Reviewed:August 14, 2008
Reviewed by: Jeff Gedgaud
Publisher
THQ
Developer
Heavy Iron Studios
Released: June 24, 2008
Genre: 3D Platformer
Players: 1-2
4
5
6
4
4.8
Supported Features:
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
We all love cute movies about cute animals or even robots that do cute things but cute does not make for a great video game and WALL-E for the Wii is no exception. Games based on movies, especially animated or CGI movies, are usually not that good due to time constraints and other problems.
WALL-E for the Wii is no exception to the general rule of a game rushed out the door due to movie release dates and low budgets. They want a game to follow along with the movie’s plot and to help them earn money so they push it out the door, usually unfinished or poorly completed.
WALL-E is the story of a robot that falls in love with the first new robot he sees in several hundred years enter EVE. EVE is an Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator sent to earth to find some life forms but finds WALL-E doing his job. WALL-E, Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class, finds out what it means to be in love when he takes off after EVE when she leaves the planet to complete her mission.
WALL-E can be so frustrating that it takes much of the fun out of the game from the start, the punishment system is terrible. If you fall off a ledge you start the level over, if you get hit by a laser or come to some other early demise you start the level over.
If you can’t quite see that edge or laser firing you just need to keep trying until you get it right, and try again and again. Most of the game will be a trial and error sort of deal with little actual puzzle solving involved. There are some puzzles but mostly it’s just finding out how to do things for the next step in your progress toward the end of the level.
WALL-E moves well and rolls back and forth on his tracks as well as jumps and transforms into a cube with controls that work just fine. He can also throw objects he collects like trash, metal and explosives to get through some puzzles. The puzzles are pretty simple, more on the side of if you can see it you can figure out what you need to do to move on.
The main problem in all the first levels is the fact that you usually can’t move the camera enough to see what you’re doing. You move and the camera automatically positions itself and this is not looking directly in front of you depending on terrain.
WALL-E is not all that fun but EVE is, she can fly and drop stuff but mainly your goal as EVE is to again get from point A to point B. Playing either character does not differ much but EVE is definitely easier as you can see better and usually just move out of the way of obstacles.
Most of the single player action is a race to the end of a very linear but junk filled set of levels with plenty of obstacles in your way. Where the movie plot comes in is anyone’s guess other than reading the manual, WALL-E lacks a lot of gameplay even for a platformer.
As you would expect from a Wii game the graphics are less than the other console systems but even for that they are not that good. Effects like the mechanical parts or lasers are fine but nothing to brag about but the entire game has a pretty sameness to it that gets rather boring quickly.
The textures and effects are all pretty standard for a game on the Wii system and nothing really stands out from anything else. The game has a general junk filled planet for the first sections and whether you’re rolling around as WALL-E or flying as EVE the stuff gets pretty monotonous and plain after the first level.
WALL-E has some pretty basic sound effects while in game and some rather lackluster ones in the cut scenes and menus. But they did capture some decent robotic sounds and the cute WALL-E expressions are fine, just nothing over the top.
But there was not much of a variety and you will quickly get tired of the sounds and effects used in the game just like the graphics. WALL-E’s cute expressions are caught quite well but that about does it for the audio. What was there worked fine but it got pretty repetitive for the audio and sound.
This is another game that would be better off renting and not purchasing, WALL-E will not be one to play over and over again. The levels are very linear and repetitive in textures, graphics, audio and puzzles that getting through them is tough.
Once you have unlocked some of the extras that don’t amount to much you’re pretty much done. Multiplayer is just two, three or four robots running around shooting lasers at each other in small levels that make for some fun gaming for a few minutes but after about ten your done as well.
WALL-E could have been so much more but again they dropped the ball with this Game from a CGI movie, rent and don’t buy. WALL-E is a very repetitive platform game that does not make for a good one on the Wii system with its inherent lack of camera control and just repetitive puzzles.