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| The Entertainment Review |
| Genre: Entertainment Developer: Way Forward Publisher: Activision |
privacy back. His adventure took him out of his swamp and into a journey fighting a number of fairytale villains, saving princesses and
shooting one line jokes in his comedy filled adventures of the first three Shrek films. “Shrek: Ogres & Dronkeys” picks up after the end
of the most recent more, Shrek the Third, where Shrek became a father to three baby ogres. This game has players take the role of
babysitter for the little ogres, as well as the half mule and half dragon, dronkeys. It is a different take on the typical virtual pet design that
finds success in presenting its license and characters, but it is the game play that holds the game back a little bit.
A royal summons arrive at Shrek’s swamp home as the game begins, instructing him that it is his responsibility to tour the kingdom
with his wife for the sake of good public relations. Shrek is reluctant to comply, but Fiona convinces him of the request’s importance
and the pair of parents is left with a need for a babysitter to watch the little ones. There are a few different scenes from the movies to
find and watch throughout the game and they are done well, though the character models certainly aren’t the same as in the film, but
the comedic tone of the dialogue seems to be maintained.
Players step into the game by first selecting two of the eight total children to take care of. There are the three children of Shrek, Ogre Jr.,
Ogre Boy and Ogre Girl, as well as Donkey’s five children, Cocoa, Peanut, Debbie, Parfait and Bananas. The different between the
ogres and dronkeys seem to only be on the surface, but in the actual game play they are basically identical. The game play begins in
Shrek’s swamp home where players first take charge of the welfare of the babies and are presented with an empty room, a toy box, a
shelf full of supplies and a couple of doors. The babies don’t do much on their own, wave at the screen and fall asleep. Players have
to place object in the room for them to play with, which they get from the toy box.
Every little action that the babies take is recorded and players earn points every time one of them does something that they have never
done before, and it is a continual tally. Every single object seems to have some small number of goals that are associated with it, as
players try to drag and drop combinations of items to lure the babies to interact with them correctly. This is one thing that can get to be
quite frustrating. Players will know exactly what they want the babies to do, but they just can’t get them to do it properly.
There are a variety of different outdoor environments to explore throughout “Shrek: Ogres & Dronkeys.” From the starting area of Shrek’
s swamp to the home of the Three Little Pigs and even an area that will remind players of Candy Land that is hosted by Gingy the
Gingerbread Man. In these areas only one baby at a time appears and players coordinate his or her actions more directly by dragging
the stylus around the screen. There are a few floating collectibles to find and gather and mini-games to unlock and play. The mini-
games that are available aren’t very compelling in this game though. There are a total of five mini-games, including games that have
players help the Three Little Pigs rebuild their crumbled homes by tapping on the ruined structures with the stylus, eat excessive
amounts of candy with Gingy while also remembering to brush their teeth, catch flying fireflies and more. These are decent distractions,
but none of them are very deep.
There is also a Snail Bowling mini-game that seems to be plagued by a programming error. When players are asked to draw a line on
the touch screen to determine the path of their snail shaped bowling ball. The line will be interpreted incorrectly most of the time. Lines
are drawn in a way that look like they'll be simple and straightforward on the touch screen but instead they end up going wildly awry
when the player’s active baby actually throws the snail, even locking the game up in a unresponsive loop for several seconds at a time.
Errors like this are likely to be the result of a lack of time in the development stage, since it was pushed to be released with the release
of the DVD of Shrek the Third.
While the game is filled with these issues and the game’s fairly low level of direct interaction with it supposed babies is unfortunate, the
product as a whole deserves to be played by those who enjoyed the latest Shrek film. Its presentation, visuals and soundtrack are
perfectly in with the tone and comedic feel of the world of Shrek, so much so that the events seen in the game feel like an extension of
the established storyline. Fans of the big green ogre or someone that is shopping for someone that is, "Shrek: Ogres & Dronkeys" is
worth a look.
shooting one line jokes in his comedy filled adventures of the first three Shrek films. “Shrek: Ogres & Dronkeys” picks up after the end
of the most recent more, Shrek the Third, where Shrek became a father to three baby ogres. This game has players take the role of
babysitter for the little ogres, as well as the half mule and half dragon, dronkeys. It is a different take on the typical virtual pet design that
finds success in presenting its license and characters, but it is the game play that holds the game back a little bit.
A royal summons arrive at Shrek’s swamp home as the game begins, instructing him that it is his responsibility to tour the kingdom
with his wife for the sake of good public relations. Shrek is reluctant to comply, but Fiona convinces him of the request’s importance
and the pair of parents is left with a need for a babysitter to watch the little ones. There are a few different scenes from the movies to
find and watch throughout the game and they are done well, though the character models certainly aren’t the same as in the film, but
the comedic tone of the dialogue seems to be maintained.
Players step into the game by first selecting two of the eight total children to take care of. There are the three children of Shrek, Ogre Jr.,
Ogre Boy and Ogre Girl, as well as Donkey’s five children, Cocoa, Peanut, Debbie, Parfait and Bananas. The different between the
ogres and dronkeys seem to only be on the surface, but in the actual game play they are basically identical. The game play begins in
Shrek’s swamp home where players first take charge of the welfare of the babies and are presented with an empty room, a toy box, a
shelf full of supplies and a couple of doors. The babies don’t do much on their own, wave at the screen and fall asleep. Players have
to place object in the room for them to play with, which they get from the toy box.
Every little action that the babies take is recorded and players earn points every time one of them does something that they have never
done before, and it is a continual tally. Every single object seems to have some small number of goals that are associated with it, as
players try to drag and drop combinations of items to lure the babies to interact with them correctly. This is one thing that can get to be
quite frustrating. Players will know exactly what they want the babies to do, but they just can’t get them to do it properly.
There are a variety of different outdoor environments to explore throughout “Shrek: Ogres & Dronkeys.” From the starting area of Shrek’
s swamp to the home of the Three Little Pigs and even an area that will remind players of Candy Land that is hosted by Gingy the
Gingerbread Man. In these areas only one baby at a time appears and players coordinate his or her actions more directly by dragging
the stylus around the screen. There are a few floating collectibles to find and gather and mini-games to unlock and play. The mini-
games that are available aren’t very compelling in this game though. There are a total of five mini-games, including games that have
players help the Three Little Pigs rebuild their crumbled homes by tapping on the ruined structures with the stylus, eat excessive
amounts of candy with Gingy while also remembering to brush their teeth, catch flying fireflies and more. These are decent distractions,
but none of them are very deep.
There is also a Snail Bowling mini-game that seems to be plagued by a programming error. When players are asked to draw a line on
the touch screen to determine the path of their snail shaped bowling ball. The line will be interpreted incorrectly most of the time. Lines
are drawn in a way that look like they'll be simple and straightforward on the touch screen but instead they end up going wildly awry
when the player’s active baby actually throws the snail, even locking the game up in a unresponsive loop for several seconds at a time.
Errors like this are likely to be the result of a lack of time in the development stage, since it was pushed to be released with the release
of the DVD of Shrek the Third.
While the game is filled with these issues and the game’s fairly low level of direct interaction with it supposed babies is unfortunate, the
product as a whole deserves to be played by those who enjoyed the latest Shrek film. Its presentation, visuals and soundtrack are
perfectly in with the tone and comedic feel of the world of Shrek, so much so that the events seen in the game feel like an extension of
the established storyline. Fans of the big green ogre or someone that is shopping for someone that is, "Shrek: Ogres & Dronkeys" is
worth a look.
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