Review: WALL-E (Wii)

At the time of writing, WALL-E is yet to hit the cinemas in the UK. If you cannot wait any longer for Pixars latest, then in the meantime you can pick up the video game instead. While the film may promise to be the studios best since Toy Story, can the game hope to match its quality?

In a word no, as while WALL-E the game is enjoyable in parts, it lacks enough variety or depth to really deliver a memorable experience. Robots in video games have a decent pedigree with Metal Arms: Glitch in the System perhaps providing some inspiration to the developer. Yet Heavy Iron Studios have not gone far enough, instead content to pursue the same basic formula that proved reasonably successful in Ratatouille, which surprise surprise they also developed.

Not wishing to spoil your enjoyment of the film, Gamestyle will keep the synopsis of the storyline short. Set in the near future, the world has become more polluted and corporate than ever before. The firm Buy ‘n Large has financed a massive clean up of the whole planet, while what’s left of humanity awaits its completion in orbit. Charged with the task are thousands of WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) units that are put to work, unfortunately it takes a whole lot longer than originally anticipated. The last remaining robot is discovered by EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) whilst looking for plant life on Earth. Soon they set off on an almighty adventure, and that’s where Gamestyle will leave the outline, as it will spoil your enjoyment of the film if you haven’t seen it first.

The world and characters of WALL-E are memorable and charismatic despite the lack of any vocabulary. These distinct machines manage to convey a wide range of emotions through mere beeps and bleeps, or short ZX Spectrum sound bursts. To Gamestyle this lack of dialogue is one of the most refreshing aspects of the game. While WALL-E himself follows a similar vein as The Black Hole’s Old B.O.B., he is a tough character and able to withdraw into his cube shape for protection. His ability to forge rubbish into throwable blocks is useful and often called upon during the game to unlock doors. EVE meanwhile is the futuristic Apple inspired robot that can take to the skies and use her laser whenever required. Together they form an interesting melting pot of possibilities, but Heavy Iron Studios has not developed this interesting buddy dynamic to any extent. What could have been is simply hinted at when EVE and WALL-E work together to overcome a level. The potential is frankly ignored and again highlighted by the lack of a co-operative mode. Instead in its place is the default ‘why did they bother’ multi-player mode.

The visual capabilities of the Nintendo Wii provide an urban, gritty, industrial feel to the graphics that while on Earth is ideally matched to the film. When the environment changes to a more typical space setting, it copes extremely and for the most part WALL-E is technically proficient. The strong artwork and source material from Pixar has been captured and recreated well, no doubt helped by Heavy Iron’s work on Ratatouille. All of this material can be viewed in the extras mode, where unlocked artwork and game videos are on display. Frankly after visiting this area once, you won’t return, as the quantity of extras is poor.

All of these issues and shortcomings could have been forgivable if the single player mode was exceptional, or at least very good. The whole experience is light years away from either, as your initial interest soon wanes. This is especially so when you realise that seeking out icons, canisters or unlocking doors by throwing objects is about all that this game offers. Fun moments certainly do exist but these are lost amidst the repetition of linear routes and an impractical camera. Set across ten levels (each containing a few stages and plenty of invisible walls), WALL-E is not a long title and neither is it difficult.

The only moments of frustration come from a lack of a help option, so if you miss that initial text message on what to do, then you may struggle. For the most part this is passable, you can figure out what is required, but Gamestyle suffered from moments of not knowing what desired action was demanded by the game. Some variety is introduced by EVE through several on the rails shooting stages. These are very simple but for the young market, very enjoyable indeed. The potential of theWii control system is never fully exploited, as it would have been interesting with two characters. The firing and aiming of EVE never feels accurate, demanding a scattergun (or laser) approach to reach the end. 

Ultimately WALL-E the film deserves better than this licensed release, which has been formed using an off the shelf formula. The cluster of extras and novelty saved Ratatouille, but you cannot trick Gamestyle twice using the same identikit method. Instead this is an average and somewhat lazy release, only saved by the quality of the source material.

Rating: 5 / 10

Words by Jason Julier