Shrek-N-Roll

What It's All About

Shrek-N-Roll is a simple puzzler game.  You select 2 shrek based characters (24 total after you unlock them!) which stand on either side of a stick and pully system.  You move each character up with your left and right thumbsticks to balance some sort of round food source up to the a glowing shrek baby hanging out of a window on the wall.  Of course there are some traps which you must navigate around.  There is a standard mode, score attack mode, and challenge mode - the game also has multiplayer, but local only.

Single Player

There are 16 boards to complete in the standard mode of the game.  As you complete boards you unlock the other modes of the game (such as score attack) and the extra characters which are not available by default in the game. 

Once you get the hang of how to balance the ball and move the characters properly to avoid the traps it can be entertaining for a bit - but does get very repetitive.  The boards do not randomize, so after a few times through, you remember exactly where the next ball has to go etc - lowering the replayability of the game.  They are challenging at times for the first run through, but with enough practice, and remembering the paths you must take - they become alot easier.

Multiplayer

There are 2 multiplayer modes, co-op and versus.  You could guess that in co-op mode you work together one player controls the left character, and the other controls the right - other then that its the same as the single player. 

Versus mode provides unlimited balls for both sides, and essentially you just have to get the better score than your friend.  There is a new element in the game where if you pick up a potion an attack is sent your opponents side to try and unbalance their ball.  I found versus mode very troublesome because even on my 52" HD TV it was rather hard to make out the actual board.  Everything is cut in half to make room to show 2 of the map on the splitscreen, and with this many things get a bit small to see, I can't imagine what it would look like on a smaller television.

Graphics and Gameplay

There isnt a ton to judge on the graphics and gameplay - graphically its ok for an arcade game, there really only is a back wall, the traps and the characters to consider though.  The characters seem pretty detailed though. 

Achievements

You will get 95 points just for simply completing the 16 boards that are available.  If you finish the last 5 (queen's castle) levels without losing a ball you will rack yourself up another 25 points.  The last 60 points are for multiplayer, and simply winning in versus or co-op should get you those in time.  The achievements are pretty easy, but for a simple game based on a kids movie - you can expect the audience would be those same kids - so it makes sense that they achievements are a bit easier to obtain.  The only one that is difficult from what I have heard is to complete all the Queen Castle missions without loosing a ball, a few people I have heard spent hours just on that one - the others come pretty easy.

Value

Unfortunately the value just isn't there with this game.  The game isn't a bad game really, but for a cost of 800 MP ($10) - I just am not sure it hits the mark.  Sure there are quite a few boards, quite a few game types, and quite a few of characters to select from, but the boards are not randomized, the character dialog gets old real quick, and the game types are just different ways to play the same boards.

In short...

The game is pretty simple, which isn't exactly a bad thing, especially for an xbox live arcade.  There is actually quite a bit of content in the game - when you look at the 24 different characters to select, the number of boards available, and the game types for each board.  Unfortunately even with the amount of content in the game it gets very repetitious - there is only so many times you can hear "I guess I OGRE powered you" before you want to punch yourself in the face.  I actually enjoyed the game for what it was - and quite honestly if the price was a bit lower - I would have rated it much higher.  I think at a lower price it would have sold a bit more, currently I could only suggest buying it to someone who doesnt mind spending $10 to raise their gamerscore 200 points.

Review by Dave [Squidpunch] Larrabee