Full Review

19 January 2007 - I was immediately suspicious of a game with a title you’d most commonly associate with the toilet, but of course, it is the official game of the lavatory-esque named movie from Dreamworks. But is this the stuff of effluent?

As with all movie tie-ins, you pretty much know what is coming to the table before you arrive. Being the official game of the movie does give it a distinct advantage – the characters that you may have seen on screen now appear on your console, and because this is an animated movie, the videogame equivalent doesn’t look half bad. That said, it is graphically quite simple.

You get to play with Roddy, Rita and Jammy Dodger, as you set off for an adventure in the London sewers. Battling the baddies from the film and recreating the on-screen action.

Flushed Away is 3D platform in nature, so resides in the domain of the firmly irritating at times – especially when trying to follow a route from A to B, mistiming a jump and ending up where you were 3 hours ago (the likelihood being that you’ll do exactly the same next time round).

There are some unlockable features, namely production art and a location for entering the cheat codes – I thought cheats were supposed to remain hidden, not firmly reside in the game’s menu.

VERDICT
There is nothing new here, it is simply the movie formfactor in a fairly normal platform environment – as is the case with so many movie games. I guess the captive audience – kids who have just stepped out of the cinema – might be distracted for a few hours, but there is little to entertain a serious gamer for long.

All in all, nothing to get excited about.