Whoever came up with the idea of making an ogre the good guy when they created the original "Shrek" movie probably hoped — but didn't know — the story would be a huge hit. A few years later, my family and I were sitting laughing at the third movie in the series as Shrek figures out that he's going to be a daddy. As is often the case with movies my family enjoys, after seeing the movie, we really wanted a copy of the video game. This time, figuring out on which platform to get the game was a bigger issue than whether we wanted it or not. While I haven't tried the game on anything but the Wii, Shrek the Third for the Wii has quickly become one of the most frequently played games in the house.
The game doesn't follow the exact story line as the movie did, but it is close. Shrek has to travel far from Far Far Away to find someone else to be king when Fionna's father croaks (bad frog pun intended). Fionna tells him that the only person she can think of is her cousin Arthur, who happens to be as inept at all things kingly. This doesn't stop Shrek from traveling to Arthur's high school to drag him back to Far Far Away anyway. Along the way, to give you, the player, something to do, Shrek has to fight his way onto the pirate ship before he can leave and then fight his way through the school to get to Arthur and then fight his way back out of the school to get Arthur's sword and then fight his way ... well, you get the idea.
The game is divided into short chapters, in which you have one goal you have to complete and five mini-goals to complete for extra coin. The game is a very typical adventure game in that you're collecting coins, fighting the bad guys and following a path created by the developers to get through each chapter. Where the fun comes in is the use of the Wii-mote and Nunchuk. I sighed with relief after playing the tutorial level on the game, because I couldn't help but think "they got it right" when it comes to how the controls are used.
The joystick on the Nunchuk is used to move Shrek around the level, and the Wii-mote is used to fight. The buttons on both are used to interact with the game world, as well as for power-ups when you have collected enough of the blue magic "glowies." (Blue magic "glowies" isn't the technical term, but we weren't told what the right term for them is, so we made it up. They appear whenever you defeat a bad guy, as well as when you bust crates). Shrek has some really fun special moves that he can perform if you have enough power. As you're swinging at one of the baddies, you'll often see an indicator to press the "C" button. Doing so pauses the fight for a few seconds while the animation takes over. Sometimes Shrek picks up the guy and head-butts him; sometimes he just tosses him out of the way. Regardless of what he does, if you time it right, one of Shrek's special moves means that he's won against that particular guy. And one of the mini-goals in each chapter is always to do a special move five times.
You don't play the whole game as Shrek, though. There was a level in which we played a mix of Shrek and Puss in Boots. Shrek would make his way through the areas of the ship that required brute force, and Puss would take over where finesse was involved. It made us laugh every time Puss would pull off a special move, but I won't say why; you can see for yourself. And there were chapters where you played Donkey, as well, but those were a bit of a disappointment. They weren't disappointing because of the gameplay but because Donkey adds a level of humor to the movies by interacting with the other characters that just doesn't translate as well in the video game. Sure, the humor was there in the cut scenes leading up to the chapter, but those were only a few seconds each compared to the time it took you to complete a chapter. It wasn't disappointing enough to make us not enjoy the game, but it is worth mentioning, because if you're looking for the laugh moments that the movie brings from Donkey, well, they aren't there.
Graphics and sounds aren't something that really stand out for me in any game unless they are poorly done. In this game, that's definitely not the case. There weren't any of those moments when, because of the way a scene was drawn, you couldn't figure out what you were supposed to do or couldn't make a jump because it visually seemed you could make it, but coding-wise, the ledge wasn't where it appeared to be. The closest we came to having that sort of difficulty was when we were trying to find the soccer ball in order to toss it at the witch. The ball did keep rolling into a corner, and we'd have to do some flipping around of the camera to see where it went, but it wasn't impossible — just challenging.
As a mom and a gamer, one of the things I like most about the game is that it is broken into short chapters. The longest any chapter has taken us to do is about half an hour, and that's because we were being stupid about how to finish the boss battle at the end. The game is one that can be easily picked up and put down for short gaming sessions, and I like that about a game designed for kids. Even if they don't finish a whole chapter because there isn't enough time to do so during a given play session, my kids don't feel as though they've lost all progress because the chapters are so short. And there is replay value to the game, because you can go back to earlier levels and try to increase your score. It isn't always easy to tell when an end of a chapter is coming, so sometimes you think you have time to reach a certain goal because there's more coming, but there isn't.
