Shrek the Third is due in theatres soon, but as of this review isn’t released yet. So, it’s a little hard to say how exactly the game follows the movie. It appears to use the same characters plus some new ones, and the story seems to parallel the movie somewhat. As in the movie, the story in the game follows Shrek’s journey to find a replacement heir to the throne in order to ensure that Fiona doesn’t become Queen, thus making Shrek King. While he’s gone on this journey, Prince Charming sees his chance to capture the throne for himself and besieges the castle with a Fairy army. Fiona enlists the help of several famous princesses and defends the castle against this fairy horde.

The game begins with Shrek leaving the castle with Puss in Boots and Donkey to find Arthur. They plan on taking a ship, but have to overcome several obstacles along the way. This first level is a tutorial and each new action has the required button controls and any needed additional comments highlighted on the screen. In this Wii version, players will use the wireless control to fight and jump, and the nunchuk to move Shrek, power up his moves and open objects. The onscreen explanations are clear and easy to understand for the most part, but are sometimes less than informative. For instance, to open chests and push open doors, the game directs players to use the C button on the Nunchuk. Well, we did and nothing ever happened.  We finally discovered that we had to repeatedly hit the C button very fast, not just push it and hold it down. The directions didn’t say to do this.

This game is a platform game, but most of the action is comprised of bashing enemies in every screen. The fighting is simple and easy to accomplish for the most part, and players can usually just use the basic attack with the A button without worrying about using the more complicated combos and special attacks. Each character has a special attack, such as Sleeping Beauty’s sleep attack, Puss-N-Boots cute puss, Shrek’s ogre power and other like abilities. Shrek’s ogre attack is especially powerful. When he uses it, a ring shaped aura of havoc spreads out in concentric circles, stunning everyone in its path. Sleeping Beauty can put everyone to sleep. Puss-N-Boot’s cute puss stuns everyone around. However, these attacks, while cool, don’t have to be used for the most part.

Some of the levels do require some platform maneuvering and puzzle solving, mostly to do with getting to another location by figuring out what to jump on, or what to push around. However, most of the time gamers will spend the bulk of their time fighting enemies. There is some coin collecting, and a few other items in each level to be collected. Much of this differentiated collecting is correlated with quests. Each level has a number of quests for gamers to fulfill. These quests are listed in a task list for gamers to reference during the game. But, gamers can still finish the levels and move on even if all the tasks aren’t done. Points are awarded for each task, but this is just for score keeping. Being able to move on is good in the sense that players won’t be stuck forever in a level, but there is no warning that advancement is imminent, either. If players come to the end of the level, they have to move on and can’t get any more points. The harder levels appear to be only different in the lesser amount of damage the main character will take before expiring, not in the type of quests.

Moving the characters around is easy enough with the nunchuk, but sometimes they can get stuck. The camera isn’t very responsive, either, and the viewpoint is bad at times. This doesn’t matter very often, though, as the enemies are easy to see and fight for the most part. At times, however, the controls are sketchy. In one part of the Academy level, Shrek has to pick up soccer balls and throw them at the witch who is guarding Lancelot. When Shrek runs up to the ball, it moves away. When he finally can get close enough to pick it up, it often disappears! Then he has to run all around looking for it. This is annoying. Fortunately, the witch isn’t shooting at him non-stop while he’s looking for the ball.

The graphics are decent, but nothing to get excited about. They don’t look much different on the Wii than they would on the GameCube. There are a few graphical glitches, when the main character sometimes disappears from view, even though he or she is still present. He or she will continue to fight and run around, but only a shadow is visible. This usually only lasts for a few minutes, though. The voice acting is great, even if the voice actors aren’t the real deal, except for the narration by John Cleese. The same type of humor from the films is present and is just as funny.

Besides the adventure mode, there are also lots of mini-games which are available right from the beginning. These are all simple arcade games that are shooting gallery games, herding type games, missile launching games and a clone of Frogger. Most of these games are pretty fun and can be played with a friend, too. We especially liked the Shrekleboard game (shuffleboard) and Castle Capture (a game where players launch missiles at the castle walls). In some of the games, though, using the Wii remote feels sluggish. In Shooting Gallery, players use the Wii remote to aim shots at items moving by in a gallery shootout, but getting the weapon to line up on the targets is hard to do. There is also a fun demo of a November release game from Activision, which entails moving a bee around with on-screen directional arrows.

Shrek the Third is a cute platform game designed for children and has been designed to be easy to pick up and play. In the cuteness respect and the ease of playability, the game designers have done well. The game does a good job of featuring lots of characters from the movies and imbuing them with their respective personas. The humor is also just right for young players. Having lots of multi-player mini-games that can be played without unlocking them is also a good addition. But, cuteness will only go so far and the gameplay soon becomes repetitive and somewhat boring, as Shrek and company fight their way through each level. There really isn’t a whole lot to do besides constantly whack away at enemies by swinging the remote back and forth. After about the third or fourth level, the feeling is “Is this all there is?”

This isn’t a bad game overall, but it isn’t a very good game, either. It’s just an average game and isn’t nearly as fun as Shrek 2. For $30, it wouldn’t be a bad buy for the kids who want a Shrek game, but for $50 for the Wii version, it’s just not worth it. Parents may want to try renting it for a weekend for the kiddies, first.

Gameplay: 6.5
Shrek and company are funny and cute, but the gameplay itself isn’t all that fun after awhile. The constant fighting becomes repetitive and the collection aspects and mini-games aren’t enough to add anything substantial in terms of enjoyment.

Graphics: 7.0
The graphics are adequate and the characters look like their movie counterparts, but overall the graphics are pretty average for a Wii game.

Sound: 8.0
The voice acting is very good and the sound effects are also good.

Difficulty: Easy/Medium
The difficulty level is pretty easy, even on the hardest level. The main differences in difficulty levels lie in the amount of punishment the main characters can take before players have to start the level over again.

Concept: 6.0
The game doesn’t offer anything new. Having the mini-games available from the beginning is nice, though.

Multiplayer: 8.0

Overall: 6.5
The saving grace of this game is Shrek and the other characters. They are portrayed charmingly and just like in the movies. The mini-games are also fun. However, the game as a whole isn’t anything above average and would probably receive a lesser rating without the presence of Shrek and company. Kids who like Shrek will enjoy this game.