Shrek 2

Shrek 2 is the story of well...Shrek. The character, not the original motion picture. That is to say, Shrek 2 is about Shrek 2. Meaning, the same featured film that the game is an adaptation of. Dur! Off on another whirlwind adventure, Shrek and Fiona (or Fiona anyway) decide it's time to meet her parents once the honeymoon has ended. From the swamp and to the woods, past grandmother's house they go, Shrek and Fiona (with Donkey) arrive in the Far, Far Away kingdom, with unexpectedly expected results (naturally). Fiona's parents, the king and queen, having locked her away in the dungeon believe she has met her Prince Charming and is now human. Meeting Shrek and Fiona in ogre form instead leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering. Without giving away too much of the plot, just know that Shrek 2 doesn't divulge the movie's entirety page for page -- just the bits and pieces.

It is logical that as a Gauntlet-styled action title, Shrek 2 does fit the bill. After all, the film franchise is based off of several fairy tales, legends, and lore of yore: many of which are favorites for all ages. With that in mind, up to four players can join in throughout the story mode, embracing foes as some of the movie's little or larger characters. But it's where the game's production values lie that ultimately sink Shrek 2 to its impotent grave. As with most movie-made games, Shrek 2 isn't so different from similar titles that generalize the game for a target audience that may be fine enough for diehard fans of the same film, but not so much for everyone else.

With a game like Shrek 2, you can bet that Activision's goal is to satiate a kid-controlled crowd more than anyone else. Otherwise, why would the core gameplay mechanics be far from difficult? That's not saying that Shrek 2 is a walk in the park. There is quite a bit of challenge to be found, even if the hardest of these feats pass after two or three attempts tops. But Shrek 2's mixture of simple puzzles and combat are far in standing from a superiority of intellectual and extravagant properties. For those who are unfamiliar with Gauntlet gameplay, like that type of game, the main goal in most of Shrek 2's levels primarily consists of moving four individual playable characters (when not controlled by your friends, then by the computer) from the starting line to the finish. Along the way, passages riddled with enemies and enigmas alike will try to hold you off from completing this set task. Separate mini-diversions that make up these, the bulk of the gameplay and its entertainment values, are embedded within.

Brainteasers in the game revolve around the game's character traits, though. And that's what makes doing things mildly interesting. In totality, there are about eight movie characters used in the game, and only nine if you count the change up on Shrek and Donkey in a later half. Every playable character in Shrek 2, from the major roles (Shrek, Donkey, Puss In Boots) to the minor ones (Gingerbread Man, Little Red Riding Hood, Big Bad Wolf) is endowed with a unique ability that empowers special feats during the picking apart of puzzles or kicking enemy bootay. Shrek for example is able to carry heavy objects, like gears or crates, and apply them to designated spots that will further enable the tools to unlock doors to future areas in a level. Donkey has a burro blast kick that can knock out iconic doors. Big Bad Wolf blows...stuff, like gigantic orbs uphill, and he can extinguish fires too. Little Red Riding Hood and Gingerbread Man both can toss projectile objects at far away targets that trigger gates to fold, and Puss In Boots can streak across ropes leading to levers. When entering a new level, it's being able to switch among any four predetermined individuals on the fly that you'll be able to determine what puzzle elements needs what character to unravel its mysteries.

Certain characteristics can be integrated into battle too -- but for the most part, they're puzzle oriented only. Which is why there are times during combat situations that you may require each skill. Sometimes enemies (which range from human peasants, armored knights, pumpkins, snails, rats, spinning barrels, and even lizard monsters holding Neptune pitchforks) can be seated at an unreachable distance -- so your food tossing characters will come in handy there. But there are also specific types of tasks in the game that combine all kinds of measures, such as when you have to lead and protect the Three Blind Mice throughout the course of a level. Disabling giant mouse traps, fending off foes, and using Donkey's burro blast to make bridges out of trees is a combination of things that stirs and shakes the game's focus up a bit. During the innermost parts of level exploration, nabbing coins and power-ups give players a little extra something to do in the game. Coins can be spent on statistics or to access the next part of a level from a wee Leprechaun at times, while the power-ups can shrink enemies for a limited time amongst other things. Ultimately though, these collect-a-thons don't do a hell of a lot else.

