Since Shrek 2 is well on its way to grossing more than $400 million at the box office (tack on another $100 million, at least, in eventual DVD sales), it's a foregone conclusion that games based on the movie are going to be in high demand. Usually, video games that are based on movie licenses--especially animated films, such as Shrek 2--turn out to be terrible. Companies try to make a quick buck by slapping together a weak run-and-jump game using scenes and dialogue from the movie. In the case of Shrek 2 for the GBA, however, Activision has added a puzzle-oriented twist to the stale platform-jumper design and in turn has come up with a fun, kid-friendly game that also does a good job of telling the movie's story.
The game starts out as Fiona, Shrek, and Donkey make their way to visit Fiona's parents in the land of Far Far Away. After they arrive, Fiona and Shrek soon learn that Fiona's parents--and her fairy godmother--are prejudiced against ogres. They lock the princess away in the castle and set out to do everything they can to separate Fiona from Shrek. That's where you, the player, come in. Your task is to help Shrek and Donkey sneak back into the castle, swipe the godmother's "happily ever after" potion, and reunite Shrek with Fiona before she unwittingly falls in love with Prince Charming. Other fairy tale characters, such as The Three Blind Mice, Pinocchio, The Gingerbread Man, The Three Little Pigs, and Puss in Boots, also make appearances to varying degrees throughout the game.
A good deal of the game involves jumping between platforms and mindlessly pressing the attack button to punch or hack at angry guards and peasants. However, in most of the game's 25 levels, you're required to bring all three of the characters under your control so you can then cross the finish line. Vicarious Visions, the company that developed the game for Activision, borrowed a page from Blizzard's classic, Lost Vikings, by allowing players to switch between three different characters at any time during a level. Every character has a jump move and an attack move, but each character also has one or two skills that can be performed alone. Shrek can do a butt stomp and lift heavy objects, Donkey can kick down doors, Puss 'n' Boots can climb up walls, and so on. Characters have to work together--for example, if Shrek holds a mushroom trampoline above his head, Donkey or Puss 'n' Boots can use it to reach far-off platforms. Characters can also pick up and use tools, such as shields, keys, and invisibility items. In order to get past an obstacle--usually a lever, ramp, or stone doorway--the player has to figure out which character (or which combination of characters) can reach and solve that puzzle so that the other characters can walk past it.
The graphics and audio don't come close to matching the gorgeous effects and hilarious conversations that are in the movie, but compared to similar GBA games, they're only a little behind the curve. The friendly characters, like Shrek and Donkey, are large and colorful enough to be recognized, and the animation for actions such as running and attacking is fairly fluid. The enemy characters, which are typically peasants, guards, and knights, are usually drawn with only one or two colors in order to make them stand out against the background. You won't see clouds moving or stars flickering in the background, but the backdrops have a lot of detail in them and generally look like places from the movie. As for the audio, the music is forgettable, but each character has one or two voice snippets that are repeated whenever you switch characters, perform a jump, or sustain damage--the kinds of voice clips that younger kids are likely to get stuck in their heads after playing the game for 20 minutes or so.
Younger kids are more likely to enjoy this GBA rendition of Shrek 2 instead of teenagers or adults. That's not a knock on the game's design or how it looks or sounds, but rather it is an observation based on the amount of challenge that each level presents. You have unlimited chances to solve each level and "dying" only puts you back at the beginning of a level. Running into guards and landing on thorny bushes will take one point away from a character's life indicator, but there are plenty of opportunities to find potions that will recover any health you've lost. There are only a few spots here and there where you risk instant "death" by falling into a bottomless pit or getting tagged with a curse.
So, feel free to pick up Shrek 2 if you're in the mood for a fun and interesting platform-puzzle game that won't take most teens and adults more than three or four hours to complete. Better yet, hand it over to a child under the age of 12 and let him or her try to solve every level and relive the movie.
