There seems to be a running theme with all
Wallace & Gromit games. They always look good, as if Aardman's licensing department takes particular offence at its beloved clay duo looking anything other than spot on, but they always play in a very pedestrian fashion.
In a way, it's difficult to imagine
Wallace & Gromit games being anything more than sturdy, sensible platformers. After all, one of the characters is a cheese-loving, tea drinking British eccentric who invents things
and there's only so much you can do with that.
Plus, the two characters lend themselves particularly well to a tag-team, puzzle-intensive platformer. It's just a bit of a shame that the series is yet to have its own real stand-out game.
Like the several console games before it,
Wallace & Gromit Adventures isn't that stand-out game -although it is a good, solid platform adventure. You'll have a perfectly good time completing it, but you probably aren't going to be raving about it to your friends. In fact, you'll probably forget you ever played it ten minutes after the end. Poor
Wallace.
It's very simple to play. Each level takes place in a different part of the
Wallace & Gromit world - you begin, for example, in
Wallace's bedroom, trying to switch off the broken alarm clock.
These levels aren't easy to navigate. They involve a lot of jumping,
and dodging pesky things that divest you of a life if you touch them - things like spiders
and mice.
They also require the use of gadgets to get about. Gadgets such as the pogo stick, which lets
Wallace bounce to higher platforms, a catapult chair (which is quite self-explanatory)
and a boxing glove, which punches down anything in its path.
Gadgets can't just be whipped out whenever you like, though. First you need to collect the blueprint for an invention,
and then have to collect enough parts to build it. Then you need to reach a workbench, where
Wallace can put together his invention with a little help from
Gromit.
The use of these gadgets is pretty strategic, since you can build whichever ones you like whenever you like, then dismantle them again for the parts. A little lateral thought is required to get through each level, as is a bit of fiddly enemy dodging.
The game is easy to control, though, largely thanks to a thoughtful auto-jump that sends
Wallace lurching forwards. This obliterates the usual problem with mobile platform games that it's just too difficult to pull off a consistent forward jump when the going gets frantic using a little phone joystick.
In fact, there's plenty to commend this game on. But that still doesn't make it stand out. Despite the game's clever use of various gadgets,
and its perfectly generous 15 levels, it's still a fairly forgettable experience.
Jumping over spiders
and collecting machine parts
and bits of cheese is almost the platforming cliche defined. There's no doubt that having
Wallace and Gromit's faces in the game helps, but it also makes you realise that without them, the game would start to become really dull.
