WALL.E Review
del.icio.us
Digg This
Glink It
Another predictable Summer movie tie-in.
However, what isn't predictable is
that the game doesn't completely blow it. Most Summer movie tie-in games end
up scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of quality, innovation and
entertainment value. As you may know, our hero WALL.E has been left behind
on a ruined Earth in order to clean things up for humans to once again
re-populate the planet. WALL.E has grown lonely, and in 700 years developed
some interesting personality tics. Namely, he is very lonely and very
curious. But one day a spaceship arrived and on it, came EVE, a newer more
efficient designed robot and EVE and WALL.E fell in love. Then EVE left, the
cure for the planet is discovered, WALL.E and EVE go on many funny
adventures and well, go see the movie its fabulous.
Now like most tie-in games, there are some basic
principles taken from the movie, but in order to move things along, many
things that didn't happen in the movie managed to find there way into the
game. Take WALL.E for instance. the game has you controlling him and EVE as
the levels go by, but there is an awful lot of picking up boxes and throwing
them one of two ways to activate switches that allow you to get from point A
to point B. It may seem repetitive, and in some places it can be quite
redundant, but the actual idea and placement of some of the switches is
actually clever and well thought out. Don't get me wrong, this is a game
that is clearly aimed at the same kids who went and saw the movie, but at
least this time there is some thought put into the title. WALL.E even
compacts garbage piles in order to create the bricks to throw at the
switches.
WALL.E is viewed in a 3rd person perspective
with the two triggers allowing you to rotate the camera around to find those
pesky switches that are hiding and to help line up WALL.E's throws and
maneuvers so he does not fall into the small crevice that seems to be
everywhere. Apparently future humans can build a robot that will run for
centuries but if it takes a tumble then its all over. Really though, you are
forced to start the scene over, not necessarily the end of the world since
the levels are composed of several scenes, none of which are too terribly
long. Again, made for nine year olds.
And I say that because the game requires quite a
bit of reading since there is nary a voice to be found in the game. The only
sounds are from some of the moving portions of the level and WALL.E's little
robot body that clicks and whrrrrs as it chugs along. Really a
disappointment to the kids when there was none of the cute little robot's
sayings like were featured in the movie. And lets face it folks, he is an
adorable creation and half of his charm is the little noises that come out
of him as his adventuring goes on. THQ really dropped the ball when it came
to the sounds featured in the game.
Visually, the game is really just OK, I almost
think that developers have stretched the DS and what it is capable of doing
to its limit at this point. And while I say that, this is not an example of
the DS at its finest. The visuals are really just above par here with you
being able to easily tell who the characters are and what the dangerous
spots on the level appear to be, but there is no heavy amount of shading or
detail put into the levels, all ten of them. The whole game kind of has a
"not finished" look to it. If there is any saving grace to the graphics it
is the cutscenes that move the story along, they are done with a nice amount
of polish and I wish some of that effort could have made its way to the
in-game visuals.
I like that there is some swapping between
characters but the flying levels of EVE do tend to bring the game down and
you will probably want to get back to playing as WALL.E, still they throw
them in there in order to mix it up a little and for the most part it does
work. There is some multiplayer fun to be found if you are into that sort of
thing and even a "chip's challenge" section for those who need to get
everything out of a game.
| Review Scoring Details for WALL.E |
Gameplay: 7.0
The controls are not too bad and seem to do what
you want them to, not too much going on when it comes to the stylus, but
still, not bad.
Graphics: 6.3
The cutscenes are where the money is, the
in-game visuals can be a bit of a letdown.
Sound: 5.7
Sound? There was sound?
Difficulty: Easy
Easy for an adult, not so easy for a seven year
old.
Concept: 6.8
The game is a movie tie-in game, nothing new
here to report.
Multiplayer: 6.5
The multiplayer portion of the game adds a
little more weight to the overall value.
Overall: 6.7
There are some decently designed levels and
puzzles to warrant a look. In the end though it is a platform game that just
passes muster, which is still better then the Iron Man and Hulk titles.
