Shrek achieved great success at the box office ($122 million at last count), but he has yet to score positive points on the Nintendo Wii. The green ogre's debut adventure for the system, Shrek the Third, never fulfills the fun quotient, thanks to several issues.
For starters, the game's concept never moves past the "basic platformer" route. Shrek and a number of his friends (Puss in Boots, Donkey, Fiona) move from point A to point B through each stage, collecting coins and special items while beating up countless bad guys. Only the occasional boss fight and hidden surprise provide anything new. Amaze Entertainment did try to make use of the Wii-sensitive motion controls as the player activates smaller attacks by shaking the Wii remote, while charging up more powerful attacks by throttling the Nunchuk back and forth. However, this grows boring fast.
Presentation-wise, the Wii version scores points over the other console releases. The character models and textures appear much smoother than in the choppy Xbox 360 edition, although the camera still can't be adjusted. Players end up stuck with the same tiring angles with no option to change it. The voicework sounds uninspired, with actors trying to fill in for the familiar movie cast and feeble attempts at humor. The only real laugh out loud moment comes unintentionally, when a pirate yells out, "You mean they found the switch?" Well, duh, there were a stack of coins in the shape of an arrow pointing right at it, Captain Obvious.
Amaze Entertainment threw in six minigames, including a Frogger-esque leaping game, a decent castle-destroying multiplayer romp and a couple of shooting stages involving tin targets and battleships. Two players can join for versus action in most of them. Too bad the developers didn't add a co-op option to the main quest. It ends after a few hours, leaving gamers to buy items in a gift shop to try and spruce things up the next time around.
With more imagination and time, Shrek the Third could've been a far better experience on the Wii. Players probably would've had a gas (ahem) making the ogre belch with Wii remote functions or trying to shut Donkey up with hand gestures. However, such ideas have gone out the window, replaced with by-the-numbers conventional game design. Maybe Shrek's fourth adventure (if one comes about) will do the ogre justice.
Final Score: 5 (out of 10)
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