Welcome to Modojo, 
Shrek the Third Review
Written by Anthony Gallegos on Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Great voice acting and humor; Good action elements.
Linear game play; Geared towards kids.
Games don't have to innovate to be fun. Sometimes they can just repackage a lot of elements of other titles, call it something new, and have a game that might be worth your time. Other times, and this is more often the case, the gaming community receives games that take the awesome elements of other titles end up distilling the fun of their predecessors to the point where they are an abomination. While Shrek the Third for the PSP is a game that "borrows" a lot from other franchises, it luckily doesn't become the beast that it has been on other platforms.
Shrek the Third has both good and bad graphical moments, but overall is a nice looking game. The character animations get choppy whenever the camera is pulled way back, but most of the time maintains a good frame rate and runs in full 3D. The games cut-scenes are also done surprisingly well. The cinematics, which are done in a really clever way (more on that later), also are a testament to how good this game can look. They may not be the most high tech, but they are stylized enough that they really exuberate the charm of the franchise.
The game is an action platformer that plays surprisingly similarly to God of War. Players are encouraged to chain together their combos and in return get blue orbs. The orbs, like the gold orbs in God of War II, charge up the characters special fighting abilities. Players also get a larger bonus for pulling off finishing moves, which are prompted by a button cue that appears above the enemy's head. For instance, with Puss in Boots, the player can chain together combos, collect orbs, and then unleash Puss' cute face, which temporarily stuns all surrounding enemies and allows the player to pull off multiple finishing moves.
The greatest thing about this game is that it stays fairly faithful to the spirit of the movies. While the plot of the game is generally the same as that of the latest film, with certain artistic license taken in the attempt to provide more action and entertainment, it succeeds at maintaining the humor of the franchise. The voice acting, though not the original actors, is good and the writing is actually pretty funny at times. The story that is told in the cinemas, which is done as a puppet show, is both visually impressive and stylized in a way that leaves the player with little doubt that they designers did their homework about how a Shrek game should feel.
The game, for all its strengths, is not going to please most hardcore gamers because it is designed for the larger audience of the films, aka. Children. The puzzles in the game are really rudimentary, the game is linear, and it is really hard to die, both because the enemies are pretty easy and also because you can take a lot of damage in the standard game mode. There are virtually no repercussions for the times when you do die, either. Again though, this game is made for children, and apparently is geared towards those whose parents haven't taught them how to cope with losing.
For those of you who are interested in playing the games you own more than once, Shrek does offer reasons to go back and play the levels again. There are objectives to each mission, such as doing X amount of finishing moves or beating a level without dying. For doing this the player gets gold at the end of each mission that they can then spend on items, abilities, game modes, multiplayer levels, and level commentary. Players can also purchase a hard mode and an easy mode for the game that allows them to rack up more cash. While this did not feel particularly engaging, it is a nice feature to hook those who are completists.
The game has a pretty weak multiplayer element. The multiplayer is essentially a mini-game where the player uses siege weapons of various sorts to shoot down their opponents towers. It's basically a game of who can judge power and distance the fastest. The game is also present in the single player campaign and while it is fun, it isn't really compelling enough that one would break out this game at a get together to throw down with friends. At least there is a multiplayer, even if not a particular good one.
Shrek the Third succeeds in being a compelling hand held title that will work well to satiate the kiddies who love the series. The humor and wit is strong and the action and puzzles will be good enough to entertain while not insulting the tastes of those who play. Non-fans of the series should probably avoid this game, but for those of you (especially parents) looking to drop some cash and get into the Shrek universe, this isn't a bad option.
