Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit (Xbox)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 6.3 (3.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Bob Colayco
• Reviewed on: 12/05/2005
• Released on: 09/29/2005
• Originally published on GameSpot: Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit (Xbox) Review

Nick Park's lovable claymation characters, the affable inventor Wallace, and his preternaturally intelligent dog, Gromit, are at it again in their newest video game, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Based on the film of the same name, the game is a platformer that has you controlling Wallace & Gromit as you explore a town and do missions for your fellow townsfolk. While the game does a good job at capturing the look and feel of the Wallace & Gromit universe, the missions themselves are only mildly amusing at best, and are sometimes unclear in their objectives.

The story of The Curse of the Were-Rabbit loosely follows that of the film. Wallace and Gromit are partners in a humane pest-control company called Anti-Pesto. They've drummed up quite a bit of business catching rabbits as the town leads up to the annual vegetable competition. With all the townspeople trying to protect their giant vegetables, Anti-Pesto is in charge of catching all the rabbits in town and protecting them from destruction by the furry pests. Lord Victor, a smarmy hunter, sneers at the humane methods Wallace and Gromit use to catch the rabbits, preferring instead to shoot them. But the Lady of the town, Tottington, favors the bloodless way of doing things, and contracts Wallace and Gromit to protect her house, much to the jealous chagrin of Victor. After a brief tutorial level in which you clear rabbits from Lady Tottington's house, the rest of the town is opened up, and you can wander around and pick up simple missions from the various townsfolk. The town is open-ended, so much like in a Grand Theft Auto game, you're free to walk around and explore, doing the missions in any order you please--although some areas of the town are locked away until you've completed certain tasks.

The missions are often very short and simple; they often involve going into gardens and catching varmints like rabbits and squirrels before they eat the large vegetables. Others are chores like finding three vials of holy water that the vicar has lost in the sewer, or sorting vegetables that roll down a Rube-Goldberg device that the bank manager has constructed. To do the tasks, both Wallace and Gromit are armed with a vacuum-like weapon called a bun-gun. The bun-gun can suck up single rabbits, vegetables, or other items and shoot them out. You'll also unlock other gadgets and tools along the way, like a screwdriver that Wallace can use to disarm security doors via a minigame, or umbrellas that you can use to float down from high places. Certain missions and puzzles require both characters to work together, so if you're playing single-player, you can go to certain spots and whistle for the other character to help you. You can also play the campaign cooperatively with two players, so you can work together to do these tasks. The combo tasks are usually pretty obvious, like having one character suck open a switch cover with the bun-gun while the other character hits the switch. Wallace and Gromit each have special strengths, as well. Wallace is taller and can double jump to higher places, for example, while Gromit has the ability to wall jump up narrow crevices to get to high places, much like the Prince in the Prince of Persia games.

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