Xbox 360
Did someone take a boot to the arse of movie-tie in developers recently or are these games actually, ever so slowly, getting better? Wall-E, hold on to your hats, is another smart and challenging kids title, making the most of its source material in what is a fun and charming experience.
Set in the year 2700, the Earth is essentially a massive garbage dump, spoiled by us humans and abandoned. Left to clean up the mess is an army of Wall-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth Class) robots, who work tirelessly cleaning up our mess. After so many years, however, they have all shut down except for one plucky little dude who will melt your heart.
The Wall-E robot in this game is lonely and heartbroken. When a mysterious robot called Eve swoops down from the sky, our hero falls head over tracks in love. What follows is an exciting race across many fun and challenging levels to help him "get the girl", so to speak.
For a little guy whose main duties are raking through muck, Wall-E has many neat moves to play around with. Zipping around on his tank-like tracks beats walking any day, and he can also retract into a little cube and roll about, smashing into things and crossing precarious ledges.
He can also put his trash-compacting skills to good use. Crushing down regular garbage makes cubes that can be thrown at enemies or switches. On the Wii version, this is controlled by shaking the Wiimote to compact and throw rubbish, while the nunchuck cycles through the blocks you are carrying.
Make a cube out of heavier trash and these can be used to weigh down pressure switches or knock down walls. Finally, energy cubes are highly explosive, so be careful where you chuck them! These can also be used to generate power to operate lifts or doors.
Using these three cube types presents some fun and often smart puzzles. Again, younger gamers won't find this too easy and will have fun rolling around the futuristic junkyard. In some stages, you will control Eve, whose preferred means of travel is to speed through the air.
Her puzzles are slightly different, tasking you with blasting certain objects with her arm-cannon, flying through treacherous sewer systems while dodging pipes and falling debris, or trying to locate plant life (which is her primary function).
It may not have the longevity or complexity of most standalone titles, but as a movie tie-in, Wall-E stands up there with the best of them. It's meant for kids, it ticks all the 'kids game' boxes and it operates on a level they will understand and enjoy &mdash sorted.
The game also features a charming Pixar orchestral soundtrack, sparse but very touching dialogue from the robots and very nice visuals. Kids will get a kick out of the colourful city, even though it's completely desolate and hauntingly deserted.
The sight of the city in ruins as you merrily run around collecting Wallops (the game's equivalent of coins) is foreboding, but when you're having this much fun, it doesn't matter. So we wrecked the planet, so what? At least we get to play around with this little guy for a bit.