Game #973: Shrek 2

  For never after,

 Another game from the heap of shovelware I picked to make room to store some Wii games, I've a short story to tell about Shrek 2! While I enjoyed Shrek 1, by the time 2 came out I had already outgrown it, so I never cared about it. But, but, Club Nintendo, the magazine, sang the game praises so I wanted to try it out so I got the game on PC.... which turned out to be completely different. Not one to give up, over 10 years later I'd eventually get the game my childhood self wanted to play. It wasn't worth it. 

 This game is a very loose retelling of the plot from the second movie, adding a lot of filler as well as justifying the four-man party, for Shrek 2 is a multiplayer action game-thing in which you play as a four-man party at all times. Which characters make up your party depends on the stage, and there's a reason for that, as every character has slightly different abilities that are required to solve that stage's puzzles. For example the Ginger Bread man's aerial attack is a projectile that is needed to hit far off targets, and is the only character that can do it. Fiona can slow down time, Shrek can pick up heavy objects, etc. Hopefully you like Shrek, because I think he's the only character that is playable on every stage.

 I lied about playing as a party at all times, as most levels have this weird 'Hero Time' section at the end in which you play as a single character... which I think was a terrible idea if they meant this game to be a multiplayer game. For instance, the Wolf's Hero Time section is rather tough, so other players are just supposed to wait? That's lame!

 Speaking of that... the game received recent reviews at the time, it's the reason I wanted to play it in the first place! But... I played the entire game by myself, and it was so boring. The AI is pretty much useless, they do nothing, and only hit back if they are hit, and by hit back they just start spamming their basic attacks. The last level is absolutely dreadful 'cause they get killed very easily, so if you mess up that's that. It doesn't stop there, y'see, this isn't a beat'em up, it's sort of a party-action thing game, for each level has multiple tasks. Some are simple platforming or getting from point A to B, but there are other wackier tasks, such as herding chickens. But the CPU won't help you, so it's just you doing every menial task but yourself, so in turn, it takes an unnecessary amount of time to perform very repetitive actions that are probably fun with other players.

 I was very let down with Shrek 2, as I had such a boring time with it. I'll give it this, I think I can see how this game COULD be fun with another player, but honestly, I didn't care too much about it since, well, I don't care too much about Shrek to be honest.

 4.0