When it comes to B movies, I enjoy all sorts ranging from horror to stupid comedy, so “Bee Movie” was a clever play on words in my opinion, and an entertaining new Dreamworks movie to boot. So, as history has shown us … along with a Dreamworks movie in the big screen, we get a game on a smaller screen to coincide with the release. As history has also shown us, most of these aren’t very good and won’t do more than offer up a brief amount of thrills, and the Bee Movie game, while clever, isn’t going to prove to be much exception to the rule.

The game focuses around the movie hero, Barry B. Benson, as he is just out of graduating and ready to start his new life training to be a “pollen jockey” … or one of the hive that heads out to collect pollen amongst other things for the benefit of the hive’s well being, meeting up with characters to train up in stamina, speed, or strength and unlock new “personal favor” kind of tasks on the side of the main quest and storyline. Controls are primarily done with the control pad, with the stylus being used to complete mini games (presented during the aforementioned “training exercises”) and help Barry get through the game.

The controls are easy to get into, and the game overall consists of basic “run and fetch” kind of missions that have you doing various things like collecting special pollen outside the hive while avoiding and finding ways to get around obstacles like sprinklers, dogs, birds, and the occasional rain shower. Some of the ways these are presented was interesting, like finding a bone to distract a dog or ducking under a birdbath to refill the rain meter and keep the dark skies at bay, but overall the lack of diverse gameplay tends to make the story dull and the game repetitive. Even training mini games only seem to have a few different variations which get more challenging as you progress, but remain the same which takes some fun out of the experience.

In order to train up and get more side missions, you have to collect pollen, which is used as a kind of currency to pay the trainers for their time and good advice. This again adds to the repetition of the game as it pretty much plays out with you doing a mission, getting pollen, collecting more pollen, training up, going to a new mission, getting more pollen, not having enough and going around getting more, training up, etc. Granted I understand that this game is geared towards kids, so my 9-year old enjoys it, but you can probably imagine that this will quickly cause interest to wane with an older player.

The game has some neat little toss ins, with happy music standard to Dreamworks movies and games, and some little cut scene-style movies on the top screen to watch during and after training exercises, but overall the presentation looks a bit washed out in my opinion. Buildings in the hive have a little Smurf-like mushroom house style, and the outdoors has standard grass, flowerbed, and fence touches which don’t look terrible, but again they just have a sort of faded look to them.

Overall, Bee Movie game is probably going to be a good bet for the younger Dreamworks' fan in your life who enjoyed the film or wants to go see it, but for the older fan it probably won’t hold out enough to really be a good buy for your money.    

Gameplay: 6.0
The controls are easy for everyone to get into and having some side missions and things to look out for was a good idea, but the overall style of the game is repetitive both in missions and in mini-game training and doesn’t really offer any major excitement to get you from A to B during the story.   

Graphics: 6.8 
Again, they weren’t bad, and there were some neat additions like runway lights at the hive entrance and a very handy and detailed mini map so you won’t get lost, but they just looked washed out to me personally. 

Sound: 6.9
Again, typical happy style Dreamworks music to listen to, and some decent voiceovers from characters here and there. Barry does tend to make the same “Yippee” noises over and over again while doing a dash while in flight, but nothing over the top annoying, just repetitive (noticing a pattern here?)

Difficulty: Easy
Older gamers won’t find enough challenge to keep them rolling, but younger gamers should find it easy to get into and play with minimal Mom and Dad assistance.   

Concept: 6.5 
Well, it’s another movie to game title to add to your collection, offering about the same as we’ve come to expect in a grand scale. Not bad, but just could be a lot more. 

Overall: 6.2
Here we are at the end of another kids game, and probably with about the same expected results as stated earlier. This is a cute little game that offers up some enjoyment and some interesting gameplay ideas, but the overall story and lack of gameplay options or variation just make it drone (no pun intended) on without too much to look forward to. Again, get it for younger gamers but walk on by for your older ones.