Shrek the Third is a good kiddie platformer (PS2, PC)

By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter INQUIRER.net EVEN if the movie isn't as fun as it should be, the game plays out well (excuse the pun). Shrek the Third the video game is loosely based on the movie of the same name and casts almost the same retinue of the film's characters from Shrek, Fiona, Puss in Boots and Donkey. However, anyone who has watched the film and intends to play the game version will be surprised that Sleeping Beauty and Artie are added as playable characters. As in the film, Shrek's mission is to find the young would-be king Arthur (a.k.a. Artie) to install him as the king of Far Far Away. The adventure extends to some of the characters trying to stop Prince Charming and his army of fairy tale villains from taking over the kingdom. Be aware, though, that this game is targeted at children, thus the gameplay has been toned down to the level applicable to younger players. Shrek the Third is in full 3D and is similar to most action-adventure games. Players can control Shrek, Fiona, Puss in Boots and Donkey in a series of levels with different requirements, but the main goal is to just get through the levels without dying, which is in itself a fairly easy thing to do since the enemies aren't exactly that difficult to beat. Each of the playable characters has different attacks with goofy movements but nearly all copied from the movie. For instance, Shrek has his normal punches but he has a combo uppercut punch that connects with one of his throws, the end of which has Shrek catching an enemy and throwing him against other enemies. Despite his size, Puss in Boots does have a fairly good number of attacks especially with his sword. Donkey doesn’t have really good combos but he does deliver a powerful kick that can beat an enemy after one or two good hits. There is also a special attack for each of the characters and the energy collected from beating enemies accumulates as fairy powder; Shrek and Fiona have an Ogre Power special attack that slows down time allowing the player to beat his enemies when overwhelmed. Similarly, Puss in Boots can stop his enemies when he uses his "Cute Puss" special, when Puss in Boots shows his wide eyes. The game itself has a lot of basic platforming and is almost reminiscent of the 3D Mario Bros. 64 for the Nintendo 64. In fact, Shrek the Third copied a few missions from Mario Bros 64 but it’s very linear and children wouldn’t get lost in the levels. All they need to learn is to use their combos properly and double jump when going form one platform to another. The graphics for the PS2 version isn’t all that great but neither does the PC version. The frame rate is really slow and it’s often difficult to direct the characters towards a specific target. As such, players will be forced to keep on button mashing in the hopes of hitting something. This isn’t appealing to older players but kids from 3 years old to 8 might enjoy not having to coordinate their eyes and hands when fighting hordes of enemies. The dialogue is also surprisingly sloppy. Only John Cleese, who voiced the frog king in the movie, lent his voice to the game. The rest are ordinary voice actors. On the other hand, even if the movie voices were used in the game I doubt if the dialogue would improve. Shrek and Fiona’s dialogues were bland while Donkey, who should have been the saving grace as far as verbal comedy is concerned, isn’t funny at all. Nonetheless, younger players wouldn’t worry about that anyway, as long as they are still able to control their favorite fairy tale characters. For all attempts to be funny, I would say that the Shrek the Third video game is good as it is but could have been made better.