To put a cap on most of the stages, there's a challenge that awaits afterward called Hero Time. Focused on one of the game's characters each time, a goal must be met by applying every so-called hero's attributes to the test at hand. In one entry, Puss In Boots must climb a mountain via ropes and defeating enemies along the way. In another, the Gingerbread Man has to avoid being crushed by giant tomatoes while platforming across flowery gaps. And in another, Donkey chases Fiona's carriage and avoiding obstacles on top of his lovey dovey dragon pal. These parts of the game are a bit tougher in essence, but again can be beaten quickly. It's not just that Shrek 2 isn't such a hard game to master that makes the game a downer however, but more so that the game has a lack of control over a screwy camera angle. Zooming out on its own, one of the game's significant difficulties is wrestling with a camera that can't pan correctly. This camera doesn't even allow you to always move in closer, when it'd rather tread as far from the action as it can. Moreover the camera locks up at strange angles, making playing Shrek 2 an unwanted chore amidst its otherwise uncomplicated controls.

Everyone knows the Shrek series for being one of the most digitally rich computer-generated theatrical releases ever produced. Shrek 2 the game, on the other hand, is in a whole other league. Wherein lies Shrek 2 is a fairy tale world, filled with different stages that stick to a general theme. Made up of woodland, agricultural, and castle-like surroundings, the sights in the game masquerade around in a familiar form that while slightly variable, don't push their limits enough. Each plateau in the game is fairly representative of what you might find in the Shrek universe (and it's neat that you can interact with things like bending grass, or destroy all sorts of objects), but the game will cage you into a mediocre state without leaving off with a more refined course of attractions. Imaginative yet dull on some fronts, the game boils a stew of simpler textures and colors that seems to blot out a much sleeker sense of style.

The same can be said about Shrek 2's character models. They do look like their movie counterparts, but again details are constricted. Fortunately though, animations in the game help to characterize the ones of the shoes you'll be filling clearly enough. Every character embellishes their own kind of movement, whether acted through a jumping attack or the mere motion of pulling on a lever mechanism. Where Shrek's character will adjust a lever humanistically, Puss In Boots will literally bind his body to it and click the switch all sexy-like. Leaping into the air and pressing down on square institutes a jump attack, which develops some interesting differences too. In Little Red Riding Hood's case, she'll spin like a twirling umbrella, or with Shrek, it's a wrestler's body slamma jamma. To the point of tolerability, Shrek 2 does manage to do a couple things right, and with its sordid visual palette too.

Qualities over quantity, or quantity over quality, or quality of quantity are services we'd all like met in different aspects of a game. Shrek 2's sound design isn't capable of touching on either side much. A bit up-tempo, the musical score in Shrek 2 for one thing follows through with a place holder rhythm that considerably is there to be there when it is there. And that's saying that it's not there at all times. When it does settle in, the music steadies and heats up a beat during fight scenes. The music is also easy to not be bothered by, as it isn't so much annoying but rather tasteless enough to be ignored. There's a selection of audio bytes in the mix, which don't provide a whole lot to the game either. Mostly heard when charging through objects, or beating up baddies, or just running through the stage, the audio effects are useful for their respected mannerisms, however the ratio of authenticity isn't really high.

A game based on Shrek 2 the movie wouldn't be the same without the voice of its story characters. And this it sort of does have. Although each and every spoken bit of dialogue do appear as almost perfect sets of matches to the original crew, Shrek 2's cast of voice actors are not actually performed by Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, or the like. Instead, secondhand picks were brought on board and probably paid less than what the Hollywood originals would have demanded. But then, the job wouldn't have needed them much anyway, as story isn't as relevant to the game as it would be to the movie. Here, the game slaps together shortened cut scenes from time to time, while the remaining portion in gameplay sprinkles flat quippy one-liners evidently targeted toward the less mature audience this game is intended for.