Shrek the Third is a mildly charming trek on the Xbox 360.

In the world of video games, there is one game genre that stands out; the movie adaption games. They don't stand out because they're revered as amazing games; in fact, it's the exact opposite. Poor budgets, sub-par programmers, and short development periods usually result in bug-filled, low class games. This summer will result in many of these games, and the first one of this batch was recently published by Activision. Shrek the Third was created for many systems, but the one I will be reviewing released on the Xbox 360. It actually does a decent job of doing what it set out to do.

The Shrek series of games hasn't really delivered well. The past few mini-game-filled titles were fun, but only for a limited time because they weren't deep and polished. With the third official Shrek movie game, the developers seemed to have wanted to create a straight-forward action game in which players smash and bash their way through characters from the movie and beyond. They accomplish this by creating stages which are diverse in decoration, characters which stay true to the series, and gameplay that is slightly enjoyable.

There are around 15 stages to thrash through and five playable characters that you will switch around as throughout the story mode. Each character has separate abilities that get you through levels designed especially for them. It mixes up the gameplay, but it doesn't really add enough to make the different characters unique experiences. They all just mesh together into one single romp around some fanciful stages that ends after just a few hours.