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A fun, simple little game, worth a try for Shrek fans, or gamers with kids.

Perpetuating the unfortunate tendency for good movies to spawn bad games, Shrek has always had a spotty history in his console outings, starting on the original Xbox and recently spawning a rather uninspired series of party games. For all the humor and warmth of the films, and all the inherent adventure and action that should translate well into a game environment, the big ogre just hasn’t gotten much of a break.  Shrek the Third for the wii fares better, with great storytelling and intuitive wii-centric controls, though it never really shines above average licensed game fare. It’s step in the right direction for the franchise, recommended for younger gamers, or fans of the series.

The game starts out with our intrepid heroes Shrek, Donkey and Puss in Boots attending a puppet show (re: movie) chronicling their recent adventures (which, in turn follows the plot of the recent film). The player controls the three main characters, young king Arthur, and even heroines like Princess Fiona and Sleeping Beauty through levels that correspond to events in the movie. The gameplay itself can best be described as old school beat-em up meets Crash Bandicoot-style platforming, with a healthy dose of collect-a-thon thrown in for good measure.

Essentially, the flow of the game is dictated by combat, throwing hordes of enemies at the player, introducing some shifty, not-quite-3d platforming, and then throwing more enemies into the mix. All the while, players are collecting coins, souvenir mugs, and level specific items; such as peg legs in the pirate ship, or snowman hats in the ice level; and building up their fairy dust meter, used for unleashing special moves. Every few levels, the action is broken up by minigames (like the satisfying Castle Siege game, where players use a catapult to trash faraway towers), and hilarious puppet show sequences.

The mix works reasonably well, due mainly to the wii-tuned controls. Shaking the wii-mote produces an attack, while shaking the analog control builds up a special, more powerful move released with the c button. The player can also use the c button at specific times to unleash a “finishing” move that earns more points, and the z button for a powered up maneuver. It basically amounts to the wii version of button mashing – wildly waving the controller and stabbing the c and z buttons appropriately. The move set is standard for all the characters, limiting depth, certainly, but also cutting down on confusion in a game with 6+ playable characters, all of whom are mandatory for designated sections (i.e. the character  swapping is automatic, and not up to the player).