G-Force

G-Force

Guinea pigs as super heroes, a brilliant idea that’s fun on the big screen and turns out to be more hilarious within a videogame.

If anything G-Force the videogame takes itself a little too seriously, but paradoxically this makes it all the more likely to promote fits of giggles. You are, after all, an anthropomorphic guinea pig trotting around with high-tech gadgets strapped to your warm furry body. Similarly G-Force on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 is a kiddie theme trussed up in a succession of proven videogame routines. You won’t need to be a child to enjoy this, but you may need a child to find as an excuse to bring it home!

Just to recap: G-Force is the latest Disney animation that tells the story of guinea pig friends who are also covert government agents. In the movie, everyday objects spring to life (much like they do in Transformers actually) and terrorise the guinea pigs. In the videogame released this week for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, game creators Eurocom have enjoyed stretching the concept even further. So much so, in fact, that producer Jerry Bruckheimer is said to have requested that certain enemies devised especially for the game could be included in the movie… but it was too late. Just to give you some idea of how gleefully Eurocom has approached the subject.

G-Force is also being shown in Disney Digital 3D in some theatres. Similarly the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of G-Force boast 3D visuals… albeit of the old fashioned kind. But we’ll get to that later.

You’ll play through most of the game as G-Force leader Darwin, guided by his team via intercom ala Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, Metal Gear Solid and so many similar games of this ilk. Only, don’t forget, you’re a guinea pig, which has plenty of strategic advantages. And so the bulk of the experience is figuring out how a little guinea pig can navigate the man-made world and remain undetected. Not easy when a pack of griddles are closing in on your bobtailed behind.

Darwin’s tools of choice are his electric whip, jetpack and infrared goggles. He also has a cute little gun. One of the delights of the game is that everything is puzzle-related, even each enemy. It’s not enough to find a corner and shoot frantically to bring them down, you’ll need to find their weak spots and in some cases these require getting up close to strike. Paper shredders, steam irons and notebook PCs all have their own neat little tricks wired into their innards and circuitry.

The core action is varied by the introduction of housefly commando Mooch. These flying sections are really terrific even without the 3D glasses, but they also show off the 3D effect to its best advantage. To be honest we much preferred playing Darwin’s sections without the glasses because puzzle solving is enough of a headache. Also you lose all that beautiful colour thanks to the red + blue = shimmering purple effect. Sadly this confuses the gameplay too on a couple of occasions. But you will, we’re quite sure, be dragging over friends and relatives to attempt the obstacle-laden 3D gauntlets that our indomitable housefly has to face.

One little let down is that the hamster-ball scenarios feel a little bit like an after-thought when they could quite easily have provided scope for extended play. The control is sloppy and the tasks reduced to dodging and shooting. But never mind.

Disney Interactive has overseen yet another successful movie / videogame tie-in, the last one being Bolt on Wii and DS. It seems that those days of greeting such projects with trepidation are all but gone. G-Force on Xbox 360 goes down as sweetly as chocolate coated sunflower seeds.

4 out of 5