Bad Habits - ‘Crikey!’ - October 12 2005

The moment I realized Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is one of the best children’s games ever was when, playing as Gromit the dog, I pulled levers to make a giant, fake rabbit atop a van do a seductive dance. The dance convinced a grumpy character that this big bunny was as appealing as he was told it would be.

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“Well,” the character said in his proper British tone, “I can see where you’re coming from. You even had me going for a minute, and I’m allergic to rabbits!”

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By that time, I’d already had so much fun with Curse of the Were-Rabbit, it was clear that it has taken years to get something this great in a kid’s game. Especially after we’ve suffered through an enormous number of bad children’s games starring other animated icons, from Mickey Mouse to SpongeBob SquarePants.

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Note to parents: Just because a popular character is on the cover of a video game box does not mean it’s worth $50. To the contrary, most are worse than other games, as a rule.

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But this is a masterpiece, worth the money, and enticing enough for adults to play. In fact, I am a Curse of the Were-Rabbit addict.

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What a big and wondrous land Wallace, an inventor, and Gromit, his dog, live in. It’s a collection of town centers, soccer fields and neighborhoods where charming Brits talk you up in the streets, and ask Wallace, Gromit and a helper bunny named Hutch to get rid of bunnies, squirrels, turkeys and other creatures that are running amok.

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Wallace has invented a non-gun called a “Bungun” that sucks little animals to the end of a hose, like a vacuum. You suck up the animal and walk it to one of the town’s many vacuum drains, which send the animals harmlessly to Wallace and Gromit’s pest-control basement. You also simply herd them to the drains.

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In his basement, Wallace tries to brainwash rabbits to stop overeating vegetables: “Veg, bad. Say ‘No’ to carrots, cabbage and cauliflower.”

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Side games abound. Wallace uses a wrench to open gates in a lock-picking method that never seems as if I’m learning something so nefarious as breaking-and-entering. Animated scenes show up. And two gamers can play together as the duo.

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This goes to show game-makers that just because a kid’s game isn’t riddled with blood and gore, it doesn’t have to be a boring, oversimplified adventure. Curse of the Were-Rabbit will take me perhaps 20 to 30 hours to finish all of its catchy little chores, such as taming baseball bat-wielding “were-creatures.”

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It’s terrific looking, too, not just because Gromit has adorable eyes, and not just because inventor Wallace’s bared teeth give him the unmistakable appearance of being comically anxious. Curse uses computer graphics to almost replicate the stop-motion animated effects of the movie the game is based on.

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I know adults who would enjoy this, even though they claim to be allergic to anything cute. How could they resist Wallace’s playful and well-meaning naïveté? He says, “Crikey! What a load of rabbits!” and “Oh, no, the prize onion!” The prize onion, indeed.

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thegamedork@creativeloafing.com

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Doug Elfman, an award-winning columnist, is also the TV critic at the Chicago Sun-Times.

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New To You — Used Game Of The Week

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Advent Rising is a marred piece of near-greatness. It’s often fun, as a sci-fi title that makes you slice aliens in an effort to save the last remnants of humans in the universe. And yet, the game isn’t the smoothest, cinematic adventure. It’s choppy to watch at times.

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Newer versions of Advent Rising for Xbox and PC are said to have cleared up such issues.

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In the meantime, used copies of the game are going for $20 and less, a good price for this flawed but long and sometimes-captivating game. It’s rated T for blood, violence and language.