This is a tough one for me to review. I’ve got biases out the wazoo here. I played this game with the love of my life over the span of months after smoking the big bowl of weed every single sesh. It’s not the easiest scenario to recreate. You’ve got to find the right person, wine them, dine them, take them home, marry them, inherit a dog, acquire another dog, buy a house, experience the good, the bad, and then ultimately show up together, late, to the adolescent activity of recreational drug use. They then have to introduce this concept of “Wallace and Gromit” into your life. The ignorance is key here. You’ve got to want to learn about this clay man, his dog, and his love of cheese. This curiosity must be tangled into the youthful nostalgia of your special friend.
These are my circumstances. I was put in a situation where the game could literally not fail. I was destined for a good time. The banks are just too big and no one else could possibly expect to recreate these circumstances, so how could I, a reasonable and humble reviewer, give this seemingly nothing game the full 5 stars. Two reasons:
1. I don’t care about other people’s playing experience and frankly think it’s their fault (and a great offense) that they are literally not me.
2. and cause its just good dude.
Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is the perfect video game adaptation of Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and by simply achieving that core idea through laser precise execution has produced some of the best hang out vibes in any game I have ever played.
From a purely visual perspective Wallace and Gromit is a stop motion clay animation and by luck(?), good timing(???), the PS2 is the perfect console to create choppy 3D models that imitate this look and feel to the fucking letter. It feels like you are controlling the literal characters from the show not a video game version of them. And it just don’t stop. They took this little backdrop town from the movie and recreated it into this huge lived in and explorable 3D space in the game. When you click the right control stick and hide the radar you can experience this whole town with literally no HUD. When you pause the game the menus are all a UI from one of Wallace’s gizmos. I feel like I’m controlling the movie and not playing a game. I, as a person who loves video games, absolutely despises video games, and never ever wants to feel like I am playing a video game while playing a video game. The attention to detail here to let the player be fully immersed playing as Wallace and Gromit of all things is ridiculous but above all: effective. Very effective, frighteningly effective. Sometimes we would boot up the game and just run around having Wallace say hi to all the citizens of the town, aesthetically different and named. When running past Pip Windfall, the red-haired soccer playing youth, Wallace would sometimes refer to him as “a scamp”. It’s delightful.
The gameplay is much in the same vein. Wallace and Gromit in the movie are “vermin-catchers”, the main gameplay is herding critters and protecting prized pumpkins. This is done with a variety of tools but it’s mostly using the sucker vacuum. You suck stuff up and shot them into an even biggerer non-moving sucker. Once big sucked the vermin is officially considered “catched.” There are different vermin with different characteristics and methods of catching. The standard rabbit can be herded into the big suck using just body positioning which is where this shit gets wild. There are several environmental tools that need to be operated by two players. This game is designed primarily as a two-player experience. Gates open with levers that need to be held open while another player runs through. You got lifts, bridges, doors, all the classics. Herding large amounts of rabbits through the games obstacles is a test in cooperation that would leave us audibly yelling every time we succeeded. Adapting 'Wallace and Gromit' they did not forget to leave out the 'AND.' Focusing development on a two player experience, a two player main storyline, there's a lot of untrodden gameplay innovation here. A third person, co-op, herding game. I'm never going to get another game like this until some kickstarter indie FREAK with actual skill and talent decides they would like to spend a lot of time making approximately no money.
If you are specifically me and specifically meet my specific life criteria, you are GOING to have a good time with this game. I hope everyone everywhere can find their own Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. I hope everyone everywhere can also experience the 10mg CBG gummy known as the “Mother of all Cannabinoids.” Though in our house we just call her mommy.
These are my circumstances. I was put in a situation where the game could literally not fail. I was destined for a good time. The banks are just too big and no one else could possibly expect to recreate these circumstances, so how could I, a reasonable and humble reviewer, give this seemingly nothing game the full 5 stars. Two reasons:
1. I don’t care about other people’s playing experience and frankly think it’s their fault (and a great offense) that they are literally not me.
2. and cause its just good dude.
Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is the perfect video game adaptation of Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and by simply achieving that core idea through laser precise execution has produced some of the best hang out vibes in any game I have ever played.
From a purely visual perspective Wallace and Gromit is a stop motion clay animation and by luck(?), good timing(???), the PS2 is the perfect console to create choppy 3D models that imitate this look and feel to the fucking letter. It feels like you are controlling the literal characters from the show not a video game version of them. And it just don’t stop. They took this little backdrop town from the movie and recreated it into this huge lived in and explorable 3D space in the game. When you click the right control stick and hide the radar you can experience this whole town with literally no HUD. When you pause the game the menus are all a UI from one of Wallace’s gizmos. I feel like I’m controlling the movie and not playing a game. I, as a person who loves video games, absolutely despises video games, and never ever wants to feel like I am playing a video game while playing a video game. The attention to detail here to let the player be fully immersed playing as Wallace and Gromit of all things is ridiculous but above all: effective. Very effective, frighteningly effective. Sometimes we would boot up the game and just run around having Wallace say hi to all the citizens of the town, aesthetically different and named. When running past Pip Windfall, the red-haired soccer playing youth, Wallace would sometimes refer to him as “a scamp”. It’s delightful.
The gameplay is much in the same vein. Wallace and Gromit in the movie are “vermin-catchers”, the main gameplay is herding critters and protecting prized pumpkins. This is done with a variety of tools but it’s mostly using the sucker vacuum. You suck stuff up and shot them into an even biggerer non-moving sucker. Once big sucked the vermin is officially considered “catched.” There are different vermin with different characteristics and methods of catching. The standard rabbit can be herded into the big suck using just body positioning which is where this shit gets wild. There are several environmental tools that need to be operated by two players. This game is designed primarily as a two-player experience. Gates open with levers that need to be held open while another player runs through. You got lifts, bridges, doors, all the classics. Herding large amounts of rabbits through the games obstacles is a test in cooperation that would leave us audibly yelling every time we succeeded. Adapting 'Wallace and Gromit' they did not forget to leave out the 'AND.' Focusing development on a two player experience, a two player main storyline, there's a lot of untrodden gameplay innovation here. A third person, co-op, herding game. I'm never going to get another game like this until some kickstarter indie FREAK with actual skill and talent decides they would like to spend a lot of time making approximately no money.
If you are specifically me and specifically meet my specific life criteria, you are GOING to have a good time with this game. I hope everyone everywhere can find their own Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. I hope everyone everywhere can also experience the 10mg CBG gummy known as the “Mother of all Cannabinoids.” Though in our house we just call her mommy.