As if all this weren't enough, there are also multiple mini-games you can play either on your own or against another player. Our favorite, by far, is the one that is officially the multiplayer game, the Castle Capture game. You use your catapult to launch missiles at the walls of your opponent's castle, either scoring the most points in a preset amount of time or being the first one to knock down your opponent's castle. There are five games under the mini-games menu. Each of these arcade-style games can be played against an opponent or by yourself. Catacombs Leap sounded very easy when we read the description, but it turned out to be the most challenging. You have to make your way across gates from one side of a castle room to the other. The problem is, the gates all move in some way or another, be it back and forth across the screen or rotating so that you're dropped off them. All you have is the A button to jump with and your control stick to move around — and a bit of luck from us, because you're going to need it.
Frog Herder is just what it sounds like — you have to chase frogs into nearby ponds before time runs out by using Puss in Boots' powerful roar. In Ships Ahoy, you have to protect a cove of treasure from invading pirate ships by shooting them before they make it to shore. A lot of fun, but again, not as easy as it sounds. This one does make great use of the Wii-mote, though, because you use it to aim the cannon at the ship before hitting fire. In Shooting Gallery, you are flinging tomatoes at moving targets. This game reminds us of the sort you'd play at the county fair while trying to win some giant, multicolored stuffed animal and is probably our favorite after Castle Capture. Shrekleboard is shuffleboard, and you play against Captain Hook in single-player mode, trying to beat his score to advance to the next round.
My children are now ages 6, 9 and 12 and all three of them have liked playing Shrek the Third on the Wii. It's been a great game to have during a hot, or rainy, summer afternoon, because they like watching one another play almost as much as they like playing themselves. And they're even willing to give ol' mom a turn, too. Because each game can be saved separately, we can compete a bit by seeing who has progressed further from day to day with the gameplay time we have. When the story line part of the game gets boring, they can just jump to the multiplayer mini-games for some friendly competition.
Shrek the Third the game isn't playing straight through the movie, but it doesn't have to be. The gameplay elements are fun enough to make up for the missing humor, and there is enough story line that you want to progress just to see how the places from the movie were translated to the game. So, if you're looking for something to do this weekend, go watch "Shrek the Third." Then go buy the game so that you, too, can experience again this loveable ogre and his crazy sidekicks.
I’ve played computer games since college, addicted first to story type games like Might and Magic. I have 3 children who also love computer games. My oldest son is a typical kid who loves the challenge of pressing the right combination of buttons and levers on a joystick in just the right way to make something happens, and frequently gets frustrated with mom’s slow fingers. ;) We use computers for both education and entertainment, and sometimes even bribery for good behavior.
The “glory days” of computer gaming for me were when games like Spectre Supreme, Pirate’s Gold, the Might and Magic series, the original Prince of Persia… those sorts of games were coming out on a regular basis. Back then I owned a Macintosh and was a die hard Mac fan. I was one of the first in my area to buy an iMac and on it learned the joy of playing games on the internet like daily crossword puzzle and “mind bender” type puzzles. My first online RPG was given to me for Christmas the year EQ was released, and I was hooked from day one. I played EQ for about a year. I started playing DaoC during late alpha testing, and was hooked on it.. well, to be honest I still am. I’ve tried pretty much every MMORPG I can get my hands on, from big names like EQ, to more obscure ones such as Underlight. I’ve been writing for IMGS since the first DaoC guide, and find I love the challenge of learning a game and presenting what I’ve learned (and sometimes my opinions), to other players.
I’m not a very strong player as far as learning PvE or quick reaction times, so I tend to stay away from games where I’m pitted against someone else in a way that requires physical (rather than mental) response. I still enjoy story and puzzle games, and in a way that’s how I still approach online games. I would much rather spend hours working through a quest than 5 minutes in combat against another player. I still get lost in simulation type games, obsessing over them until I’ve gotten them beaten. And I like being able to sit down at the computer when I’ve got less than half an hour and playing through a few levels of a puzzle game. I tend not to like first-person shooter type games, or anything with person to person violence, so I steer away from them unless they are fantasy based settings. All in all, I enjoy computer gaming so much that my life feels incomplete somehow when my computer is down.
