Reviewed: August 15, 2008
Reviewed by: Jeff Gedgaud

Publisher
THQ

Developer
Heavy Iron Studios

Released: June 24, 2008
Genre: 3D Platformer
Players: 1-4

7
7
6
5
6.3

Supported Features:

Actually, humans leave so the robots left behind can clean up their mess but due to the extent of the pollution it is deemed too toxic to return. Humans spend their time in a space ship and eventually an EVE robot, Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator, is sent to Earth to search for plant life on the planet.

WALL-E meets EVE and falls in love but she doesn’t know about these emotions and feelings so shuts down to wait for pickup by the ship. WALL-E chases after her but the movie and the game are very different in that the movie tells its story while the game spends more time just going from point A to point B.

There are some specific levels that you find yourself in through the entire single player campaign that give you a good variety but not enough challenge. The first sections are on a devastated Earth and you march WALL-E through obstacle courses to get from point A to point B.

You can hurl trash you crush into cubes as well as bounce around in your own cube shape but you can only come up with so many puzzles using this somewhat limited scheme. Once EVE arrives on scene you join both robots into a team and must get both from point A to point B using a flying where EVE picks up WALL-E and flies for short distances.

Once you chase after EVE when she is taken away you have the space ship sections with WALL-E and EVE going through cleaner environments using more platforming puzzles. There are also some spots where you get an arcade type shooting as WALL-E uses EVE’s arm laser or as EVE and you shoot the robots attacking you under control of the evil AUTO.

It may seem like I have given a pretty simplistic description to the game of WALL-E but it was on purpose, this game is not very involved or has much depth to the gameplay. You spend a little too much time getting to the ends of levels and not much else whether it’s on a nice dirty planet or a clean space ship. The puzzles are pretty simple and don’t change much; once you get the idea of how to solve one type you get a good idea of how to finish the rest of them.

WALL-E on the PS3 does a much better job of the story behind the movie and game but it is all a cute and kind of useless tale when presented with the levels and how you just move from one end to the other. There should have been some reason behind going through all these hoops that would have made sense in the game to move through all these levels and not just to get to the end of the level.

Another nice thing would have been to give several alternate courses to follow and still get to the end, it is just too single minded in scope to have only one way to move to the ends of a level. Other than the fact that there is only a single way to get through a level and the single way to solve the puzzles that are either simple or just too common the gameplay is fine.

I had little to no problems with the camera and controls and the camera has plenty of nice features like a centering by pushing one button or actually being able to move it easily. The controls worked well and moving WALL-E and EVE through the levels was pretty simple.

The multiplayer section is a simple disappointment and one that could have been worked on more but again this is a movie based game. They probably had a deadline so the multiplayer is a few various games with two, three or four of the robots in different game types.

I think the graphics using the contrasting environments worked very well and gives you a definite feeling of being in a new place from one section and level to the next. They did a great job with things in the levels that are almost unnoticeable but ones that make the scene feel alive.

WALL-E has these simple moves, noises and almost habits he does when he is not being controlled like looking around or spinning in place. There are piles of stuff that are obviously immovable but others have junk, boxes and cans that you can move around or shoot.

The junk and mechanical parts all have good looking textures and move around like they should giving the scenes a realistic appearnce. The scenes on the planet have environmental effects like wind and dirt that make the scenes come alive along with the other things I have described.

In contrast the space ship scenes have little robots going around busily performing their tasks even while you’re busting tin butt trying to get through the level. Robots scrubbing and polishing or delivering cans of Buy N Large products abound and you will find some useful as they are actually a part of some puzzles.

Sometimes it can be a bit confusing to have so much going on in some spaces when you realize much of what you’re seeing is meant to be a distraction. But some is useful and goes along with the puzzles and platforming so you have to carefully see what you need to and ignore the rest.

Having not seen the movie yet, I’ll wait for it on DVD, this gives me my first look at the movie and what it’s all about. The sounds in the game give a real glimpse at the strategy and hard work the creators put into a movie that has little speaking parts for much of the story and one that needs to contain emotions and feelings to make sense.

The PlayStation 3 version has a great range of background sounds, music and the main sound effects as well as sounds from the characters. They did a good job with all the audio and there were no problems but they also did not do an outstanding job either.

The sound was really good but not great or fantastic and the game was surely helped by having good audio. Sometimes having the right sounds or effects makes things come out right and in a game where the main characters do not even talk it makes all the difference.

The multiplayer has four game types that you play either two, three or four players depending on the game. One game with two players has an EVE robot flying through rings near a space ship, the most rings flown through in the time limit wins.

Another game has up to four WALL-E’s battling it out against each other with laser guns while the other game with WALL-E has you fighting over a cube to hold on to the longest. The co-op play is another game type but simply has you trying to stop clock devices while your opponents do the same.

While the multiplayer gaming may not be fully fleshed out it is fun and makes for a bit of a distraction, but these are more for younger players, not adults or teens. The entire game is a pretty good cross section for players who want a quick pick up platformer that they can lose themselves in with its cute robots and simple design and for younger kids to go WALL-E crazy.

The co-op game and the other three are pretty fun and easy enough for younger players to have fun playing against others with the cute WALL-E or EVE. The main game may be a bit hard for these same ages so they have not locked the mini games so you can go right to them on the main menu. One very nice element to WALL-E is the little robot never dies; he just gets deactivated and waits for repair or reactivation, family friendly at its best.

WALL-E on the PS3 has some really good graphics and a very decent audio but the puzzles and gameplay leave a bit to be desired. The puzzles and platforming work pretty good but does not have much depth to it for adults but together with the mini games it may give you enough value to purchase at least until the DVD release of WALL-E.