PC

  News 
  Reviews
  Previews
  Hardware
  Interviews
  All Features

Areas

  3DS
  Android
  iPad
  iPhone
  Mac
  PC
  PlayStation 3
  PlayStation 4
  Switch
  Vita
  Wii U
  Xbox 360
  Xbox One
  Media
  Archives
  Search
  Contests

 

Shrek Super Slam

Score: 78%
ESRB: Everyone 10+
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Shaba Games
Media: CD/1
Players: 1 - 4
Genre: Fighting/ Themed

Graphics & Sound:

Shrek Super Slam does a good job duplicating the characters and locations from the movies while not taxing your machine. I found that pretty much every arena from the game either looked just like a scene from the films (like Dragon's castle) or could have, if it wasn't actually featured in the movie (like Gingerbread Man's house).

As for the characters, Shrek, Fiona, Donkey, Puss-N-Boots, Prince Charming, Pinocchio and all of the other characters you would expect to show up in a fighter resemble their silver-screen partners exceptionally. Even characters that are either lesser-known or aren't even present in the movies (like Robin Hood or Quasimodo) come off nicely.

Audio-wise, the voice-work for each of the various characters sounds just like the big-name movie star that played the part in the movies, even though this game doesn't actually boast the vocal talents of Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy and Antonio Banderas. As for the game's music, this also fits the precedents set out by the flicks. Typically, the tunes are energetic and have more than a hint of rock, which is a great way to get you into the mood of a good action-packed melee game.


Gameplay:

Shrek and the gang go to Donkey and Dragon's home one day and find out that Donkey has been left with their over-active, fire-breathing offspring, the flying dronkies. So before the gang can have some peace, they need to tell the kids a few bedtime stories and get them to sleep. Thus begins Shrek Super Slam's Story Mode.

After the game's intro, you will move from fight to fight, each battle having a different setup story, which makes this mode have no real overarching story that explains why you are fighting who you are (like other fighting games do). Instead, the storytellers just set up a situation where, for example, Gingerbread Man and Puss-N-Boots go head-to-head as sheriff and outlaw, or where Donkey must face down Prince Charming or else be arrested. You would think this would make for a somewhat disjointed gameplay experience, but it seems to work better than trying to come up with one reason to have everybody fight everybody else (like the standard "you have to fight in a tournament to save the world" scenario). It is in Story Mode that you will be able to unlock new costumes for your various usable characters. These costumes can be used in Melee Mode or Mega Challenge Mode.

So how do you get new characters? That's what Mega Challenge Mode is for. In this mode, you will move across a board trying your hand at a wide variety of different missions. You will have to do everything from throw a certain number of enemies into the fire or off a cliff, to trying to Slam multiple opponents at the same time, to breaking or protecting a certain number of objects. Each place on the board that you complete will yield you one or more Mega Points. These points are what you use to unlock items in other modes. This is a huge mode and there were plenty of times that I found this mode more fun than the game's Story Mode.

Melee lets you go up against a maximum of three opponents. These enemies can be either computer or human (on a network) controlled. Here you use the various characters, outfits, and locations that you have unlocked in the other modes to fight it out in a no-holds-barred melee battle.

One of the things that makes melee fighters different from other fighting genres (besides the fact that you typically have more than two people in the arena at one time), is the abundance of weapons and environmental hazards. Here you can use anything from giant wooden heads to large chunks of ham to beat your opponent into submission. As for the environmental hazards, these include a gingerbread car that goes flying across the screen at Gingerbread Man's place as well as large balls of fire at Dragon's castle.


Difficulty:

Shrek Super Slam fluctuates a lot in the difficulty area. Sometimes you will go up against an opponent (or two or three) that can be really hard, followed up by several easy missions/fights. There were plenty of times when I found myself plowing through challenges or battles to be suddenly stopped by a fight that took several tries.

Game Mechanics:

Shrek Super Slam's controls are a bit cumbersome, but I guess that is just the price you pay for putting a 3D fighter on a platform that doesn't typically have a controller or gamepad. The default control setup lets you use the WASD buttons to move your character around the arena, while you attack, jump, block, and grab opponents and objects with the J, K, O and L buttons, respectively.

Personally, I found the right-hand controls (the ones that activate your attacks and whatnot) to be a bit confusing and I resorted to button mashing more times than not. There was an alternate configuration that used the arrow buttons for movement and the number-pad for your attacks. I found this configuration to be a bit easier to handle and I tended to get frustrated a bit less.

All-in-all, Shrek Super Slam is a fun experience, but if you have a console, then I would recommend picking up that version over the PC since from what I've seen on both the PS2 and GameCube, the setup is a bit more intuitive.


-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications
AKA Chris Meyer

Minimum System Requirements:



3D hardware accelerator card required - 100% DirectX 9.0x compliant 32MB video card and drivers, Microsoft Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, Pentium III 800MHz or Athlon XP 1500 or higher processor, 128MB of RAM, 900MB of uncompressed hard disk space (plus 300MB for the Windows swap file), a 100% Windows 98/Me/2000/XP compatible computer system including: DirectX 9.0c (included), 100% DirectX 9.0c compliant 16-bit sound card and drivers, 100% Windows 98/Me/2000/XP compatible mouse, keyboard and drivers
 

Test System:



Windows XP Professional Ed., AMD Athlon XP 2400+ 2GHz, 2 GB RAM, DVD-RW, Radeon 9800 Pro, DirectX 9.0c

Microsoft Xbox Karaoke Revolution Party Nintendo DS Spyro Shadow Legacy

 
Game Vortex :: PSIllustrated