colors and detailed backgrounds. The furthest backdrop in the parallax scrolling design often looks like a digitized photo, and the multi-layer backgrounds give the game some added depth.
The characters are much larger (2-3x) than their DS counterparts so you can easily appreciate their detailed design and clever animations. When you interact with somebody you get a nice 2D portrait that accompanies the text dialogue.
The presentation is very much like a storybook. The opening side-scrolling credits are almost Monty Python-esque then you get a scroll that opens and closes to change the pages of the story until you actually get into the game. Additional prompts and hints are blended right into the backgrounds through ghostly images of character images and button icons. A parchment-style map shows your progress in the game.
The soundtrack for Shrek the Third is light and jazzy and yes, a bit repetitive, but it never got annoying. It just blends into the background and fills in the silence. There is no spoken dialogue, so you are left to use your imagination when putting a voice to the text windows that pop-up when you interact with various characters in the game.
Sound effects are fun and cheery with simple sounds for combat as well as numerous environmental noises to bring the colorful graphics to life.
Shrek the Third is a substantial game for kids and even older gamers. There are many levels to explore, plenty of environmental puzzles and a whole lot of Fairies you’ll need to find. The game auto-checkpoints itself periodically, and with so many jumping puzzles it’s easy to lose a character and get taken back to one of those points. Expect a solid 5-8 hours to finish this title depending on the age and skill of the person playing.
Shrek also offers three save slots so multiple family members or friends can take part in their own adventure without encroaching on another player’s progress.
I haven’t seen the movie yet, so I cannot say how close Shrek the Third comes to matching the plot or flavor of the film, but even taken as a standalone game and not a movie tie-in, this latest Shrek adventure is a charming title that is fun, challenging, and perfect for the younger kids. With plenty of traditional side-scrolling platform gameplay that mixes simple combat and jumping puzzles, it’s hard not to have a good time playing Shrek the Third.
