This review contains spoilers, click expand to view.
What were you expecting? This is probably the most bland mini game collection I've ever played. Hope you like flicking mini games! This game starts out with a somewhat unsettling animated cutscene of Shrek and his family having fun at home. However, Shrek's sanity is cut short as Donkey and Puss barge into his home exclaiming about the new carnival in Far Far Away. But Shrek isn't looking forward to the carnival because he hates carnivals...for no reason. But he's suddenly motivated to claim the Carnival King prize because...Prince Charming is competing!? Now wait a minute, if this game takes place takes place after Shrek Third, that means Charming didn't die? And his ultimate revenge is to best Shrek and his pals at carnival games? Ingenious! As for the game itself, I would call it a Mario Party clone, but it's more of a Crash Bash clone without boss fights. I still surprised I managed to 100% this game in a matter of hours. It just went by so fast and had very little impact when it came to overall enjoyment. The goal in story mode is to claim the high score for each mini game. Every time you complete a set of mini games you earn a jewel for the Carnival Crown and some concept art. Yes, it's that easy. The mini games themselves are OK despite many of them having imperfect control. Hit only took me a handful of tries to complete the most tedious ones. Each mini game's theme is based off of either Shrek's life style or his pals. There's one problem with this though. This is a SHREK GAME, but that's all you can say about it. There's nothing new or unique, if you are bringing Charming back to life couldn't you do more with him? Unlike Mario Party and Warioware, the plot is petty and uninteresting, all you do is play mini games. Mario Party is grand not solely because of the mini games, they have a fun board game system to go with it. Warioware is a blast because the mini games are fast paced and hilarious. But Carnival Craze is nothing but a mini game collection, concept art, and 6 minutes worth of lackluster animated cutscenes. I'm not really exploring the carnival I'm just playing sub par attractions. I think it would be pretty fun to explore a haunted castle attraction instead of watching a mediocre cutscene about it. This game has a smidge of potential to be fun, but it doesn't take any risks. Like Megamind the Blue Defender, it doesn't give me a headache, its not that type of bad. But unlike Megamind, it doesn't try anything new. At least Megamind's DS game gave me the untold story of a possible sequel. For a long time, I forgot that I even played this game as a kid. It didn't leave anything of interest to look back on! The only thing I can think of was a single creepy music track, which I can thank for giving me a handful of nightmares. Even if their was the possibility of someone actually enjoying these mini games, said person would be swiftly put down by that obnoxious guy in the background who says a couple of magic words every time Charming defeats you, "YOU LOSE! Next time, shoot to win". What do you think I'm trying to do!? Developers, do you want people to enjoy this game? The voice acting is acceptable, but the writing makes me feel uneasy sometimes. I mean when Fiona is in last place she says, "I'm glad my father isn't around to see this". That's a bit dark...and she spouts these words out multiple times throughout the game. If the predictable mini games weren't bad enough, many of the mini game consist of flicking like I mentioned earlier. And that was a stern warning. Flicking the pen on the touch screen is like trying to light a burnt match and almost all of the mini games consist of doing this. And unless you partake in multiplayer, everything will feel pretty dead around you. Charming's AI is either hard or pathetic. Sometimes he'll just defeat himself if you're not looking. After you clear all of the available mini games, the carnival is transported to Shrek's Swamp. And now we can play ogre themed mini games! But most of the mini game are ogre themed any way, so I don't see why they're so special. In the end who ever you selected as your character is crowned King, Shrek realizes he likes carnivals now, Charming sleeps standing up, and Donkey opens up a kissing booth...amusing. And that's the entire game. No post game, no new characters, no new challenges, am I suppose to feel incredible after beating this game? At the moment I feel nothing. It's a flavorless game that offers absolutely nothing to the imagination. If you've never seen a Shrek movie before, it's the only chance you'll have of ever enjoying this game. Even the worst games can have hilarious moments to look back on. But this game is the dull kind of bad. It leaves you with whole lot of emptiness. It's like a playground that only has a balance beam. Its so forgettable, I bet you can't even remember what the full title is without looking back at the title. It's unimaginative.Go play something else, you know what you're missing.… Expand
