
	Platform Xbox 360 Genre Action Adventure Publisher Activision Developer Beenox ESRB E (Everyone) Released November 2007

- Sticks closely to the events of the movie but still manages to throw in a bunch of extra things to do - The graphics are big and bright - Achievement points are given for just about everything

- It'll take a while for kids, the target audience, to get a handle on the overly-complicated controls

Review: Shrek the Third (360) Review: Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) Review: Spider-Man: Friend or Foe (360)
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Bee Movie Game

Score: 7.0 / 10

For a game squarely aimed at the younger crowd, Bee Movie Game sure poses a problem for the target market. That problem is: over-complicated controls. This is, of course, operating under the assumption that because the movie is popular among a younger demographic and families that this game is aimed at the same crowd. I almost think it isn't.

Following the major events of the film -- the exploits of Barry B. Benson -- and injecting lots of other busy work, Bee Movie Game scores points for presenting a world that mimics the one found in the film, in both sight and sound. That is to say, it's a big, bright, colorful game that looks a lot like the movie. (With Beenox

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behind the game's development, one should expect this game to nail the feel of the movie.)

But back to the main point about the target audience for this game. Letting my eight-year old son have a go at Bee Movie Game produced mixed results. He liked just running around

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performing the various jobs available, like taxi driver, but when he wanted to get back on the story path he needed help. Once on the story path he often got stuck on the flying combat sequences. Flying around, locking-on to enemies, and dodging incoming fire, takes some dexterity. Invariably, those parts led to me taking the controls and looking like a video game hero. I don't have a problem with that necessarily (I like playing games with my kids), but with a sensibility that seems squarely aimed at kids, why aren't the controls more accessible?

In the end, Bee Movie is harmless fun. Without the movie license backing it up, Bee Movie Game would still be a solid game (even if some of the story elements would make little sense), which means it's a great licensed game; the kind of title that Activision has been excelling at recently.

- Omni

(December 24, 2007)