Xbox 360 Version

The Shrek The Third film is getting mixed reviews despite being a box office juggernaut, so it should come as no shock that the games based on this animated film are suffering the same fate. While Shrek The Third is shallow in places, the gameplay is fun enough to attract the crowd it is after: the kids and parents by association. It is just a shame that the gameplay couldn't have a little more depth for the older set that is playing along side these youngsters and that is ultimately passing judgment on it. But I'm going to give these games a break because they certainly are solid enough endeavors -- and for movie tie-in games - they offer some fun moments. If anything the worst crime that these games commit is a lack of cooperative ...

In the game players control various characters from the third film including Shrek, Donkey, Puss in Boots, Fiona, Sleeping Beauty and Artie in a light beat 'em up through the lands of Far Far Away. The single player portion of the game is divided up by multiple levels which often have you switching off between one or two characters that are part of the ongoing storyline. As you bash and smash your way through crates, bad guys and more crates you will find energy that fills up a meter. Once that meter is full you can unleash a special move that unleashes a devastating attack. While these special moves are powerful, they aren't necessarily needed as the game isn't particularly challenging, save the rare boss battles. Most of the time you simply mash buttons and beat the stuffing out of anything or anyone that gets in your way - with an occasional key hunt or light puzzle thrown in for good measure.

Interestingly enough, Shrek The Third uses a Call of Duty style damage model. Instead of giving the player a gauge, when you take too much damage the screen starts to flash in varying degrees of red to represent pain. Take too much damage and you'll get knocked out. Because it is pretty hard to take a lot of damage in most areas of the game you may think that you simply don't die until it actually happens. Still, it's pretty hard to have that happen in most situations and avoiding enemies for a short period of time usually makes everything all better, so chances are there will be very few times when you'll find yourself knocked out in the game.

Wii Version

Finally there are plenty of unlockables to collect in this game, and many cool things can be purchased by collecting special coins scattered in every nook and cranny of each level. These unlockables include new costumes, maps and characters for multiplay mode and bits of multimedia extras. These extras are a nice addition to the game and give players something to work for as they go through each area. Collecting various special items in each level will net you bonus coins (and in the case of the 360 version the occasional achievement).

There a couple of ways that players can entertain themselves outside the single-player game. The first is a series of mini-games that let 1 -2 players go at it in such activates as frog herding, shuffleboard, shooting and more. The mini-games can be fun, but there's not a lot of depth to most of them. The other activity is multiplayer, which lets 1 -2 players slug it out in some castle vs. castle combat. The goal of this is to knock down the other player's towers using a catapult. As these battles progress, you can target a random air balloon which might give you a special power-up that you can use in your catapult like a cow or a spiked ball. While simple, the multiplayer is surprisingly good at providing some casual fun - and everyone knows that shooting a cow at a tower is as fun as it gets..

From a presentation standpoint, the Shrek The Third games look good even on the last generation platforms they have been released on. The voice acting, on the other hand, isn't as good as it could have been, and most of the jokes are delivered with all the excitement of a Sunday morning sermon. I'm not sure if this is the result of bad writing or weak voice acting, but many of the jokes aren't all that funny. Still, the game offers enough Far Far Away flavor to keep the youngsters happy and the narration is at least entertaining..

PS2 Version

There's not a whole lot of difference to Shrek The Third across the myriad of platforms it has been released on and it should be pretty obvious which versions are more refined than others. Hands down the best looking version is for the Xbox 360, while the Wii version offers support for the Wii remote for a slightly different take on how to command the game's action. The PlayStation 2 version holds its own, thought there's nothing particularly special about it in the grand scheme of things - it just allows those not in the next-generation of gaming an opportunity to play the game (which is a smart and ultimately lucrative move on Activision's part considering the PS2's ongoing popularity and installed userbase). If I was forced to choose a version out of these three I'd go with the Xbox 360 version simply because it looks better and nearly matches the level of visual quality found in the film...