Video Game Vintage Title: Shrek The Third

Shrek The Third

Shrek the Third is an action-adventure video game based on the 2007 DreamWorks Animation animated film of the same name, developed by 7 Studios, Gameloft, Amaze Entertainment and Vicarious Visions. The game was published by Activision on May 14, 2007, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, Wii, PC, Nintendo DS, and Game Boy Advance. A PSP version was released on June 5, 2007. There was also going to be a GameCube release but it got canceled due to its discontinuation along with Spider-Man 3. An Xbox version was also planned but was cancelled due to the poor sales for the system.

The soundtrack was composed by Winifred Phillips and produced by Winnie Waldron, with additional music by Geoff Zanelli.

It was the last DreamWorks Animation game released for Game Boy Advance.

Shrek The Third Gameplay

The storyline of Shrek the Third is based on the film. Shrek has to find Artie to have him serve as King of Far Far Away, while Prince Charming attempts to storm the city, and take the throne by force. Players can play as main characters from the film, including Shrek, Donkey, Puss in Boots, Princess Fiona, Fiona's cousin Arthur, and Sleeping Beauty. The game consists of 20 levels, some of which branch off from the main story of the movie, and features both single-player, and multiplayer play.

Reception
Upon its release, Shrek the Third received mixed reviews from critics. The Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, and GBA version holds a score of under 60% on the critic aggregate reviews site GameRankings, while the PSP, DS and PC received a score of and over 60%. IGN's Bozon gave the game a 6/10, stating it was "Three-dimensional in look, one-dimensional in gameplay.". Bozon also stated "Shrek the Third isn�t a bad game; it�s an unpolished one." Hilary Goldstein commented on the review that "Games based on movies are often bad. Shrek the Third manages to avoid being complete trash, but continues the trend of mediocre movie-licensed games. The core idea of creating a God of War-style game suitable for kids could have worked if not for some technical hiccups and boring enemies. At first, Shrek is mildly entertaining and might even hold the interest of some casual gamers, but after an hour things becoming horribly repetitive. The regular slowdown doesn't help and some of the stand-in voice actors are abysmal. Shrek the Third should mock videogames in the same way the movie mocks pop culture. Instead, it falls into an all-too-familiar pattern of button-mashing redundancy." In exception, Jack DeVries, another member of IGN, gave the DS version a 7/10, stating "Shrek the Third may not be the prince of the Nintendo DS, but thankfully it's not a smelly green monster either.".