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Fright
of the
Bumble
Bees
Available Here! |
Platform
PC
Genre
Adventure
Publisher
Telltale Games
Developer
Telltale Games
ESRB
T (Teen)
Released
March 24, 2009
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- A true cinematic adventure game
that brings the movie stars seamlessly into a game that plays
out as the latest Wallace & Gromit flick
- Good amount of diversity in the game’s environment
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- While it has it funny moments,
doesn’t match the humor level of either of Telltale Game’s
recent episodic adventure series, Sam & Max or Strong Bad’s Cool
Game for Attractive People
- Manually moving around Wallace and Gromit using the keyboard
is slightly awkward versus the prevalent click-to-move setup of
Sam & Max or Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People
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Review: Strong Bad Episode 5 (PC)
Review: Sam & Max Season 2 (PC)
Review: Sin Episodes: Emergence (PC)
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Wallace &
Gromit's Grand Adventure: Fright of the Bumble Bees
Score: 8.5 / 10
There is arguably no closer relationship
between man and beast than that of a guy and his dog. Faithful and loyal
companions, canines have forged their way into man’s lives like no other
animal that’s ever lived. One of the most special bonds between a man
and his dog is portrayed by the famous “claymation” film duo, Wallace
and Gromit.
Wallace the somewhat shy, flaky, naive and nerdy British chap with a
obsessive taste for cheese that fancies himself an inventor is
constantly bailed out of sticky situations by his devoted pooch Gromit.
And a sticky situation is exactly what Wallace and Gromit find
themselves in, in more ways than one, in the first game –
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Fright of the Bumble Bees in the newest
Telltale Games episodic point & click adventure series, Wallace &
Gromit’s Grand Adventures.
Telltale Games has already successfully developed two previous series
Sam & Max and Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People – into very
good point & click games. And that wasn’t easy to do, considering that
the |
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point & click adventure had been long thought to be a dead gaming genre.
An even bigger risk was presenting both titles as episodic adventures,
each broken up into smaller episodes released over time instead of the
more traditional route of releasing a complete game at once. But
Telltale Games resuscitated point & clicking and also proved that the
episodic business model can be a success, and brings that expertise to
the most famous subject matter in any of its games with Wallace and
Gromit.
Wallace, needing a quick money fix in order to get out of a financial
crisis, decides to get into the honey business. One problem: the tiny
bees with the help of the pollinating invention of his can’t produce a
large enough quantity of honey in time. So, using a miracle-growth
formula, Wallace bulks up the flowers needed to assist his bees in their
honey making to ridiculously enormous proportions, and the honey starts
flowing free and plentiful. But the growth formula has an unexpected
side effect: it increases the size of the honey bees, too, who decide to
flex their newfound muscles all around town, buzzing and bullying the
terrorized townsfolk. Just a simple, everyday misadventure Wallace and
Gromit always seem to get themselves into.
While the game sticks primarily to the point & click gaming conventions
of first finding then combining objects to solve the many puzzles, it
relies on using the keyboard to move around. This does make moving
Wallace and Gromit around slightly more awkward than the prevalent
click-to-move setup in the two preceding Telltale Games point & click
titles.
One trademark of both those Telltale Games titles has been extremely
funny humor along with very well written scripts. While Fright of the
Bumble Bees features a strong script, the humor – maybe owing to the
fact that its characters are British, and British humor has its own
eccentricities that not everybody outside England finds as funny as the
Queen’s people isn’t as funny as found in the more smart-alecky ribaldry
of Sam & Max and Strong Bad.
Where Fright of the Bumble Bees soars above the two other Telltale Games
series – and it’s no surprise, really, considering the history of
Wallace & Gromit – is in its cinematic presentation quality. This game
really does play out just like the newest Wallace & Gromit short film,
with strong voice acting throughout Fright of the Bumble Bees’ many cut
scenes. It’s really easy to forget that you are playing a game and not
watching a movie. But when you are actually involved in playing Fright
of the Bumble Bees, it is a solid point & click adventure with smart and
challenging puzzles. While they can sometimes be hard to figure out
(like in the frustratingly hard-to-aim shooting puzzle and the climatic
queen bee truck chase), using the game’s very helpful hint system does
get gamers out of any head-scratching conundrum.
Keeping the gameplay from getting too stale or predictable is the
variety and diversity of Fright of the Bumble Bees’ environments.
Wallace and Gromit venture from their comfy domain into the front yard
and beyond, traveling to the small village they live in to solve the
game’s many puzzles.
While the British humor leanings of Fright of the Bumble Bees might not
be everybody’s cup of tea (and crumpets), and doesn’t have the same
hilarity level of both the Sam & Max and Strong Bad games, it is funny
enough and continues the Telltale Games propensity for creating yet
another very enjoyable point & click adventure with a smartly written
story and tough-enough puzzles.
- Lee Cieniawa
lcieniawa@armchairempire.com
(May 4, 2009) |
