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The lovable ogre appears once again on the consoles. The Shrek series has for a long time been one of DreamWorks’ most successful franchises. It has managed to appeal to a wide range of audiences, though the videogames have usually sided with the younger audiences. Shrek SuperSlam continues this tradition though the game is fundamentally solid.
Shrek SuperSlam includes a number of gameplay modes. The story mode takes you along for the story of the Shrek movies as you play Shrek and Donkey’s tales. Mega Challenge is a more straight fighting mode with plenty of minigames to unlock new characters. The game’s Melee mode lets you play quickly against the CPU. All of the modes work very and offer players with the ability to choose how much time they want to invest in the game.
Instead of traditional platforming fare, Shrek SuperSlam is more like Capcom’s PowerStone fighting game for the ill-fated Dreamcast. Like Capcom’s game, Shrek SuperSlam includes a number of characters including Gingerbread Man, Fiona, Cap’n Hook, Donkey and of course, Shrek, alongside new characters made for the game. Each of the characters includes certain attacks that are similar for all of the characters, but they also include a number of specific and unique combos. The combo system is pretty extensive allowing the different characters to have wildly diverse combos. The game also includes a complex block system that lets you repel objects and evade certain attacks.
SuperSlam includes special, character-specific slams when players gain “slamergy” by continually completing combos. Aside from the actual moves, the game includes a number of power-ups and weapons that can be equipped. The power-ups include additional speed, invisibility and invulnerability; the weapons include beehives and hammers. The game lets you use environmental objects as weapons as well.
While it is a bit disappointing that Shrek SuperSlam doesn’t include online multiplayer, game does include an offline multiplayer mode for up to four players. The game lets you play in either King of the Hill or Melee modes. Multiplayer is pretty exciting, arguably more fun than the single player mode. The game can get pretty hectic and it’s always more fun to play with another human.
The game is nearly identical on all three consoles. Your purchase should be based on how much you like each console whether you like the PS2 controller the best or the hard drive saves of the Xbox.
The game’s visuals are very respectable. The character models closely model those from the movies as is usual for the Shrek games. The animations are equally adequate, which is especially important for this Shrek game since combat games need fluid animation. The game’s environments are very interactive with a lot of it being destructible. The backgrounds aren’t quite as detailed but work with the game very well.
The game’s audio is pretty good. The sound effects are quite humorous and perfectly fit the Shrek universe. The background music is quite preppy but again fits the game very well. The voice acting is alright but it is done by voice doubles which is a bit disappointing though they do a good job.
Shrek SuperSlam deviates from the standard platforming fare of the Shrek series. That said, the game’s combat system is fundamentally solid with an excellent combo system that is actually much more in-depth than I originally suspected. It retains the Shrek humor that makes the series so popular in the first place, as well, thereby appealing to younger fans. Overall, the game is a nice throwback to the PowerStone series except with Shrek characters replacing Capcom’s fantasy characters. -- Jake Wilson, PGNx Media
---- Oct 28, 2005
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