I was told once by a friend that movie theme games were typically not the best when it comes to game play.  I can't say that I have experienced a lot of this first hand as the games we have typically purchased for the Wii have been titles around a sport or some of the standards (Wii Play, Wii Fit, Mario whatever, etc.).  When the opportunity to play the Wall-E game for the Wii arose, I approached it with a certain level of excitement as it represented something new to our game library.

When we first played Wall-E (my 7 year old son and I) we had not seen the movie.  We were not only getting used to the game controls but also trying to figure out what we were supposed to do and why.  We were able to get through several levels but fortunately for us, we went to see the movie soon thereafter and the game made more sense and was more enjoyable to play.  Mark that as one item to consider when playing a movie game, if you see the movie it might make more sense (go figure).

The game in Single player mode takes you through events in the movie with the goal being to collect a certain number of items and as part of doing that, overcome obstacles or enemies.  When you start out you are Wall-E on the trash encompassed Earth.  You have to maneuver around the terrain and use jumping and trash throwing at targets to trigger bridges, leap caverns and knock down barriers.  As with any game, the first thing is figuring out what you need to do (move here, shoot something there, do things in this sequence) and then to actually put all the actions together to get it done.  This process can get a bit frustrating but if it were too easy it wouldn't be a challenge.

Through the next levels of the game you become Eve and try to track down plant life.  Then you return to Wall-E and make your way through the space ship trying to avoid capture, find Eve and track down the plant that she brought back from her Earth mission.  There are a couple stages where you are Eve again, flying around in space trying to complete a course in time and catch Wall-E as he drifts.  Most missions in the ship involve dodging the chair laden humans, keeping away from M-0 and his incessant cleaning and avoiding the security guards.  I think the most fun was being Wall-E with Eve's arm so that he could return some fire on the Security robots- a little shoot'em up never hurt.

In general the movements of the characters (you can be Wall-E or Eve in some stages) takes a little getting used to.  Wall-E tends to move more quickly than I expected and I found myself overdriving and falling off of platforms on a regular basis.  The same is true with controlling Eve- she seemed to glide a little longer than expected, kind of like driving a boat.  But, after some practice most of the control adjustments came to me and other than the occasional goof, we were able to navigate around fairly well.  The challenge was still in depth perception and jumping- with the Wii graphics it is a little hard to determine how far some of the jumps were and took some trial and error to get it right.

Multi-Player play was a little disappointing.  Perhaps we just could not figure out how to do it right (I scoured the instructions- yes, a man can read instructions- but couldn't find much on any other options for Multi-Player play).  The games seemed rudimentary and there was no clear goal on accomplishing anything other than winning more points that the other players.  I guess I am spoiled with the teamwork you see in the Lego games and hoped for something similar here- a couple of Wall-E characters or Wall-E and Eve joining forces in some way.  Again, if it was there I could not find it so I would criticize the level of instruction if that is the case.

Overall, the game is fun for Single Player play.  We enjoyed the movie (aside from the political undertones) and the game is a nice addition to the story from the movie.  It is challenging but fair and the kids are able to figure out how to do most technical puzzles throughout the game.  They did get a little frustrated with not being able to conduct the actions once they figured out what to do (and some of the shooting battles are pretty hard to play through if you are not completely comfortable with controlling the character) but ease of control comes more with practice.  While I would not rate this as one of my favorite Wii games, it is definitely better then my expectations and one that has kept our interest even after the first few plays.