|
Activision’s movie-based games onslaught begins. Like the movie the game is based on, Shrek the Third continues telling the story of Shrek in Far Far Away Land. Shrek has been tasked with finding Fiona’s cousin as he is the apparent heir to the throne.
Shrek the Third, on GBA, includes 24 levels divided into four sets. Along the way, you’ll largely be moving right while attacking enemies and collecting fairies necessary to continue progressing through the game. You can purchase spells and player upgrades by collecting hidden items found in the levels. While the upgrades aren’t completely necessary, they do give you something else to do. The game has very light puzzles which utilize the characters’ special abilities like Puss’ wall jumping and Shrek’s butt slamming. You’ll also encounter a good number of bosses in the game.
Since the GBA lacks the touch screen of the Nintendo DS, Shrek the Third relies entirely on the D pad and action buttons for gameplay. The combat has been simplified: instead of using the touch screen, the various attacks are mapped to the B button with the A button controlling jumping. It works out well but lacks the interactivity of the DS version.
Shrek the Third is a visually appealing 2D, sprite-based sidescroller on the Gameboy Advance. The character models are faithful to their movie counterparts, and the sprite-based animation holds its own quite well. Vicarious Visions definitely focused the graphics on the characters, though, since the backgrounds don’t share a similar level of detail. The sprites and backgrounds are often generic looking and clash with the stylized character models. Thankfully, everything is colorful and vibrant. Nonetheless, they’re quite good for a GBA game.
For a GBA game, the audio in the game is also well done. The music is cheerful, ripped from the movie, and fits the game very well but it loops just a bit too much for my taste. The game has a few voice samples, which sound okay, but nothing mind blowing. The sound effects are solid, though, and help elevate the audio component.
When you evaluate Shrek the Third on its merits and put aside the complaints (namely in presentation and ease of gameplay) that can be attributed to the aging hardware, you end up with a solid game. While the Nintendo DS version is undoubtedly superior, Shrek the Third is still a solid and enjoyable (albeit youth-oriented) GBA sidescroller. -- Adam Nunez, PGNx Media
---- May 2, 2007
|
