Shrek (video game)

The player completes objectives ("Good Deeds"). In most objectives, the player hunts for an object and completes an action. Not many objectives vary from this, though a few will occasionally vary.

Following a completely different narrative than that of the eponymous film which it is based on, Shrek is meant to be a "continuation" of the story of the film, taking place after the title character has set out to regain his swamp and become a "'de facto' hero" to the fairy tale creatures.[5] Shrek is delivered a message by the infamous Magic Mirror that his wife Princess Fiona has been captured by an evil wizard, Merlin. Shrek must travel to Merlin's Dark Tower Fortress of Pure Evil, but an impassable fog has been laid across the Fairy Tale Lands. The fog and Merlin's Fortress can be passed through the completion of Good Deeds. The Magic Mirror gives Shrek a Book of Good Deeds and offers to teleport him to places where Good Deeds are required.

On December 20, 2000, TDK Mediactive signed a five-year deal with Dreamworks to produce video games based on the Shrek license; the plan upon signing was to release a Game Boy title coinciding with the film's release and issue another game for "a next generation platform" in the fourth quarter of 2001.[6] On February 6, 2001, the next-generation console was announced to be Xbox, development duties would go towards Sandbox Studios, and the game would use character and object models from the original movie.[7] On May 16, 2001, IGN released nine clips of gameplay footage from the Xbox title, noting "details in the graphics including loads of bump mapping an [sic] per pixel shading."[8]

On December 11, 2001, TDK Mediactive CFO Martin Paravato reported sales for both Fairy Tale Freakdown and the Xbox game making up "a significant portion of our revenue."[30] Shrek was the ninth-highest selling Xbox for the month of November 2001, selling 45,900 units and making up 2.6% of the console's revenue.[31]

As of October 2002, total units of all of TDK's Shrek games released at the time, including the Game Boy Color, Xbox, and Gamecube games as well as Hassle at the Castle (2002), totaled over 1.2 million units in sales.[32]

Reviews of the game range from very mixed to negative. GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score of 52% and 49 out of 100 for the Xbox version,[10][12] and 34% and 36 out of 100 for the GameCube version.[9][11] Reviewers criticized the gameplay in particular, as well as the audio. IGN described the game's puzzles as "run of the mill" and complained of the lack of audio in certain sections of the game.[22] X-Play criticized the GameCube version's framerate, "jerky" animation, and camera control claiming it could make some players nauseous. Critics generally praised the game's graphical presentation, with X-Play's Skyler Miller saying the game's graphics were "impressive at a standstill"[28] and Raymond Padilla of GameSpy claiming the in-game graphics matched the movie's visuals.[20] The Gamecube version's visuals were less favorably received, with IGN critiquing the game's lack of bump mapping when transitioned over to the Gamecube as well as the poor animation.[33]

• Shrek at MobyGames