Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Wallace and Gromit in Project Zoo

Written by Tony Kennetz on May 01, 2003

First Impressions: I love Wallace and Gromit. If Bam! screws this up, I'm gonna find that development team!

With all sorts of insane licenses and publishing deals, its really no surprise that Bam! has once again gone out to scoop up an entertainment license. The surprise is what that license happens to be: Wallace and Gromit. There's not much to make a game out of with this one, but they seem confident that they can provide a quality game by transforming the claymation TV series into a console platformer. Really, when you think about it, it does make a lot more sense.

The series was never a huge smash hit in America either, adding just oddity to the already large list of things that could end up as this game's downfalls. Name recognition will not play a large part of the sales, and may actually hurt them as most fans won't believe a game based on the show could be done right. One look at the story and everyone will realize that the game is on the right track.

Feathers (an evil penguin, as ironic as that sounds) has an undying craving for mass amounts of diamonds. That's right, and he has kidnapped all the little animals from the zoo to force the adults to manufacture the precious stones using his newest invention. Needless to say, when Wallace and his pet dog Gromit hear of all this, it certainly doesn't sit well with them. So they set off to work on their grand scheme to end Feather's evil lab and set everyone free. The end result is a Trojan Penguin stocked with both our friends inside. This is where the game begins. Sounds crazy right? Yeah, crazy like a dog who can think up a Trojan Penguin.

While it will probably end up being little more than another standard platformer, there is nothing wrong with that if you add a little to the formula and make it worth everyone's time. BAM is looking to tap those little finishing touches here, not only with the license itself but some new ideas as well.

Playing through the game as Gromit - the dog who, apparently, has opposable thumbs gamers will be immersed in the world of Wallace and Gromit. Be it cracker and cheese or Wallace whipping out ten new and wacky inventions a second, this is going to be a wacky ride. If its going to do the show justice and pull in the fans, its going to have to be.

Taking some pages out of the Ratchet and Clank, there will be some slick new, not to mention non-deadly, weapons. Among those mentioned by BAM's press page include a Porridge Gun, Banana Launcher and a knitting machine. Many of the weapons just sound like basic guns but our guess is that the different ammo will lend different results against each varying enemy. If they don't, it would be such a waste its hard to believe that could possibly be the case.

Another little piece of thievery comes straight from Dark Cloud 2. You'll be able to whip up many inventions from Wallace's mind, including springboots and a toboggan. Hopefully these will play key roles in the game rather than neat will extras that just show up as the game goes along to make things a bit easier, they'd be truly pointless and take away the value of having them.

Humor is going to be a very important piece of this puzzle. The original show had some hilarious parodies and original jokes going for it, things such as these will need to be present here as well. The developers have taken note of this and promise to add many funny moments. If you ask me, the one thing I would like to see is Gromit dodging bullets in bullet-time. Maybe then people would begin to realize that the feature is so overused its actually better to come up with original ideas. Silly things like this will determine the game's success.

The trademark of Wallace and Gromit, out of everything its known for, is the amazing claymation. It easily rivals and defeats that found in MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch (which is also coming to a console near you). Unfortunately, Frontier has elected to just model the characters in a similar fashion, but the game itself doesn't look all that much like the show. Its odd because the next generation systems could easily handle craymation-esque graphics, but they were still ditched in the process. Even so, the visuals are looking above average, although its still easy to tell that the game isn't anywhere near the end of the development cycle.