WALL-E The Game (PS2) Review

 Wall-E (PS2) 5/10

Hello everyone and welcome to another video game review. Today, I’ll be going over the movie licensed game Wall-E. Wall-E, originally a Pixar film, was then adapted into a game, which was released on June 24, 2008 for the PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, and PC. The game was developed by Heavy Iron Studios and published by THQ and Disney. I have played this game religiously back when I was a kid, considering Wall-E was one of my favorite movies growing up. Revisiting this now, it does not hold up. Let’s begin.

If you know the story of Wall-E, then you know this game’s plot. Humanity destroyed planet Earth with its industrialization and poor regulation to keep the environment clean. All of humanity leaves Earth on several ships created by Buy n’ Large (BnL), with the plot focusing on The Axiom. With Wall-E, the last functioning robot on Earth, he gets very lonely. One fateful day, a pod shows up searching for any sign of plant life. This pod is named EVE. The two eventually meet and become friends. Returning back to The Axiom, the duo try to get humanity back to Earth, but first they have to get past the slew of robots that have taken over the ship. They succeed and humanity can now get to work on fixing the Earth. This game, however, changes minor things about the plot. It shows more of Wall-E doing his thing on Earth and makes it seem like Wall-E is going over bigger obstacles than in the movie. However, the overall plot is still the same.

Graphically, the game looks bad. For a game released in 2008 and, in the last years of the PS2, this game could look so much better. Jak and Daxter looks better than this and that was released 7 years prior. I know it’s stupid of me to compare a movie tie-in game to a AAA game, but still.

Sound design for the game is okay as well. I will say, The announcer for the tutorial was annoying as fuck. Same thing for when you are on the Axiom and the advertisement lady wouldn’t shut up about how great The Axiom is. Wall-E, EVE, and the ship captain sound exactly the same as from the movie. Makes me think they just ripped audio from the movie and used those lines. The music is exactly the same as from the movie as well. However, there is a game mechanic where you can lure the rejected robots with the song Wall-E likes to complete puzzles and platforming sections. After this game, I never want to hear that song again. There’s that and also whenever you complete a stage, another song will play for the score menu. I also never want to hear this song again. Both of these songs are completely burned out for me.

So the game is a 3D platformer/on-rails shooter/race to the finish line type of game. The game is a solid 10+ levels long and it will cycle through these three game types. The game desperately needed more platforming sections as I found these parts to be the best. Especially the junkyard and the final platforming section as you are trying to get to the holo-detector (before Auto turns everything on its side). The on-rails shooter sections weren’t bad, but there were too many of these sections in the game. I did enjoy the racing sections, both Wall-E and EVE’s versions of them. I will say, some of these levels were unexpectedly difficult. Nothing I couldn’t handle but it was still annoying that I had to actually focus on a shitty movie tie-in game. Also, the robot stewards had no right being so accurate with them throwing shit at you. Also, it doesn’t help that Wall-E controls like a tank. Not as bad as most tank controls in a lot of games, but a lot of parts in the game were much more tedious than they needed to be because Wall-E handles very weirdly.

As you play the game, you’ll unlock playground and multiplayer levels. These are actually really fun and I enjoyed these more than a lot of the main levels. My favorite being The Repair Ward Playground as it actually reminded me of some of the maps for the Tony Hawk games (sadly you can’t do a bunch of tricks, but it’s still fun to run around in).

There are collectables in the game too. In each level are boxes for you to destroy (just like in Crash Bandicoot). There’s also artifacts from the old world that Wall-E will want to keep. Once you find these, a short cutscene will play of Wall-E fiddling or playing with whatever he finds (binoculars, snowboarding goggles, a traffic cone, even Rex from Toy Story, etc). These moments were very adorable and fit Wall-E’s curious nature perfectly. At the end of each level, you’ll get scored on random bullshit you did in the level and if you were able to destroy all of the boxes and find all of the artifacts for the level. The game will reward you with shit in the main menu, but I didn’t bother too much with this.

Overall, this game was more of a pain in the ass than actual enjoyment and I can not recommend it unless you want to revisit an old childhood game. There are better games out there and even if you are in the mood for Wall-E, just watch the fucking movie. It was nice for me to revisit it and take off the nostalgia goggles and see it for what it truly is: a cheaply made movie tie-in game that shouldn’t exist.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.

This is Zorgak, signing off.