The best days of adventure gaming may be in the past. We’ll probably never again see games like Zork or King’s Quest on bestseller lists, much less topping them. While Fallout 3 represents the future of adventure gaming, a few developers are keeping the classic formulas alive: The first episode of the Wallace & Gromit series by Telltale Games captures much of the claymation characters’ humor and charm through puzzles that require perception and patience.
Awkward inventor Wallace has come up with a new plan: selling fresh honey to his neighbors by way of a honey tap installed in each home. The scheme is stillborn until a shopkeeper places an order for 50 gallons of honey, to be delivered that evening. Naturally, producing that much honey requires a great many flowers, and a home-cooked growth formula seems just the trick. Too bad about the giant bees it unexpectedly creates.
Solving the collection of puzzles in Fright Of The Bumblebees requires a bit more perception than most current games. For example, seemingly irrelevant details shown in cutscenes may become keys to later solutions. Few of the game’s challenges are actually difficult, but that’s appropriate for a Wallace & Gromit story. The focus isn’t on destroying your brain, but tickling it with a few cute oddities.
Interacting with Wallace’s neighbors creates the best scenarios, such as the manipulation of an interrogation between a stodgy cop and Wallace’s malfunctioning cheese-sniffing robot. When the bees attack and the game veers slightly toward action, some of the charm wears off.
Beyond the game: Ben Whitehead steps in for Peter Sallis, the usual voice of Wallace. Whitehead makes a valiant effort, though the differences between his performance and Sallis’ are all too easy to hear.
Worth playing for: Entertaining achievements like “Go-Go Gorgonzola,” which tantalizingly challenges you to complete one chapter without touching the gorgonzola cheese.
Frustration sets in when: The movement controls are a bit wonky, so moving Wallace and Gromit around their neighborhood requires more concentration than it should. (Simply moving characters shouldn’t require any concentration at all.)
Final judgment: Perhaps not a grand day out, but a pleasant way to spend teatime.