Review: Wallace & Gromit in ‘Fright Of The Bumblebees’ [PC]

As a child in the late 80′s, I was introduced to Wallace & Gromit by way of their very first adventure, ‘A Grand Day Out.’ It’s interesting then, that their latest title has become such a beautifully crafted, episodic title from Telltale Games. While it would be considered primitive compared to modern CGI techniques, the animation technique used on ‘A Grand Day Out’ was ahead of it’s time. How things have changed!  Heck, I’m grown up and married now, but I’ll still consider myself a Wallace & Gromit fan from the beginning, and continue to enjoy their adventures whenever I can.

In the animated serials, usually under the direction of creator Nick Park, Wallace & Gromit, end up forced to use their wits, and ingenuity, to defeat injustice within society. The cheese loving Wallace and his ever-so-silent canine partner Gromit have faced everything imaginable – from evil penguins to Were-rabbits! Now, Telltale Games brings their expertise in episodic gaming to this franchise, and after their previous work with Sam & Max – how does it measure up?

Well, when I first found out I was assigned ‘Fright of the Bumblebees’ for review, I was afraid I was going to be thrown a child’s game, one which failed to capture that Wallace & Gromit experience I’ve loved for many years.  But as soon as I completed the tutorial and the famous Wallace & Gromit theme started playing, I knew that I was in for a treat.  Although at first the exclusion of the original voice for Wallace, Peter Sallis, kind of made me fear for how much my depth of immersion in the title would be spoiled, I found out soon enough that the official Aardman backup actor sounded authentic enough, therefore allowing me to move onwards and enjoy the title like it was 1989 all over again.

Throughout the title you play either as Wallace or as Gromit for what amounts to basically an entire animated episode! Following the traditional breakfast scene  and going to town to interact with some of the characters, you begin to understand that Telltale Games ‘get‘ the source material. There’s an innocent sort of love on display here with regards to the care they take in showing the material, and boy they deliver in spades. Throughout this exploratory journey you begin solving puzzles here and there, collecting items for use later in the game. While the puzzles aren’t necessarily hard, there are a few problems with regards to progression, which I’ll get back to soon.

The game, visually, looks quite impressive and the sound is as top tier as always, almost as authentic as an animated episode. Telltale Games really were able to capture the clay animation appearance of the original, as well as the weird and wonderful contraptions that Wallace creates, which then really come to life on the screen. The script is fantastic and just as funny as the shorts, allowing for moments where I found myself laughing out loud as the events unfolded on screen. Of course, nothing’s complete without the quirky characters, running jokes and the affable Gromit who makes every scene come alive with his body language and mannerisms.

There are some niggling flaws, though. As I mentioned earlier, the game can be somewhat confusing when you can’t find what you’re looking for. I often walked from screen to screen clicking everything because I had no clue what to do. At one point I became so frustrated that I ended up turning off the game due to a lack of direction within the game. It probably would have helped a great deal if the game offered a description of all the items I was carrying around.  On another note, I didn’t even find out until the end of the game that I could use the map that was given to me to directly go to the locations instead of walking the whole way.  Still, I suppose these are hardly game-breaking issues.

Overall, I’ve really enjoyed the game, and if you love Wallace and Gromit – I can assure you – you will love it too. It’s true to the Wallace and Gromit trademark style, and I can’t wait until the next episode hits in May. Although it doesn’t add anything in replay value, it’s probably good to pick it up again after a few months because just like a Wallace and Gromit short, it never gets old.

• Verdict: If you’re a fan of Wallace and Gromit, buy it.  Now.

• Completed: Twice.

• Players: 1

• Platforms: PC, Xbox LIVE Arcade

• Price: $34.95/£29.99 for this and upcoming episodes, XBLA pricing TBA

• Released: March 24th 2009 (PC Only), XBLA to be announced soon.

• ESRB/PEGI: not yet rated.

• Buy: Click here to buy ‘Fright of the Bumblebees’ from Steam.