Wallace and Gromit in Project Zoo

Ok, before we launch into this review I’ve got to hold my hands up and admit I was never a big fan of Wallace and Gromit on the small screen. No. Never. In fact, I can’t ever remember catching a whole episode of the clay characters adventures on the small screen. But saying that, I should take this time to mention that I once cut my hair for a Nick Parks movie. No, I wasn’t in one. I just wanted to go and see Chicken Run but didn’t want anyone to recognize me.

So when the new offering from Bam! Entertainment arrived at the office I held out little hope that this would be anything more than a cheesy TV tie-in with the life-span of a goldfish’s memory. But I was wrong. Somehow Bam! have managed to take a mildly popular TV show from 1989 and produce a mild, inoffensive and often charmingly addictive game in 2003.

The unlikely premise of the game spells out its family entertainment values from the start. (At this point the writer takes a deep breath). Okay, here we go: On the birthday of their adopted polar bear, Archie, our eponymous heroes decide to drop by the zoo to celebrate. But (gasp!) on arrival, they realize that the zoo has fallen victim to some dastardly foul play. And the culprit? None other than that foul fowl Feathers McGraw – a peevish penguin with a penchant for pilfering. (Umm, actually I think a fowl is a chicken – Ed).

Sorry about that. Got carried away. Well, as I was saying, Feathers McGraw has somehow escaped from doing porridge in the penguin house (hey, that wasn’t one of mine. It’s in the game. Honest) and, rather than heading North like any sensible penguin would, he’s decided to enslave all of the zoo’s baby animals. Why? Well, as a way of persuading their parents to help him turn coals into diamonds using his deviously named Diamond-o-matic, to work. Why else?

Cue an opportunity to control Gromit in a 3D platform adventure. In Wallace and Gromit’s first digital adventure on the PS2 you’ll be dusting off all the old platform chestnut’s of running, jumping, kicking and collecting items through 23 missions, 6 levels and about a dozen mini games. And by simply pressing the triangle button you can call your master, Wallace, to help you past an obstacle or fix a piece of machinery that might be blocking your path. Yeah, yeah, we know. Platform games are so ‘yesterday.’ Who wants to waste time collecting gold coins and jumping over silly ledges when you can tear around an F1 circuit screaming blue murder and thumbing your nose at rival testosterone-fuelled death machines. But hold on, this is actually fun. If you can suspend your disbelief for a second, brush aside the banal pre-watershed plot, the banana gun, the porridge gun, the mechanical penguins and Wallace’s teeth grinding over-use of the phrase "lad," you do have at its core a pretty solid game. And we’re not ashamed to admit that, although its not exactly as tough as a grizzly bear with a flick knife, Wallace and Gromit In Project Zoo will have you racking your brains and testing your hand and eye coordination to the limit. Ahem, at this point, I promised to say h**o to the helpful PR man at Bam! Entertainment who helped me get past the big driller tank level. Not that I needed the help of course. But, umm, thanks anyway, chum.

The in-game graphics are pretty slick with animators managing to capture both the look and feel of the clay characters from the TV episodes. Sadly, Gromit doesn’t get to lounge on the sofa and read the papers like he does on TV but his movements are intuitive and spot on. Mind you, we’ve never seen Gromit do karate on the TV, so we’re going to have to take Bam!’s .word for it. The TV feel of the game is increased by the developers decision to rope in the actors from the series to provide the in-game voice-overs.

The one glitch that could have been dealt with prior to release is in the camera system. Although the camera is, for the most part, pretty good at following the action, you do have those moments that make you want to growl like a rabid rottwieller. Too often the camera will get stuck behind a pillar so you’ll have to scamper around the screen until you can see yourself. Other annoying moments will have you standing on a perilous, windswept ledge about to attempt a daring jump. And then you realize the camera has gotten stuck behind you and you can’t see what you’re jumping onto. No biggie for sure but we thought it was the developers who had to make a leap of faith when releasing the game – not the gamers playing it. This (very) minor moan aside, the graphics are a good job with excellent lighting and shadow effects and boast an attention to detail that shows just how much time has been spent on this game. Although fun to play, Wallace and Gromit In Project Zoo will, however, struggle to hold your attention. Like many platformers before and probably after it, the challenges are repetitive and do little to lift the game’s head above the masses of ‘run and jump’ titles vying for your hard-earned cash. As Gromit you will have to navigate your way through forests, caves, mines, collecting coins and tools so that Wallace can repair items dotted through out the game. Your main objective is to thwart Feathers McGraw’s plan and free the animals before the potty penguin can hatch his plot (groan – Ed). Ho-hum. It’s not that the game is boring. It’s just not very original and in an industry where innovation is the king of the road, copycats are so much roadkill. The bottom line is that Wallace and Gromit In Project Zoo is simply a solid, family game that brings yet another TV show to the shiny black box. If you’re a fan then this game is definitely worth adding to your video collection. If you’re not a fan of the series then it’s probably worth renting this title first.