Cutest. Robot. Ever. That was the biggest takeaway I got from glimpsing the Wall-E Wii game at THQ's Fall and holiday season preview event today, and as the game is set to launch simultaneously with the movie, I have a feeling that that googly-eyed little guy, whose function is to pick up and compact garbage, will sell zillions of copies of this title whether it's good or not, especially as it's launching on Wii, PS2 and Xbox 360.
Unlike most of the games I saw today, Wall-E's coming out this month, so we'll know for ourselves soon enough, but I still thought I'd share my impressions of the title, along with some screens of the Wii version.
The rep who demonstrated Wall-E for me on the Wii said that, not being a "gamer" per se, she'd struggled often with Wii controls, and that playing Wall-E was the first time she'd found them accessible.
Makes sense, as like much of THQ's audience, this game is geared at a wider audience and intended primarily to be appealing to kids. It's simple mission-based gameplay and doesn't look too challenging or complex, but it definitely appears to be solid. For what it's worth, the self-proclaimed "non-gamer" rep seemed to play it with ease, so unless she was totally lying to me, its level of complexity is appropriate for young people and families.
Each stage has a different theme, like item collecting, driving, or puzzle-solving, and in some of the stages, Wall-E's robot love interest Eve helps him jump. I couldn't see all of the levels, because the later ones are spoilers for the upcoming film, whose story the game parallels. I know that I won't be able to resist going to check out Wall-E when it hits the theaters, hopefully with a young family member like my little cousin, who would really get a kick out of it. While it's probably not the kind of game I'd play on my own, it looks like it'd be genuine fun to play with her.