Bee Movie Game

Ah, this is certainly the Golden Age for animation whether you like the endless stream of Disney animated movies or the various other non-Disney related features that are lighting up the silver screen. The latest animated feature to hit the theaters is a DreamWorks Animation movie simply called The Bee Movie (which, if you don’t already know, was written/produced and features the voice of comedian Jerry Seinfeld). This, of course, also means that a game will also be released in conjunction with the movie. While many animated movie licensed games are uninspiring and lack innovation for the sake of making extra money, The Bee Movie Game for the Xbox 360 is actually a fun game with a lot to offer.

 
Delivery Dude versus Stingy McGee … Tekken has finally run out of ideas.

Like the movie, the game follows the adventures of a young bee named Barry B. Benson, who is a recent college graduate ready to join the hive’s workforce. The game actually begins with a televised interview where Barry recounts his adventures and, most specifically, his encounter with the human world. You see, Barry has always wondered if there was more to life than simply work for the hive and after accepting a job that would take him outside to gather pollen from flowers; he meets and befriends a human named Vanessa. We follow Barry as he navigates through the hive as well as the human world discovering that it’s possible for bees to live side-by-side with humans.

Almost immediate you’ll be allowed to explore the hive that looks a lot like our own world since it’s filled with hive-like furnished homes, cars and a number of locales like an arcade and a museum. At the start of the game, Barry is asked to report to his first day on the job of the Honex Company. How he gets there is entirely up to the player and gamers will quickly see that there’s a lot of ground to cover. You’ll find bees walking to work as well as driving and Barry can jump into any car he encounters. Once at work, Barry starts a mini game that has him attempting to catch honeycombs with a machine you operate. Aside from that job, more career opportunities arise such as the one that has you performing the duties of a taxi driver or food delivery person and you can also become a racecar driver.

Still, the most interesting job takes Barry outside the hive. Accepting a job with the “flyboys,” Barry finds himself heading outside to the human world to collect pollen using a pollen-extractor gun. In the hive, the game has a regular platform feel to it but in the outside world the charming little bee takes flight. As Barry is quick to point out, though, bees have a thick rump and small wings so flight isn’t exactly as smooth as, say, a mosquito or a wasp during flight. It is here that the controls can get a bit convoluted but once you get the hang of it flight becomes one of the game’s biggest highlights … especially when it comes to combat. That’s right; the game takes on a sort of flight-combat simulator tone as Barry fights off waves of mosquitoes or those pesky wasps. You can target enemies in flight with a reticule that turns green when you have a lock on so you can fire from your pollen extractor gun the way a fighter plane fires a missile. Aerial combat is not only challenging but fun as well.

 
“Say hello to my medium-sized friend!”

While there are a number of repetitive moments in the game (such as the few times you are out collecting pollen), you will be playing through memorable moments from the movie. For example, the day you meet Vanessa on a tennis court relives a hilarious moment where Barry clings to the very tennis ball Vanessa and her boyfriend are using during a match. Moments like these are playable, starting a timed mini-game that has you pressing buttons as the icons flash on the screen. Also, there are moments when Barry is caught outside when it starts raining. While rain is nothing to humans, to bees it’s a dangerous event. Thankfully, Barry has Bee Vision and a method that can slow rain down enough that you can avoid the raindrops.

If you skip right through the mini games, the story mode can be quite short but I see young gamers taking their time exploring and completing the various job mini-games. In the hive, you can even head to the local arcade and play a few arcade games that are inspired by some old school classics (Hive Attack, for example, is an homage to Space Invaders and there‘s even a game similar to Frogger). There’s even a multiplayer mode that allows two-players to go head-to-head in Lap Race, Waypoint Rally, Single Track and Taxi (by far, the best of the bunch). There are also plenty of collectibles that unlock not only the typical movie stills you can view later but also alternate costumes and the ability to replay favorite moments from the game.

The game’s graphics are also something of a treat since it does a great job of reproducing the film’s wonderful animation. Not only do the characters and backgrounds look great during cut scenes but the visuals look good during gameplay as well. The game’s world is filled with sharp detail and plenty of color and moving Barry around the hive or outdoors is just a nice visual treat. You’ll really can’t tell if the movie and game apart.

 
Famous last words: “Wait, this isn’t a can of Raid.”

The game’s sound is another treat because there’s a good score and great voice acting from most of the movie’s cast. The highlight, of course, is Seinfeld who voices Barry and gives him some cute lines as well as some funny ones as well (fans of the Seinfeld sitcom will find that the humor is relatively the same only directed at bees). There’s also some great background sounds that compliment the action that goes on the cut scenes as well as exploration bits are punctuated by a solid soundtrack.

The Bee Movie Game for the Xbox 360 is a surprisingly amusing and fun game that young gamers will certainly enjoy playing from beginning to end. While it’s not as freshly original as some other platform games, Activision has done a great job with the movie license to bring gamers a fun experience that should keep young gamers deeply involved in the adventures of a charming bee with bigger ambitions.

Gameplay: 8.2
Gamers can pick up and play without any trouble and that’s a very good thing. While the game leaves the storytelling to the movie, playing through different key moments in the movie is handled well enough. While there’s some handholding in the beginning, there are some fun challenges throughout.

Graphics: 8.5
On the Xbox 360, the game looks every bit as good as the movie and even the cool visual effects feel straight out of the film’s animation. With sharp, vibrant colors and gorgeous details, this is one good-looking kid’s title.

Sound: 8.2
The game’s music is nice and lighthearted but the real highlight comes from the voice acting that has much of the film’s cast providing the voices for each of their characters. Jerry Seinfeld does a good job of injecting his brand of humor throughout the game and, as always, Patrick Warburton is hilarious … too bad we don’t hear enough of him.

Difficulty: Medium
Barry is certainly a busy bee with his various jobs and his frequent trips visiting his human friend Vanessa. The races can provide some challenges but the hardest segments of the game come from the “aerial combat” bits that have Barry going up against mosquitoes.

Concept: 8.0
True to the animated movie and filled with a number of gags courtesy of Jerry Seinfeld, Bee might not be big on story but it’s no slouch when it comes to the mini games and the challenges the game throws at you. It’s a human world and the main character is a little bee so the game does a great job of making something as trivial as rain a major threat. There’s also a multiplayer mode and loads of collectibles.

Multiplayer: 7.9
Two-players can go head-to-head in three race modes and one taxi multiplayer game that will have you competing to see how many customers they can deliver to their destination on the big map. It’s fun stuff but the races could have allowed up to four players at least.

Overall: 8.0
The Bee Movie Game is a fun little romp with some funny moments tossed in for good measure and while it’s not an innovative platformer, it still has enough good things going for it. Filled with a variety of different mini games and big environments to explore, young gamers will certainly like Barry’s high-flying antics and enjoyable gameplay that makes this an entertaining game for the Xbox 360.