Game Review: "Fright of the Bumblebees" Starring Wallace & Gromit

Point and click adventure games introduced me to computer gaming. As a child I used to spend dozens of hours each weekend pointing where I wanted my game character to go and clicking on the objects that I wanted examined. It was simpler gaming during a simpler time. But like the lyrics of Bob Dylan's song "The Times They Are a-Changin,'" the times changed as I transitioned into adulthood. Point and click adventure games seemed to fade away as 3D graphics evolved and first and third person shooters shot their way into gaming consoles and computers. Grim Fandango seemed to be the last point and click adventure game before the genre appeared to die.

Then I was surprised to learn about Telltale Games and their current line of point and click adventure games. Telltale Games turns the point and click adventure into episodic gaming via digital distribution. By paying for a season pass, players get to download and play chapters of the game as it is released. The episodic games are quick and cheap to produce, allowing for faster and more frequent releases that are cheap to purchase. After the end of the season, players receive a game disc with all of the chapters included. As a veteran of the point and click adventure game, these episodes allow me to enjoy an engrossing story with challenging puzzles wrapped in a small package that I can quickly solve before resuming my adult duties of earning income to pay bills and buy more games.

After continuing the classic comedic point and click adventures of Sam andMax and creating a game series set in the Homestar Runner universe, Telltale Games now joined with Aardman Animations to give the classic British cartoon characters Wallace and Gromit the point and click adventure treatment with Wallace and Gromit's Grand Adventures. Available on the Xbox 360 and the traditional PC, players control the lovable duo as they work their way into and out of trouble using their inventions and ingenuity. Four episodic games are planned for Wallace and Gromit, beginning with Fright of the Bumble Bees (FBB).

FBB is an original story based on the Wallace and Gromit setting. In this episode, the cheese obsessed absentminded inventor Wallace attempts to start a honey production service with the helps of his faithful beagle Gromit. Just like any Wallace and Gromit story, Wallace's inventions turn a simple task into a complicated visual production that eventually blows up in his face and needs mending. The plot develops as the player solves various inventory puzzles as Wallace and occasionally Gromit.

FBB captures the look and feel of the Wallace and Gromit cartoons well. The teamwork of Telltale Games and Aardman Animations is astounding. Telltale Games rendered the character models to accurately look like the plasticine models of the Aardman cartoons. Several props from previous Wallace and Gromit cartoons make a cameo and one prop even helps solve one of the clever puzzles. The town looks like a miniature set used in production of the cartoons as well. New characters including his next door neighbor, a senile war veteran, and a cute squirrel are introduced to Wallace's neighborhood along West Wallaby Street. Despite the huge 3D rendering, my netbook can handle the game with minimal chugging. Load times are issues only when starting the game or entering a new room for the first time. The game sounds terrific with its beautiful period background music and voice acting. While the original voice actor of Wallace is not in this production, Aardman's "official back up" voice does just as good of a job albeit a little deeper compared to Peter Sallis. Fortunately, the original voice for Gromit remains the same. If they decided to remove the game elements, Aardman Animations could easily adapt FBB into another Wallace and Gromit cartoon short.

Game controls in Wallace and Gromit are simple. Despite being different species, Wallace and Gromit have the same control scheme. The A, S, W, and D keys send Wallace or Gromit walking. The Shift key opens the Inventory Screen and the Escape key opens the menu. The mouse guides a cursor over the game screen and becomes a bracket when placed over anything that Wallace or Gromit can use. A couple of sequences play like target practice where players aim the target reticle over the object the players want to shoot. It is a nice break in the point and click adventure and a nice nod to its evolved form the first person shooter (FPS). Occasionally there are issues when the camera and the directional movement keys do not work well together and cause Wallace or Gromit to walk in the direction contrary to the player's intentions. Also on rare occasions, the interaction bracket will not respond to the intended object and takes a little shifting of the cursor to rectify the situation. But aside from those glitches, controlling Wallace and Gromit is easy and responsive enough for a child to handle.

Back in the 90s, point and click adventure game players simply rubbed the various objects they collected during the game against other objects until the game's logic kicked in and continued the story. In the 21st century, FBB continues the tradition. Whether as Wallace or Gromit, players solve puzzles by rubbing their inventory of objects against other objects and wait for the FBB logic to comprehend. But it is the cartoon logic of Wallace and Gromit that gives FBB its challenge and charm. Those familiar with Wallace and Gromit will understand how off the wall the logic is. Players must think like Wallace and Gromit to solve the puzzles and watch the story unfold. Some puzzles are easily solved with common sense and attention to the story. Each inventory item has one use in solving the puzzle and the characters automatically perform the correct course of action with the item. This means there is little exploration, but it also means there is no way to make a frustrating mistake.

More challenging puzzles require imagination stemmed from the cartoon logic. An early puzzle left me wondering how to crack an egg for breakfast. After attempting a straightforward solution, I wound up using part of Wallace's contraptions based on a Rube Goldberg design to get the egg cracking. Fortunately, if players get stuck, a selectable hint system will subtly cause the camera to focus on a particular location or cause a nearby character to talk about items or actions needed to solve the puzzle. Players are sure to get about four hours of storytelling gaming entertainment depending on puzzle solving abilities and FPS accuracy.

For veteran gamers who miss the point and click adventures of yesteryear and current generation gamers who want a break from the FPS killing spree, Wallace and Gromit's Grand Adventures is a refreshingly fun game to play with excellent presentation. The cartoon characters of Wallace and Gromit combined with the inability to die during the game makes it also a fun family game.