Over the years we have seen countless tie in titles to
numerous films and television programmes and it is fair to say that more often
than not the same few things can be said about them, first of all they are nearly
always platform games and secondly they are nearly always rushed out to cash in
on hype and end up being worse than a collective bunch of army men games. So
imagine the slight veil of dread that hung around us when a 3d platform title
centred on the ever-popular Wallace and Gromit appeared.
However, the one thing which brought a slight feeling of
hope was the fact that Wallace and Gromit did not really have anything to
promote, the game coming years after the original films where created and would
need to be able to stand on its own merits to keep fans interested and stop the
market as a whole ignoring the title out of hand.
The story goes that the evil penguin that appeared in
classic film ‘The Wrong Trousers’ has taken over the Zoo of Wallace and
Gromit’s friend Monty and has all the animals doing his dirty work for him. It
is up to Wallace, but more importantly Gromit to save the animals and stop the
evil penguin once and for all. Players control the heroic dog of the pairing,
but in a twist to the normal platform formula Wallace must be lead to certain
areas in order to make or fix anything requiring a more mechanically minded
person.
It is clear right from the start that project zoo is far
more than just another quick cash in rushed out to make some money. Clearly a
lot of thought has gone into the presentation with the developers making sure
everything has the right look and feel to it, meaning fans of the series will
quickly become lost in a whole world of creature comforts. Most impressive of
these are the perfectly animated cut scenes that appear at numerous points in
order to keep the story progressing in a very Wallace and Gromit tone. Not only
is the animation spot on but both scripting and style are also of an excellent
standard, so much so that the game seems more like a new film rather than a
series spin off.
Set across twenty-three missions based around six worlds the
platform action is a mixture of the slightly original and things that we have
seen a fair few times before. Essentially, each level comes down to the same
thing- Gromit must go around collecting cogs, bolts and tools, Wallace must
then be called to a place where these things can be used to fix or make
something, thus allowing Gromit to continue on. Not exactly groundbreaking
stuff but none the less it helps the the game stand out a bit.
Gromit himself has a wide variety of moves with which to
move himself around the levels. Reminiscent of the type of movement Jak was
afforded in the first Jak and Daxter title Gromit can roll, crouch, high jump
and a number of other things not a million miles away from other titles. Saying
that however there are a few nice little moves in there as well. Gromit is able
to do a Devil May Cry 2 style run up the wall type move, which is a touch
amusing to watch considering Dante and Gromit are not exactly the same type of
hero. Various weapons are also on offer such as banana cannons and while all
the moves and ideas are not that original they all come together to form a
decent enough package that feels a little different.
A small problem that shows its self from time to time is
that Gromit is a touch slow and clumsy when executing moves, this is due to the
fact one animation must be completed before allowing our hero to initiate the
next. This means that doing long jumps can be a touch tiresome as Gromit must
roll and then jump exactly at the end of the roll animation as pressing the
jump button while in mid roll simply does not initiate the jump command. This
problem shows itself is other places as well but on balance throughout the
title the times where this occur are few and most of the time they do not lead
to death or injury.
When looking at Wallace and Gromit project zoo it is
difficult to see what could have been done (a few niggling problems aside) to
improveit. The big question surrounding it is ‘will the fans like it?’ and the
answer to that is a big yes, there is so much Wallace and Gromit charm on show
that any self respective fan of the duo should really go out an purchase it as
it acts as more or less as another film with all the cut scenes. Furthermore,
there are a host of extras to be unlocked and to top it off the game is not bad
either. Project Zoo acts to show how a license can be done if put in the right
hands.
Overall 7/10
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