Shrek Super Party

Published by TDK Mediactive
Developed by Mass Media
Platform: Xbox
Released - Out Now
Price : £39.99

If there is one thing a console needs it's a healthy collection of party games. With the Xbox now being 9 months old in the UK, it's difficult to say that there is a great wealth of them available. Fuzion Frenzy is perhaps the pick of the bunch at the moment. We have recently also looked at Whacked! which wasn't really upto scratch. So then we come to the latest party game on the Xbox, Shrek Super Party. Let's see if it can become the premier Xbox party game.

Shrek Super Party is made up of five realms. In each realm there are six mini-games to compete in. Of course the mathematicians among you will deduce that there are only 30 mini-games available, far below that of Fuzion Frenzy. These games can either be played in isolation by choosing Mini-Games from the main menu or ideally played in a Tournament game.

The Tournament game is kind of like an interactive board game. The goal of the game is to accumulate precious drops. The number of precious drops needed to win the tournament can be selected in the main menu and range from 200 (10-15 minutes game) to 800 (60+ minutes game). The game begins with the bug catcher game to see what 5 bugs you'll begin the game with. The bugs are important because at the end of each game you get the chance to swap bugs to improve the number of precious drops you have. The winner of a game will get to swap 3 bugs, second place can swap 2 bugs and third place can swap one whilst the person in fourth place can do nothing. Points (or rather precious drops) are rewarded for having two or more of a certain bug. The bugs are also rated from one to five. So for example after bug swapping you have three of the blue bugs, which are worth five each, and two of the red bugs, worth two each, you would have a total of 19 precious drops to add to you score. However you get a bonus of 5 for having two the same and a bonus of 15 for having three the same. So the total precious drops to add would be (3 x 5 + a bonus of 15) + (2 x 2 + a bonus of 5) = 39 precious drops.

After the initial bug catcher game you pick a realm to travel round. The realms on offer are Windmill, Farm, Castle, Keep and Swamp. The realm you travel around will affect the choice of game that you'll play in. Rather than rolling a die, you have to drop a revolving ball onto a box with a series of nine holes in the top. Above each hole is an icon of a particular action that will take place should the ball land in the appropriate hole. Below is a summary of the six actions:

• Trade Two Bugs - You get to swap two bugs with a player of your choice.
• Give/Lose Precious Drops - A random amount of precious drops is taken away from you.
• Win/Take Precious Drops - A random amount of precious drops is given to you.
• Magic Mirror - What happens here is anyone's guess. It's all upto the Magic Mirror.
• Daring Duel - The player chooses an opponent and a mini-game involving all players takes place. Only the duelling players compete for the opportunity to trade bugs though.
• Epic Battle - Basically this triggers a mini-game for all to compete for a chance to trade the most bugs.

The tournament mode is actually fun to play. There are not a great deal of mini-games to enjoy but what's on offer is generally of a high standard. When you consider that games like Mario Party have 50+ games but only a few of them will be really good, then the generally good games that are on offer in Shrek Super Party look much better. It's a question of quality over quantity.

Visually the game looks good. The characters featured are Shrek, Princess Fiona, Donkey, Thelonius, Monsieur Hood and Lord Farquaad. All of these characters look great and are instantly recognisable to fans of the film. As you would expect there aren't are framerate issues or glitches to speak off. In terms of graphics it's certainly a job well done.

Deaf gamers can also rest easy because for the most part the game is fine. The introduction isn't subtitled and when it's your turn to drop the ball there are no subtitles for when the announcer says "Drop the ball Monsieur Hood". Most of the time the Magic Mirror appears onscreen, the comments are subtitled and all the games instructions are shown in text and require you to press the A button to progress. There is never an occasion in which the deaf gamer will be disadvantaged in the game.

Shrek Super Party is certainly a fun party game to play, especially if you are a younger gamer or a fan of the film. The mini-games always keep it simple and fun and most of the time only the left analogue stick and the A button are required. Most important of all though it's actually a good single player game which is always a bonus with a party game.

Overall Game Rating: 8.0/10
Don't be fooled by the relatively small amount of mini-games. Shrek Super Party offers plenty of fun for those four player occasions.

Deaf Gamers comment:
Some subtitles are missing but nothing that will stop you enjoying Shrek Super Party.