The Collection Chamber: SHREK: GAME LAND ACTIVITY CENTER

Discover the magic and fun of the Shrek Game Land Activity Centre kingdom. Choose from 7 unique games and puzzles that will keep you busy for hours on end!

Meet Shrek and all his friends with games and puzzles that include:
OGRE MAZE: Navigate the mases' many twists and turns in search at the final destination. A real challenge for all!
PICTURE MIXER: Move and rotate the pieces to complete the picture. Watch carefully!
SPLAT: Try to hit as many bugs as possible to score points... Hurry, these little bugs are quick!
WORD FIND: Identify the hidden words in a scrambled letter grid.
CRISSCROSS PUZZLE: Figure out where the words go. Fun for everyone!
SLIDING TILE: Slide the puzzle pieces around to form a picture. Watch Shrek appear!
MELODY MATCH: Check you musical ear. Play back the song from "bluebird" by hitting the correct keys and find a golden egg!

~ from the back of the box

Disney's Activity Centres were a staple of many a 90s kid. They hold such nostalgia that I've covered most of them here on this very site. But what of Disney's rival DreamWorks? Shrek: Game Land Activity Centre came out around the same time as the film boasting seven mini-games to keep the sprogs quiet. Let's take a look.

As soon as the game launches, you can see that the ambition isn't quite the same as Disney's offerings. It completely lacks any flourishes having no introduction, movie clips or even character voice overs. We just see a book with a bad artistic impression of Shrek and Donkey. The kind of art you'll see in a knock-off colouring book. At least the page next to it contains the seven icons that take us to each game.

First on the list is 'Word Find' 'cos who knew the term 'Word Search' was copyrighted (note: it isn't). It's word search. Nothing else, but at least there's an attempt at challenge with grids being a decent size and all. The same could be said for 'Criss Cross' which is, as you can probably guess, an attempt at 'Crosswords'. The clues are the words themselves and you have to drag them to correct spot on the puzzle. Again, there's a decent enough challenge and a respectable number of boards but it won't tax word game aficionados too much. If you are having difficulties, clicking on the magic mirror in the bar at the bottom of the screen will give you an answer. Not all of games in the package have this feature, but these word games do.

The Magic Mirror will reveal an answer, though I doubt many grown-ups will need it.

As is commonplace with these types of games, there are also a number of picture puzzles. 'Sliding Tiles' is the same type of sliding puzzle every adventure gamer dreads and 'Picture Mixer' is almost the same, except you can manually swap and twist each puzzle piece. There's not much to them to be honest, and even if you switch the twig over to 2 on the bottom right of the screen to make it harder, you'll still get bored quick.

The one arcade game of the package is 'Bug Splat'. Click on the cockroaches to squish 'em but save the slugs for dinner. The game ends when a select number of bugs escape off screen and your score will be recorded. The pre-rendered graphics look nice enough, and Shrek's arm is animated with a pleasing thwump, but it's all too easy to miss. Shrek's sausage fingers cover a large surface area of the, but only insects directly under your crosshair will get hit.

There are two difficulty settings for each game. For example, Criss Cross will no longer sort the
words by size (left) and Melody Match will add two extra notes for you to remember (right).

'Melody Match' is a Simon-style music memory game. Follow the notes made by the bluebird to get golden eggs. You've seen this game in countless places but just in case you haven't clicking on the 'Help' icon will give you a long-winded explanation of it. All of the activities have this and there is an attempt to make them entertaining but considering how common place each of these activities are I doubt even young 'uns new to gaming will need them.

The last activity is 'Ogre Maze'. I do have a soft spot for mazes, whether in a National Trust garden or a puzzle book. Even those poorly-designed mazes in first-person adventure games aren't a total annoyance to me. Those found here are more basic than that as you unite Shrek from the entrance with Donkey at the exit by tracing with your mouse. There are a fair amount of themes and layouts, each of which can be printed (just like the word games) to occupy kids outside of screen time. It's a neat addition that I haven't tested, but given that the game runs natively under Windows, I suspect it still works.

Shrek: Game Land Activity Centre is a bare-bones package but regardless, all of the activities are neatly programmed with minimal bugs (other than the ones you squish). The user interface is clean and functional (other than the mud and slime depicted on screen) and despite the attempts at gross-out humour, the package as a whole comes across as rather sterile. Perfunctory, yet pleasing but primarily for pre-teens.

To download the PC game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses IMG Drive Portable to run on modern systems. IMG Drive drivers (included) required. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.

File Size: 122 Mb. Install Size: 187 Mb. Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

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