I love Shrek. I don't love Shrek as much as Spongebob Squarepants, or Meatloaf (the singer, not the food) - but Shrek certainly comes quite high in my all time favourite list. Another Shrek game hits the shelves this Christmas, not to commercialise on any recent films, not cash in on simple mini-game gameplay and not even to entertain the younger audience. Shrek SuperSlam is just like Powerstone, but with Shrek characters. I'm sure you remember how good Powerstone on the Dreamcast was, too. I remember those days well!

Shrek SuperSlam is split up into a few modes. There's the multiplayer option, which can be played with or without friends, simple melee games, and even king of the hill matches. Then there's a challenge mode and the main story mode, which made me laugh a number of times. The story goes that a few of the Shrek characters are telling bedtime stories to these little gremlin creatures, to send them to sleep. The stories are always about Shrek characters fighting each other in large arenas of course, but the FMVs before the actual fight are told just like a Shrek tale would be told, with comical narrations and lots of bizarre situations. You are acting out the stories being told, and that's quite an interesting concept. The only trouble is, the story mode ends just when you're enjoying the comical narrative! There are just under ten levels, each level lasting two minutes long, so with FMV's and loading times you're looking at five minutes each - you can whiz through this mode (and it's not particularly challenging either) in an hour or less.

The actual gameplay itself is great. You and three others are placed in a Shrek themed arena, such as the castle grounds or in a medieval kitchen, and then the four of you battle it out, sometimes working with a team mate, sometimes in free for all, or maybe even three against one! Each character has a set of moves that are easy to discover and learn, and each is unique to that specific character. Players can even double jump around the arena and get the upper hand by fighting from above. Even better than that are the random spawning weapons that appear every now and again. Shrek with a gun is highly amusing too! Up until now, this all feels like Powerstone. However, the characters in Shrek SuperSlam don't have health bars as such. Instead, as you're fighting people, you build up a Slam bar. Once this is full you can use a special Slam attack, which could slam any number of people depending on how well you use it. Shrek's unique special slam is an Area-Effect Fart, so anybody in the blast zone will be slammed! At the end of the game, the person who wins is the person who has slammed the most. However, there is a twist. When you get slammed you lose a point - so you could finish the game with a minus, or you could even win the game with zero points if the other characters come out with minus numbers!

Take that gameplay and apply it to the Challenge mode. Basically, challenges are spread out over a board game screen, where you move your character, complete a number of challenges and then move to the next square. This all seems pretty pointless to me, just like a lavish menu system really. Challenges mostly have you using the fighting engine for other things, such as 'throw these people into the fire' or 'don't get slammed' - Challenges start off moderately simple, if not a little boring, but towards the end you'll be banging your head on the controller. There are hundreds of Challenges too.

Multiplayer games are always good fun with a few friends, but you can always make up the missing numbers with bots, which is very handy. When you actually slam an opponent, he or she actually goes flying into the environment and in many instances the slammed opponent destroys some of the scenery too! Most levels are fully destructive, which makes for a nice collection of levels that change as you're fighting.

For that, the graphics already have a couple of points under the belt. The rest of the game's graphics are hit and miss; the level design is most certainly a hit and keeps in check with the Shrek look and feel of things, whereas the menu system (aside from the board game look) is pretty drab, and is a miss. Character design up close looks rather nice, and should be classed as a hit, whereas character quality from far away looks scrappy - and sometimes it's hard to know where your smaller character is, such as the Gingerbread Man. The sound in the game is more of an overall hit than an overall miss. I love the voice acting; even though the game is probably full of sound-a-likes, the actual voices bring the characters to life. The in-game music is a little repetitive, but sound effects such as random Shrek phrases and environmental noises make fights a joy to listen to.

It's hard to score Shrek SuperSlam; I had a great time with it and I had a laugh with my friends too. I'm sure younger gamers from ten and up will love it even more than I did as well. The game doesn't really seem worth it if you aren't going to play it with friends however, so I'd advise against paying full price for this entertaining party game. However, when it drops to the £19.99 mark, well, then you have no excuse!

Reviewed by Dexter Pearson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).