Wall-E
Score: 58% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: THQ Developer: Helixe Media: Cartridge/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Adventure/ Platformer
Graphics & Sound: I'm sure you've at least seen ads for Disney-Pixar's latest movie Wall-E. Well the folks at THQ were nice enough to give us a game based off of the movie to extend our experiences with the adorable Wall-E. Now I haven't seen the movie, but I have seen screen shots, and from what I've seen there, the DS version of Wall-e doesn't even compare graphically. I do realize that it is a handheld system, so it's not going to be movie quality graphics, but I have seen some absolutely beautiful games on the DS. Wall-E is not one of those games. The graphics are very simple, with a severe lack of detail. Wall-E himself is more or less a yellow cube. The worlds that they have available to play in are very plain, usually consisting of only one or two colors, and are just nondescript. Unfortunately, the music isn't any better either. The one thing I liked was the cute little crunching sounds Wall-E makes when he creates a cube out of garbage. Other than that, nothing was worth noting, but at least it wasn't obnoxious either.
Gameplay: The gameplay in Wall-E is very linear, and there are 2 types of play. As Wall-E, you start at the beginning of a level and solve a series of puzzles to get Wall-E to the end. These puzzles usually involve figuring out how to let Wall-E mash up trash metal into a cube and throw it to hit a switch, or possibly using a magnetic cube to get across a gap, or an explosive cube to blow up something in his way. Any way you look at it, though, after a very short time, it just gets boring. The puzzles aren't that difficult to figure out, nor are they very much fun. You can also play Wall-E as Eve, Wall-E's girlfriend. Instead of navigating boards like you do with Wall-E, playing with Eve is more of a racing game. She has a track that she goes around. It's not as easy as just driving, though. There are many obstacles, both stationary and moving, that you will have to navigate Eve around to avoid hitting them. Personally, I found Eve to be more interesting to play, but slightly harder to control. While you are playing the levels, there is bonus content that you can unlock. By collecting coins, you unlock movie artwork. You can also see the movies that appear in the game from the Bonus Content Menu. After you unlock bonus levels, you'll be able to play them from there too.
Difficulty: As I mentioned before, Wall-E is not a very difficult game to play. In the boards where you're playing as Wall-E, for the most part, it is very easy to figure out what to do. The hardest part is getting Wall-E lined up so that when you throw something, it hits the target just right. But even if you do miss, there's going to be another trash or cube dispenser very close, so you can just try again right away. It's not like you even have to backtrack very far to get what you need to retry. When you're playing as Eve, it is a little harder (at least for me) since the difficulty is based on moving her around obstacles rather than figuring out how to get her somewhere. Still though, it's not very much of a challenge at all. There is also a Multiplayer Mode available where you can race against your friends with Eve. The one thing I did find really helpful in the game was the ability to move the camera around. I love being able to move the camera in any game, just so I can see things at the angle that I want to. In Wall-E, camera movement is a necessity. Some of the switches you need to hit, or places you need to get to, are completely hidden from view in the default view you start with. You need to move the camera around to see where you are trying to get Wall-E to go. Without this ability, the game would have been much harder, and not in a good way!
Game Mechanics: When you are controlling Wall-E, you can use either the touch screen or the buttons. There's a list of what button does what in the manual and they are also listed on the touch screen, so I'm not going to bore you with which button makes Wall-E do a long throw or anything like that. If you want to use the touch screen to control him, you simply touch the action listed on the touch screen. Personally, I found using the buttons was easier, but it's up to you which to do. When you are controlling Eve, you don't have a choice in the matter. The D-pad will move her around. You can either use the (L) or (B) to make her move at a slow speed and (A) or (R) makes her move at a fast speed. There is no "stop" button for Eve. Fast or slow are your only 2 options. Eve took a little bit of work for me to control just right. Honestly, I really don't recommend Wall-E for the DS. Maybe it is more fun on some of the many other systems that it is available for, but I don't really know. On the DS, you'll most likely get bored of it very quickly. If you really are just dying to play it, I suggest renting it. You'll get all the gameplay you want out of it in a day, two days tops.
-Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor