Wallace & Gromit’s Fright of the Bumblebees

If there can be one truism to be said of the games industry since E. T. The Extra-Terrestrial first left Atari’s codeshops 27 years ago, it is that movie and TV tie-ins are, with only a small number of exceptions, faceless piles of drivel: games driven primarily by the publisher’s need to earn a quick buck rather than push the boundaries of the form and create fun and memorable games.

It is with this thought in mind that I approached Fright of the Bumblebees – Telltale Games’ latest venture; in collaboration with the God-like Aardman Animations. As with Telltale’s previous titles: their successful reinvigorating of the Sam & Max franchise and development of the well received, if somewhat generously titled Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People series, FotB is at its core a classic point and click adventure title. Telltale have used the Wallace and Gromit license superbly, somehow capturing both the look and feel of the timeless TV show to a tee. The modelling of both Wallace and Gromit is particularly worth mentioning, looking for all the world like their larger screen counterparts: even down to the inclusion of the (perhaps slightly over-empathised) fingerprints which are visible on the original plasticine models. Personally, I appreciated how the animators managed to capture the full range of Gromit’s expressions and emotions with skill equal to that shown by Aardman’s own staff. The only flaw in the game’s representation of West Wallaby Street is the painfully obvious lack of Peter Sallis’ fine vocals. The official Wallace standby voice actor, Ben Whitehead, is a decent replacement, but just isn’t the real thing.

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The brand of humour that Telltale have matured in their previous games is well suited to the license’s own particular humour, and the story has been well written in a manner very similar to the TV shows, though somewhat smaller in scale. Controlling your character’s movement directly using the keyboard whilst initiating interactions with the mouse, you get to control both Wallace and Gromit as they navigate the neighbourhood of West Wallaby Street, solving a series of puzzles in order to aid Wallace in solving his latest set of self-induced problems. The duo have recently entered into the honey production business, and the “Pollinator” (attached to a bee hive) in their basement is unable to cope with a sudden order for fifty gallons of honey later that day. Displaying his usual lateral thinking skills, Wallace proposes that he shall increase his honey production through developing his own super growth formula in order to cultivate a garden of super-sized flowers and provide his bees with ample food… You can probably guess how this progresses.

After controlling Gromit as he performs the entirely essential task of making his master’s breakfast (not skimping on the honey), control is passed back to Wallace, where it remains for the majority of the game, as he explores the neighbourhood attempting to find the three ingredients for his formula. The process of doing so is typically convoluted, involving both convincing a war veteran that there is an air raid going on, and attempting to spring your latest cheese sniffing mouse-like robot from jail. The puzzles themselves are well written, mostly following the tried and tested key-in-lock method and, whilst being neither too easy nor too hard for the average gamer, can generally be solved with a degree of logical thinking. The action takes place over three different locales around Wallace’s house, and in the local town centre. The lack of locations is somewhat disappointing, but the vitality of the well written characters and strong story livens up retreading the same environments and given the episode’s relatively short playtime, is a forgivable sin.

With Fright of the Bumblebees, Telltale have created an enjoyable title which should be enjoyable by all ages, different aspects of humour working just as well with an eight year old nephew as in a video games evening at the British Legion. Whilst short (I completed the game in about four hours or so), it’s only the first of four episodes that Telltale are bringing out on the monthly basis at a single cost of about £25, the package as a whole still offers great value. I also hope that in the subsequent titles, Telltale will be able to improve on this first game, hopefully expanding the number of locations and introducing some new characters (it would be great to see some recognisable faces return from the films, but this would fly in the face of established convention.

The game’s humour and pacing is spot on, and though there are few laugh-out-loud moments, barely a moment of the game will seem dull. As a well written, solid and thoroughly enjoyable title, Telltale Games have succeeded in creating a rare thing: a worthy tie-in to one of the most iconic British TV shows of the past thirty years. It’s a strong game to open this short series, and I hope it will prove to be only a foundation on which the further superb games can be made.