Reviewed: August 8, 2008
Reviewed by: David Hillyer
Publisher
THQ
Developer
Savage Entertainment
Released: June 24, 2008
Genre: 3D Platformer
Players: 1-4
6
6
3
4.8
Supported Features:
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
I love Pixar movies. Everyone loves Pixar movies. I’d love to work at Pixar. Everyone would love to work at Pixar. I can’t say that I’ve loved the videogames that came from Pixar movies, or any other movies. I can count on one hand the number of movies that have a decent videogame.
Wall-E is the story of a little robot on Earth. The robots name is Wall-E. He was built by a company called BnL (By and Large) and left here to clean up the planet while we humans relax on a long space cruise. The movie is cute and funny – it’s amazing how much they could communicate by pantomime. The adventure of this little robot makes for a great children’s movie and there’s plenty for adults to enjoy as well. It will certainly be welcome in most anyone’s home when it hits DVD in November. Some movies are so good that people want to interact with the characters and really be immersed in the movie settings. Thus we now have Wall-E the videogame.
Like I said, there are few movie based videogames that are worthwhile. I should have known what I was in for when the title screen came up on my PSP. It wasn’t level. That is to say, some intern at THQ needed to rotate the bitmap graphic a little more clockwise so it would be level. Wall-E started off poorly and it didn’t get much better.
Wall-E the videogame basically follows the movie script scene by scene. There are subtle differences to accommodate gameplay, but basically you roll through 27 levels, driving around and shooting things with occasional stops at control panels to solve simple puzzles. That’s about it. Seriously.
The game quickly dissolves into a repetitive marathon lacking any of the creativity normally found in the Pixar studios. There are numerous problems with Wall-E on the PSP. The controls are as frustrating as possible. Frequently you will accidently drive Wall-E right off a cliff. That would be a merciful end to your day of gaming. But if you are like me, you are task oriented and you like complete things… to cross them off your todo list. Masochists. All of us.
Additionally, as frequently is the problem with these types of games, the 3rd person view camera angle just makes it easier to make Wall-E fall off a cliff. The camera floats around and at the most inconvenient time it will move so what was original your straight up movement is now off to the right… and then off a cliff.
As with most movie based games, there are a wealth of cutscenes to set up the chapters of the game. The cutscenes in Wall-E almost take as long as completing some of the levels. The graphics in the cutscenes are usually better than what you’ll find during the gameplay.
Wall-E includes several minigames taken from chapters in the main game. Some of the games are for ad-hoc multi-player (where another player in the room must also have Wall-E on their PSP). The championship minigames allow you to play up to 4 players taking turns on the same PSP.
Also included are two bonus videos – the Wall-E movie trailer, and Pixar “changing of the lightbulb” Wall-E preview. There is also an unlockable concept art gallery and easy access to all the cutscenes from the game.
The graphics for Wall-E are okay. But not much more than okay. There are plenty of jaggies and clipping issues. The 3rd person camera angle is flawed, but how many games actually get that right? Wall-E is not up to the graphic level of “God of War” or “Tekken”, but it’s not as bad as some other games.
Wall-E uses the same sounds as the movie. As in the movie, Wall-E doesn’t have much for dialog, mostly just chirps and occasional spoken names. However the videogame takes it down a notch by incorporating what probably has to be one of the most annoying songs in the history of animated movies.
BnL has kind of a retro theme song which plays frequently during the game and menu screens. At first it’s kind of helpful to enhance environment by knowing the mentality of the people in the story. But soon, in an effort to save as many of your brain cells as possible, your thumb will involuntarily press the volume down button repeatedly.
Wall-E goes through the movie chapter by chapter with simple puzzles and frustrating controls. The value in this game is it might keep your kids quiet in the back seat for a few hours. That is, until they get so frustrated by the control scheme. Then you will be cursing the name of Pixar. It’s really the game developers fault, but Wall-E will always be thought of as a Pixar movie so they’ll have to take the heat.
Is it really that difficult to make a decent game from a great movie?
Pixar is a name that when spoken, people know exactly what they are going to get. Pixar is the name of high quality movies, entertaining characters, and fun stories. I certainly would expect someone from Pixar actually played this game before approving it for consumers.
The Pixar name on the product makes people assume they are going to get a Pixar quality videogame. Too bad a game this boring and frustrating ever saw the light of day. If you absolutely must have a Wall-E game, look at the PS3 or Xbox 360 versions instead. The gameplay might be the same, but at least you can enjoy the graphics on those consoles.