About two years ago, my husband bought what he thought was going to be a present for himself, one which nobody else in the house would bother with. It was the X-Box console, and since his initial purchase, our six year old son has seemingly taken over the game with various sports titles. Our five year old daughter has tried to compete in some of those games, but some are too difficult for her and other she has no interest in.

After we saw the first "Shrek" movie, we purchased Shrek's Super Party for Xbox and it has become one of our family's favorites since it is fun for both children and adults. It is not necessary to have seen the "Shrek" movie to play this game, but it will give you some familiarity with the characters in the game.

The Magic Mirror is emcee or host of the game and begins with "Once upon a time, in a kingdom just down the road...." there were six characters, each with his or her own wish:

Shrek wants to be left alone
Fiona wants to be rescued by her one true love
Donkey - wants a good friend
Thelonious The Executioner - want a vacation in the tropics
Monsieur Hood - wants to give his wish to the people
Lord Farquaad - will give his wish to the people

Lord Farquaad creates a tournament and the winner will have his or her wish granted.

The premise is that of a live action board game. Your character moves through various lands such as the castle, the bog, the farm and the keep, trying to get as many "precious drops" of bug juice that he or she can. Apparently there is a bug problem in the area and the characters help rid the land of the bugs by collecting drops of bug juice. The first player to get a certain number of drops wins. We usually play until somebody gets 500 drops, but you can adjust that amount higher or lower.

Up to four players can play and they can choose to be one of six characters from the movie: Shrek, Princess Fiona, Donkey, Lord Farquaad, Monsieur Hood, or Thelonious. There is no benefit to choosing one character over another as none have any special powers or abilities.

To begin play, the first player chooses the land he or she wants to go through and then presses the "A" button on the controller to drop a spinning ball onto one of nine numbered squares. The number you land on is how many spaces you move along the board through the land, and the animated character is shown taking these steps. In addition to numbers, each square also has an icon floating above it which varies for each turn. Some are very good and give you free extra drops of bug juice, while others are less desirable and force you to choose an opponent to give some of your bug juice drops to.

The Magic Mirror makes comments throughout the game. For example, if it Shrek's turn to move and the player is not doing anything, the Mirror will say "Drop the ball, Shrek!" The Magic Mirror also tells you where you have landed on the game board with a comment such as "Its time for an Epic Battle!"

The more fun spots are those which are "Daring Duels" or "Epic Battles" since these bring you to mini games in which all of the players participate. An "Epic Battle" allows all of the players to compete against each other while in a "Daring Duel", the competition is really just the player and the opponent he chooses, though all of the players do get to play.

There are a total of thirty mini games, which are randomly selected as you play. On the list are games such as "Rat Race" where you have to toss as many rats into as well as you can, "Spilt Milk" where you try pelt your opponents with as many half-gallon containers of milk as you can, "Hidden Treasures" where you need to open treasure chests to find matching colored gems inside and "Pea Shooter" where you need to shoot as many pea pods as you can as they continually bud and grow on vines.

Most of the games include moving the character around in some way while simultaneously pressing the "A" button to grab or throw items.

After each mini game, you go to the Bug Swapping Screen where you can trade bugs to try to match as many of the same type of bug as you can by switching with other players. Different colored bugs are worth different amount of bug points, and these are the points needed to win the game.

Once a character attains the amount of bug juice needed to win, a short animated scene is played showing that character's wish coming true. Since the scene is the same each time, even my children have become bored with it and once somebody wins, the game is usually shut off before the winner gets his or her accolades.

If you have less than four people playing, the computer will play the remaining parts for you. Be warned, though, the computer is very good at each game, and we have found it impossible to beat the computer at the mini games.

We have gotten much fun family game time out of Shrek's Super Party. It is a game that all ages can play, and the mini games are easily learned so that if somebody wants to join in who has not played before, they can do so fairly easily.


Recommended: Yes