Wallace And Gromit Curse of the Were Rabbit
by Konami
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Category: Video Games
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Product Summary
Brand: KonamiRelease Date: 2005-09-28
Platform: Xbox
Model: XBKONA 083717300533
Publisher: Konami
Product features:
- Use teamwork - Gromit must work with Wallace and Hutch to humanely rid the town of its rabbit infestation
- 3 playable characters - Play as Gromit, Wallace, and Hutch
- Hot-swap between the three on the fly to take advantage of unique talents and skills
- Players can use a wide variety of fun and quirky gadgets, including the Electric Screwdriver, Airblast, Pesto Pal, Bolt Cutters, Auto-brolly, and Lady Were-rabbit Decoy
- Day to Night - The town's pesky critters turn into ferocious Were-beasts as day ends and night begins
Video Game Reviews of Wallace And Gromit Curse of the Were Rabbit
Customer Review: Fun for everyone, but perfect for no one
Summary: 4 Stars
Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit tries to satisfy all gaming tastes, and mostly succeeds. It wants to be an action-platformer, collect-a-thon, rhythym based game, open-world sandbox, and even a gardening simulator. It's amazing that such an ambitious design based on a relatively obscure property succeeds as often as it does, but it's not without some pitfalls.
The first thing a player notices is the stunningly accurate rendering of the claymation world of Wallace and Gromit. The animations of every character are spot-on, and the art design of the town truly lends a feeling of controllable stop-motion artwork. The voice work is tops all the way too, and favorite characters from the shorts reprise their roles. Every inch of the town is a joy to explore, with lots of hidden surprises and a high level of interactivity. Truly someone with a great affection for the series built this game. Widescreen TV owners will appreciate the 480p widescreen capabilities.
The basic mechanics of the game are fine, with responsive jump and attack controls, and the ability to interact with every non-playable character in the game through the Y button. Trouble pops up when the "combo" obsession rears its ugly head. Like so many modern action games, Wallace and Gromit ventures into the land of Street-Fighter style multiple button actions. Unfortunately, the game engine just doesn't respond well to fast button pressing and the result is a lot of frustrating platforming. The controller mapping is also unecessarily complex, and can take a good couple of hours to become comfortable. Throw in the insanely difficult jumping challenges, and the sometimes brutal pest-collecting exercises, and Wallace and Gromit can at times be too tough for the seasoned adult gamer, let alone the intended child audience. However the joy of exploring the W & G world always kept me coming back to try and overcome my last trial and failure.
I really can't overemphasize the brilliance of the level design here. The game builds on known areas of the clay town, and adds new exciting areas like a seaport, a wood, and a colorful town fair. And each area seems to fit perfectly into the Wallace and Gromit lore, even though we've never seen them. Each new block is fully interactive, with an amazing amount of verticality for exploration. Though this is somewhat hampered by the camera, which can at times feel like it needs continual manhandling. The scope of the gameworld is a bit unnecessarily daunting, considering the general lack of direction. The game's story does follow that of the movie's, but story breaks occur at disruptive and unpredictable intervals, and rarely seem to have any connection to the gameplay. A little tighter scripting could have helped the game feel more purposeful.
The two-player cooperative aspect adds a lot to the fun, and can make some of the toughest collection challenges easier, though again the camera can be difficult. If players genuinely cooperate, it's a fun addition to the game. If they're trying to go in opposite directions, it aggravates all the little pre-existing problems and makes things a chore.
In summary, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a game that will appeal to both adults and children with its colorful and faithful re-creation of the world of Wallace and Gromit, and its rewardingly interactive nature. Kids will be put off by its sometimes ridiculous difficulty, requiring adult intervention with the "hard parts." Considering how much fun exporation of the game can be, you grown-ups might actually find that to be a good thing.
Description of Wallace And Gromit Curse of the Were Rabbit
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit lets gamers experience the fun of life with the two animated characters first-hand. Free-roaming gameplay allows players to freely explore Wallace & Gromits hometown with one of the games three playable characters, while using the amazing Bungun to turn anything thats not nailed down into a weapon! Use your Bungun to suck up everything in the environment, from hanging baskets and machinery, to earn rewards and create hilarious mayhemThe tie-in game to the theatrical film Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit captures Nick Park's beloved stop-motion characters, whose clay personas adapt especially well to video games. As in the movie, the latest venture for the inventor Wallace and his faithful dog, Gromit, is the "humane pest control" service Anti-Pesto, which is summoned by Lady Tottington to rid her estate of a rabbit overrun. However, Wallace's hare-brained scheme for long-term rabbit control has sinister consequences. The video game follows the movie plot and has the additional benefit of using the actors' voices (Peter Sallis as Wallace and Helena Bonham Carter as Lady Tottington, though Ralph Fiennes does not return as Victor Quartermaine). It's great fun to grab the adorable rabbits and eject them with the Bungun, and there are various other gadgets to tinker with. Wallace and Gromit's first console video game, Project Zoo, was a Gromit-only single-player affair, but Curse of the Were-Rabbit now lets you play as Wallace (and his alter ego), and there's a fun two-player cooperative option (just as long as you don't stray too far apart, because the characters are on the same screen). But it also has two major differences that may cause frustration. One is an overabundance of timed challenges, the bane of many gamers (though cooperative play does help). The other is the wide-open nature of the game. The town is fun to wander through and marvelous to look at (and you can clobber anyone you run into!), but many times you're left wondering what to do and where to go. But all in all, it's a good game for kids, especially those for whom enjoying the journey is more important than getting to the final destination. --David Horiuchi
Pros:
- A marvelous world to wander through
- A sense of fun that evokes the movies, and the original voices of Peter Sallis and Helena Bonham Carter
- Two-player option
- A good games for kids, especially those who aren't obsessed with making forward progress.
Cons
- Too many timed challenges
- Open-ended game play can be frustrating
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