Wall-E, the cute robot from the new Pixar movie is now on an Xbox 360 console near you thanks to the latest movie to game adaption, and yes before you ask, your right, it’s another movie to game adaption that surprisingly isn’t very good.
Anyone who has seen the movie should know what the game is all about because it generally follows the plot. Basically you take control of WALL-E, who is the last of the Waste Allocation robots left on earth after mankind vacated the world when it became inhabitable. It was Wall-E’s job to clean up so that one day the humans could come back to mess the world up all over again, however no-one turned up until one day when a ship came with another Robot on board, call Eve, her task is to find life on earth, however after she only finds Wall-E she fly’s off again, Wall-E meanwhile had become quite taken with her and decides to find her, so that they can live happily ever after.
During the game you can take control of Wall-E and occasionally EVE. When playing as Wall-E you will be trying to negotiate various levels which are filled with hazards, such as pits, platforms you need to jump from or water, getting through these levels consists of tasks such as flicking switches or throwing cubes which you generate from a nearby vendor. You will be able to get different types of cubes depending on the situation, for example some are magnetised to enable you to repulse metal, while some are explosive and can be used for various things such as blowing up pylons to access new areas. You can also make Wall-E more compact, which helps you fit through cylinders or get from one platform to another easily (well I say easily but we will get to that in a minute).
When you take control of EVE you have the ability to fire lasers, this is quite handy when things get in your way, you can also cause pylons to explode with a power surge enabling you to explore new areas. Unfortunately controlling EVE is a lot more fun that controlling Wall-E, this is because EVE is quite agile and not constrained by being stuck on ground level, whereas Wall-E is, and unluckily for everyone who has to control Wall-E thanks to the camera and controls, this is no easy task.
Most platform type games live and die by their camera and control system, therefore it isn’t looking good for Wall-E. The main issue with controlling Wall-E is that when you are trying to jump he becomes compact, in this guise you suddenly have no control over him, although you can still move the analogue stick to guide him, more often than not this is not sufficient, meaning that 9 times out of 10 he will fall to his doom. This is a big issue and certainly very frustrating and although in general the game is quite easy to get through for the most part, this coupled with the fact that the game can get very repetitive may just have you turn the game off and never go back to it again.
If you are not put off by the controls and repetitive gameplay then I’m afraid that the camera may just swing it, unfortunately you constantly have to put up with a camera that is too close to the action and also never seems swing round to where you need it to be, this does make the game feel like it has been rushed to meet the films release, but what else is new? Graphically the game doesn’t do itself any favours either, screen tearing, drops in frame rate you name it, and you will find it. There is no doubt that Pixar didn’t make this game as the quality of the movie puts the game to shame.
Wall-E does include some multiplayer modes, unfortunately though these feel tacked on and don’t really improve the game in anyway.
Wall-E is your typical movie turned game, it feels rushed, the graphics are substandard and it isn’t fun to play. If you love the movie and want the game, then get prepared to feel robbed.
