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> Results: Shrek Super Slam
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Did you sit through the end credits of the Shrek 2 movie? Or maybe you left it on as the kids viewed the DVD for the umpteenth time? If you did, you saw a charming little bonus vignette showing why Donkey's scaly dragon paramour was missing from the movie. Donkey's a daddy, and his donkey/dragon progeny prove to be more than just a fire-belching handful. The new party fighter (basically a Shrek version of PowerStone) uses these cute little crossbreeds as a framing sequence storyline for what turns out to be a fun little romp for the whole family.
In this corner, weighing a few ounces, delicious, and armed with a candy cane is Gingy the Gingerbread Man! And in the opposite corner is the champion of gross, Shrek! And then players make with the button mashing until one character falls ﾖ or certain conditions are met. Fun, lighthearted, and ﾖ true to the films ﾖ filled to the brim with clever puns, the same style and look of the films, and more fractured fairy tales than you can shake a wand at.  Shaba has done a terrific job translating the feel of Shrek to the game. Beginning with a wide range of arenas like Shrek's Swamp, Fiona's family castle, and these areas are introduced in a MTV Cribs-style fly-over that's tailor made for each character and location (this is very reminiscent of the hilarious COPS parody in Shrek 2), to the inclusion of even minor characters as fighters. They're all here, and rendered beautifully. Main characters like: Shrek, Fiona, Puss n' Boots, Donkey, The Fairy Godmother, and even minor league characters like Robin Hood, Pinnocchio, Quasimodo, and ... say hello to Snow White's little friends. Like PowerStone and more appropriately, Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. Melee, Shrek SuperSlam's gameplay mainly consists of bashing your opponent(s) in cartoony ways. Players can mix it up in co-op against the computer, or set up teams of computer-controlled and human controlled characters in any combination, up to four characters on screen at once. Each character has a quick weak attack, a strong attack, and a wide-range of character appropriate throws. Throwing your enemy breaks open the scenery and sometimes rewards players with power-ups and combinations are possible for quick thumbed players. Characters have their own special abilities, Puss is lighting quick, Fiona fights like she does in the first movie (big jumps, lots of air) and Shrek is a muscle-bound wrestler. Additionally each character has a "slam-meter" which, when full, lets you unleash the titular SuperSlam and finish off the opposition with style.  Controls are simple, easy to use, and even smaller children will pick up the combos fast enough to compete and the result is a lot of laughter and good natured trash talk. What really makes the game shine is how much mayhem results from a typical match-up. These environments are more than just well-rendered; they're destructible to very satisfying degree. Destroying the environment also gives characters weapons, like the pool table in Shrek 2's Poison Apple bar. The game features a melee mode (great for multiplayer); story mode (which pits you against one character at a time, it begins with Puss vs. Gingy) bookended with clever movie-style cut scenes that range from brilliant to, well, a little lame; training mode; and mega challenge mode. Mega Challenge is basically just another word for "mini-games" and they range from decent to great. For example, there's a simple racing mode that encourages foul play, a challenge mode where players have to toss their opponent off a cliff or into lava to win, and doing well along this branching campaign rewards players with new characters, new portions of the map (read: new minigames), and slamageddom mode. Slamageddon mode is terrific; it basically amounts to a mode where every attack is a slam attack. Watch the destructible environment hit apocalyptic levels! Multiplayer is admirably customizable. Mix it up with computer and human opponents and alter everything from venue to win-conditions. Shrek SuperSlam offers 20 characters, 16 levels, and a heck of a lot of replay value. It's great for kids and adults alike and shouldn't be dismissed as a mere licensed game. This is the real deal, a great family game, and even if you didn't like the movies, a heck of a lot of fractured fairy tale fun. 
Colorful, clever, and violent in the way the best cartoons are, this one can be great sibling, friend, or family fun for all ages that can handle a gamepad. A little non-gory violent action brings the family together, we always say!
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