Wallace And Gromit Curse of the Were Rabbit - Xbox

The tie-in game to the theatrical film Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit captures Nick Park's beloved stop-motion characters, whose clay personas adapt especially well to video games. As in the movie, the latest venture for the inventor Wallace and his faithful dog, Gromit, is the "humane pest control" service Anti-Pesto, which is summoned by Lady Tottington to rid her estate of a rabbit overrun. However, Wallace's hare-brained scheme for long-term rabbit control has sinister consequences. The video game follows the movie plot and has the additional benefit of using the actors' voices (Peter Sallis as Wallace and Helena Bonham Carter as Lady Tottington, though Ralph Fiennes does not return as Victor Quartermaine). It's great fun to grab the adorable rabbits and eject them with the Bungun, and there are various other gadgets to tinker with. Wallace and Gromit's first console video game, Project Zoo, was a Gromit-only single-player affair, but Curse of the Were-Rabbit now lets you play as Wallace (and his alter ego), and there's a fun two-player cooperative option (just as long as you don't stray too far apart, because the characters are on the same screen). But it also has two major differences that may cause frustration. One is an overabundance of timed challenges, the bane of many gamers (though cooperative play does help). The other is the wide-open nature of the game. The town is fun to wander through and marvelous to look at (and you can clobber anyone you run into!), but many times you're left wondering what to do and where to go. But all in all, it's a good game for kids, especially those for whom enjoying the journey is more important than getting to the final destination. --David Horiuchi

Pros:

• A marvelous world to wander through
• A sense of fun that evokes the movies, and the original voices of Peter Sallis and Helena Bonham Carter
• Two-player option
• A good games for kids, especially those who aren't obsessed with making forward progress.

Cons

• Too many timed challenges
• Open-ended game play can be frustrating