This is an iconic nostalgic game to me, because it was one of a very small number of Game Boy Color games I owned as a kid. It was this, Pokémon Crystal, and that Disney's Atlantis one. These were my precious treasures.

Now, I've never been very good at fighting games, and especially not as a snotty little ten year old, but nevertheless I diligently pressed those A and B buttons, and lead my Shrek characters into battle, and I loved every infuriating moment of it.

The art and music in this game is really well done - in particular the way the characters celebrate when they win a match, or drop pathetically to the floor when they lose, is alway filled with such joyful, buoyant animation. You feel their suffering and/or bliss. Shrek has an insane, Joker-like grin when he wins. Fiona's kind of sassy with it. The gingerbread man is strangely menacing, waving candy canes in the air in the manner of a killer robot who possesses no mercy. It's all so beautiful. It's all so violent.

The game operates on a simple password system. Each level passed gives you a new one, so you can return to that particular level, enemy, or unlock. Entering the code to fight the dragon was the greatest hack I'd ever known as a child, and it was simple good fun.

Once I unlock the executioner (again), it's over for you.

Here's my full look at EVERY Shrek game: I Played Every Shrek Game

This is hands down the best of the GBA Shrek games. The power of being a snooty, chauvinist cat is simply too powerful. Compared to those other games, I prefer the visuals here. Even though they are very similar, maybe Puss in Boots is less susceptible to the pure grunkliness of the warped look of the 3D-model-transposed-to-pixels that effects Shrek and Donkey very badly, or maybe I've just become deluded after playing three games in the style. I don't rightly know.

I do know, however, that being just Puss for a bit, and abandoning the previous games' obsession with character-swapping and working together with each character's unique and amazing trait (Donkey can kick sideways, Shrek can smash downwards with his arse, etc), feels good. Those other characters could never double jump, but Puss in Boots can.

He is better, he is stronger, he is sexier, and he has higher IQ, obviously.

The game starts you out in a spooky level full of scary trees and skeletons, and as a person of great gothic spirit, this successfully swayed me instantly. This is a good game. You can tell because of the pumpkins. And the gargoyles. Seriously, the background gargoyles look insane. I love them.

By allowing the player a slightly smoother, simpler platforming experience right off the bat, it is just immediately better. I didn't get bored of this one. It's good.

Here's my full look at EVERY Shrek game: I Played Every Shrek Game

This game's cute! It's one of the better Shrek games, and feels like a fully fleshed out platformer. There's lot of fun mechanics and the levels are nice to look at. You control a party of four, who all have different abilities, and they have to beat up enemies like snails or guys, as well collect things like eyeballs and coins.

That's the life of a troupe of freaks traversing the swamp. And it's pretty good.

The feel of it is just right - Shrek has a satisfying punch - and the swappable party members give the gameplay a nice sense of variety and light puzzle elements. This is what Shrek and the gang deserve. A nice game :-)

Here's my full look at EVERY Shrek game: I Played Every Shrek Game

This is a broken and nasty game. Yes, the intro is delightful with its lullaby music and unbelievably warped-looking, papercraft-esque 3D models. They don't appear in the rest of the game, and that is a pity, because they are so insane-looking that I loved them instantly.

Anyway, this is a BRAWLER, and you are immediately thrust into a battle with Donkey. Maybe I'm a fool and an idiot, but I couldn't beat him. I simply got tossed, as poor Shrek, into the lava over and over again.

There's some things I know about the game:
- you can pick up items
- you can slam your enemy out of the arena
- one of the items you can pick up is a sexy beatnik bee with a moustache and beret

And there's some things I don't know:
- what the fuck is going on?

A deeply confusing game. I shall not be playing it again.

Edit: Here's my full look at ALL of Shrek's games: https://youtu.be/uOPKpZAI2wc