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Review: WALL-E - Xbox 360, PS3

by Steven Williamson on 24 July 2008, 11:45

Tags: Wall-E, THQ (NASDAQ:THQI), PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PSP, DS, PS3, Mac, Wii, Platform

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Garbage

WALL-E’s primary job on Earth has been to gather rubbish and convert it into cubes, which in the film he piles up to make giant skyscrapers of rubbish. In the game, however, garbage collecting is the core part of the game play, so you’ll find yourself converting trash into cubes and using them at every opportunity to solve puzzles.

You can deposit any trash collected into stations that are scattered around each world, where you can press your ‘B’ button to turn them into cubes. You then pick them up, three at a time if you so wish, and throw them at targets that often activate a bridge or lob them into a container that may trigger a platform, allowing you to reach the other side of the level.

Despite some variation in the types of cubes you can pick-up, for example, energy-powered cubes can be used to power-up switches when you stand next to them (they also predictably activate platforms and bridges) the puzzles repeat themselves over and over again. Disappointingly, they’re just never clever, exciting or challenging enough to warrant any praise.

WALL-E controls well enough, it certainly feels like your controlling a robot alright, but here is where the problem lies. Controlling a robot that spends his life on a tread-mill instead of feet means that there are so many limitations as to what he can do and how he can maneuver.

This means that you’ll often mis-judge jumps and go hurtling off a cliff or inadvertently bump into an obstacle - of which there are many littered around the environment. His maneuverability is also hampered by the level design, which often requires you moving from lower platforms to higher ones, where you’ll often accidentally fall back down and have to re-start the section.

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