WALL-E PSP Review

WALL-E

Sony PSP Review
Publisher: THQ
Developer: Savage Entertainment
Released: June 24, 2008

WALL-E has been developed for the Sony PSP by Savage Entertainment, as the developer attempted to bring the hit Disney and Pixar movie over to the Sony handheld. The story, for those who do not know, follows WALL-E, a robot whose job is to gather up trash, squish it, and turn it into blocks. His world pretty much follows that path until he meets a female robot, EVE, as his world is then changed.

The Sony PSP version of WALL-E does a great job of actually capturing the entire feel and flow of the movie itself. From a visual standpoint, the developer did a nice job to capture the detail and animation in the characters of the game. The visuals are not going to blow you away by any means, but for the most part there is a decent amount of detail, and a nice flow overall to represent the Pixar film well on the PSP.

The same can be said for the audio experience in WALL-E on the PSP, as the developer did a good job of bringing many of the sound effects, and musical score, straight from the film to the PSP. Things will get repetitive in a few spots, but overall the game sounds nice on the handheld.

So all seems to be going just fine for WALL-E on the Sony PSP until you actually get down to the gameplay. WALL-E struggles in the controls department on the PSP, due to the fact that everything just comes across extremely stiff. Those animations which were highly-representative of the real WALL-E in the movie do not lend themselves over to smooth controls.

A lot of the level design in the game has to do with many platforming elements, as you are trying to get from various platforms, jumping and navigating your way up. Things get hard though as the PSP thumbstick makes for some stiff controls. The worst aspect of this is that if you fall off just once, you have to start the entire level over. There are no checkpoints or anything of that nature to be found. This is surely going to be aggravating to the younger crowd out there, to which this game is aimed at.

A lot of the levels have to do with WALL-E trying to navigate through areas breaking down trash in his interior, and then using it to solve puzzles and access new areas.

On top of WALL-E, you also get to control his female robot friend named EVE. The levels which involve EVE consist of flying levels, and are pretty fast paced and fun. Overall though, they do come across as a bit generic at times.

There is certainly some reason to come back to WALL-E though and try to complete everything. As you collect artifacts in the game which consist of human objects, you can add to your score and unlock content such as film images and concept art. These are not great unlockable rewards, but for those who like to complete things fully, they could keep gamers coming back.

WALL-E is not a terrible game on the Sony PSP, as it does do a decent job of combining puzzles, light combat, and racing elements all into one package. There are too many drawbacks to it though which will likely aggravate and turn away gamers. Best to keep this one as a rental.

Graphics: 7.0 The visuals for the PSP version are pretty solid, with decent detail and expansive levels.

Audio: 7.5 Highly-representative of the film, great music and sound effects.

Gameplay: 5.5 The game has a rough time with controls on the PSP, and the lack of any type of checkpoint system is very frustrating.

Replay Value: 6.0 Playing through once can be quite easy, and there is not much to keep you coming back, with few rewarding unlockables.

Final Score: 6.5

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