Wallace and Gromit: Fright of the Bumblebees Review (PC)

Let me start of by saying, I used to love watching the animated-clay duo as a child, and, while I haven’t watched anything about the two characters in years, I was surprised at how much I still enjoyed the Wallace & Gromit universe. Call me immature, but, looking back with a much older perspective, I can see why the cartoon was one that my mom preferred to watch with me as opposed to Sponge Bob Square Pants. Not to take anything away from the immortal goodness that is Sponge Bob, but the Wallace & Gromit universe definitely still has that feel that is great even after all these years – similar to Looney Tunes. My point, you may be surprised at just how much fun you can have Wallace & Gromit: Fright of the Bumblebess. I’m not quite sure I can recommend the title to grown men, but I do think you’ll be surprised at how much you’ll be willing to help your child throughout the game.

Focusing on the series’ clay-animated graphics, Fright of the Bumblebees does an outstanding job of transferring the clay-figurines to a completely 3D and interactive world. The environment is actually very well modeled, and the objects are incredibly refined – all of which really make the world of Wallace & Gromit come alive. Particularly, Wallace’s house, even with my somewhat hazy memory, seemed oddly familiar and was exactly like it was depicted in the longstanding series. The character models didn’t look quite as smooth as the environment, mainly to keep the integrity of the look of the protagonists, and their animations did seem to have a pretty bad habit of recycling. The animations aren’t necessarily bad; they just get recycled too much for my liking. Also, to my delight, the voice overs are as great as they ever have been in the series, and the game’s keen sense of humor feels right at home in Fright of the Bumblebees. Mainly accompanied by the same theme music from the series, there’s not a lot of background outside of that, but the game’s constant use of voice overs keep it from getting too repetitive.