Does anyone else think that Shrek, sounds just like the Fat
Bastard character from the Austin Powers movies? Well at any rate, Mike Myers
has gotten a lot of mileage out of that Scottish accent. Although I like both
Fat Bastard and Shrek as much as the next guy, I think it may be time to put
them both to rest for awhile.
Obviously the folks from Shaba Games, and Activision, don’t
feel the same, at least when it comes to squeezing the Shrek franchise for just
a little more dinero. The latest attempt at beating a dead horse, comes in the
form of Shrek Super Slam.
The paper thin premise of this title, is that Donkey’s fire
breathing, winged, big eared, half jack ass - half puff the magic dragon,
offspring just won’t go to bed. This of course impedes on TV night for Donkey
and his friends i.e. Shrek and everybody else. To get the little guys to sleep
a bedtime story is told. This story basically creates the matches through out
the game.
To actually call the story mode a story mode is kind of
ridiculous really. Basically all we have here is some very brief staging for
each fight sequence. Once each sequence is started, the gist of it is, you need
to slam your opponent more than they slam you. This mode is surprisingly fun
but way to simple. There is a lot of destruction and some pretty decent moves
to keep us entertained. The problem is, it is hard not to kick ass in this
game. This is particularly true when you are one of the quicker characters.
After you’ve spent the half hour it takes conquering the
story mode, you may want to try the challenge mode. (I am exaggerating here but
not by much.) After cruising through the story mode I initially thought, “well
maybe this mode is where the meat of the game is”. I couldn’t have been more
wrong. Even though 45 challenges sound like a lot, they aren’t. They aren’t at all. These challenges are
basically mini games and by mini I actually mean micro.
Now that I’ve told you all the bad, I should be fair and
tell you about some of the good. Wait a minute I’m still thinking…….. The
graphics! Yes! the graphics aren’t bad at all! The characters simply look and move like they do in the
films. The sound is actually excellent as well. The voice talents perform
excellent renditions of the original voices.
The actual game play is not bad as well but this game is
way, way too easy. Even the demographic that this game is aimed for will have
no problem getting through this game. The only aspect that may add just a
little to the shelf life of this game is the melee mode. Like every other melee
mode in the history a gaming, you can play 2 to 4 players. The plus to this is
entertaining 2 to 4 not so easily entertained kids at the same time.
In
the end this game is essentially Super Smash Bros in a Shrek suit. Just like
Smash Bros. the game play, graphics, and sound are pretty good. The game
itself, however does not last as long as the time you would stand in line to
purchase it. Unless you are some sort of Shreki or something I wouldn’t recommend
buying this title. If you’ve got some little ones running around I would
recommend this as rental only. I could see this title entertaining a group of
kids for a night but not much longer.
