Bee Movie Game
Posted October 29, 2007
Coinciding with the release of Dreamworks animated feature, the Xbox 360 version of Bee Movie tosses the player directly into the world of Barry Bee Benson and his pension for escaping the mundane life of a worker bee. His thirst for adventure leads him into the rest of the world and begins a quest to find out where humans are getting their honey. This entertaining tale matches the movie, so anyone interested in seeing the movie may want to hold off on playing the game until after opening weekend. 
The presentation for Bee Movie is really quite clever. At the outset of the game, Barry is giving an interview to a bee version of Connie Chung. There is also a wonderful little quip about video games in the opening dialogue. As Barry relays past events to Chung, the player is transported to that time in his life and the game begins. This format is continually revisited throughout the game, wonderfully teasing the player with the events ahead. The cinematic nature of the narrative is certainly appreciated and Beenox did an excellent job molding the core gameplay around the plot of the movie.
Gameplay
In the opening level, Barry is thrust into the suburbs of New Hive City and his friend Adam gives you instructions on how to control Barry, walking and driving. Barry can hop into any nearby car and take off to his next location. Interestingly, you can also hop into the cars of other Bees and control the vehicle from the passenger side. It’s a friendly environment, I suppose. Barry pulls a shift at Honex (the main honey factory) and decides to hook up with the soldier bees to head outside.
Once the player enters the world outside the hive for the first time, an overwhelming feeling of enormity takes you by hold and doesn’t let go. There is a very unique quality to this rush of emotion, mostly due to the chaotic experience. The miniscule scale of Barry compared to the huge world that surrounds him is hard to fathom. It also may cause motion sickness and make some players dizzy at the very sight of Barry zipping though the park for the first time. I really have to give the developers credit for offering up a unique experience rarely found in this type of release.
As Barry explores the outdoors, the player is introduced to the Pollinator Gun and how it revives wilting flowers. The player can suck the excess pollen out of a healthy flower and despite the load into the dying flower. Fixing flowers is required to complete certain levels and just for an extra achievement on other levels. Barry is also introduced to combat on the first romp out of the hive. A fleet of dragonflies attack in the park and the player can fire homing rockets with the right trigger to fend them off. The game uses an auto target system that’s very accurate and just requires the player to head in the direction of the enemies. Enemies also fire projectiles back at Barry, which increases the difficulty slightly.
Barry will also gain access to a couple useful bee powers early in the game; vision and speed. By turning on Bee vision, a layer of heat vision coats the screen and points out the most important objects in the environment. It’s great for tracking down collectibles. A slowdown meter unleashes Barry’s speed and allows him to move in bullet-time for a short period. While bullet-time isn’t a new concept, watching the giant raindrops slow to a crawl is a very impressive effect.
As Barry interacts with humans for the first couple times, the player will notice a trend of timed button presses to escape dangerous situations. The player gets a healthy amount of time to react to the flashing on-screen button as well as the remaining combination of buttons. Also, human interaction brings up a fear meter for Barry to fill, which triggers the previously mentioned button combination. Basically, the player has to buzz around in an allotted space and avoid human attacks. It’s a well thought out reaction to the presence of bees, but gets a bit old by the latter stages of the game.
When Barry returns to the hive, he has the option of working in Honex or doing odd jobs around New Hive City. Within the factory, there are three jobs to do: catching blocks of honey in cylinders, filling pods with liquid honey and transporting honey cylinders. Only the first job is open at the beginning of the game and the remaining two open up as the player progresses through the campaign. These jobs increase in difficulty as time goes on as well.
The odd jobs in New Hive City include things like driving a taxi, delivering food, competing in races and working at the local auto shop fixing cars. Driving a taxi just means racing from point to point, but food delivery requires the player to balance the stacked boxes on the back of a motorbike with the left & right triggers as well. Racing cars is a bit like Mario-Kart with power-ups along the track. The auto shop is more of a button press scenario. Timed button presses are required to reattach wires, change the oil and tighten all the bolts. Similar to the Honex jobs, these jobs get tougher and more rewarding as the single player story unfolds.
Barry can also play arcade games, buy new threads, or invest in various speedy automobiles. The arcade games are bee adaptations of classics like Space Invaders, Frogger, and Zaxxon. After a player unlocks one of the machines, up to two players can play anytime and try to beat the high score. With a surprising Xbox Live addition, scores are transmitted online to Xbox Live leaderboards. It’s a nice add-on for a title nearly devoid of online features. Players can purchase clothing such as wasp / dragonfly costumes to blend in with the enemy or just fly around in a lawyer suit all day long. Cars can also be purchased and stored in the garage at Barry’s house. Most of the cars are just for collecting while a couple really do seem faster than the other automobiles on the road.
In order to purchase all these goodies, Barry must spend nectar collected during the single player story or from the jobs in New Hive City. Nectar is awarded when the player completes tasks like pollinating flowers or defending the hive from wasps. Barry will need a massive amount of nectar to purchase every item in the game, upwards of 300,000 to 400,000 units of nectar. Players can also find nectar in the honeycomb collectibles spread throughout every level.
It takes quite a bit of effort to impress me with a solid batch of achievements and Beenox pulled it off. The 50 achievements are spread over campaign tasks, mini-game completion, and badge collection. Opposite from most releases for younger players, many of the story-based achievements require skill to complete. The majority are awarded for avoiding damage in specific boss battles or chase scenes. The mini-game achievements aren’t overly tough to garner, but require a sizable chunk of time to complete. The bulk of the gamerscore points are actually awarded for collecting badges, basically completing a set of tasks. I found the achievement set offers enough challenge to all players, but doesn’t alienate casual gamers with difficulty.
The developer included a 2-player multiplayer mode. It’s also restricted to lap racing, but does offer options for CPU players. While the inclusion of a minor multiplayer mode is always welcome, it adds very little replay value to the title.
Graphics
Visually, Bee Movie is representative of a multi-platform release instead of a level of detail common to games built specifically for the Xbox 360. While the color scheme is wonderfully bright, varied and aesthetically pleasing, the textures seem to be almost hazy in high definition. Most of the character models are detailed, but much of the surrounding area is not. I will say the water reflection effect is pretty darn amazing. When Barry goes into slow motion, the player can see a reflection of the surrounding environment on each raindrop. The pond and small stream in the park looks fantastic as well. Also, the smoke effects on the homing rocket trails aren’t too shabby. Overall, the game runs very smoothly and the load times are minimal on the Xbox 360.
Audio
The voiceovers are absolutely fantastic, specifically because several of the voice actors from the movie are used in the game. Jerry Seinfeld provides the voice for Barry and his talent really gives credence to the quality of the audio. You will notice other celebrity voices in the mix such as Matthew Broderick and Patrick Warburton, who both do perfect jobs with their roles. Sadly, not all the voice talent signed the waver to include them in the game. Much of the supporting cast isn’t included and it sounds like someone is doing a Renee Zellweger impression for the voice of Vanessa. Still, Seinfeld’s quips are enough to keep you laughing throughout the game. My only minor quibble is that some of Jerry’s phrases are repeated incessantly in boss battles.
The sound effects are excellent as well, particularly the use of directional audio in the open area chase scenes. Listening to bicycle messengers whizzing past, cars screeching to a halt, and semi-trucks narrowly missing Barry absolutely tickles the ears. Much of the music in Bee Movie seems derivative of the music in the movie. The score matches the emotion of each level and crescendos at the appropriate times to accent the mood.
Overall
So often movie related games are of poor quality, but that’s not the case with Bee Movie. It has plenty of humor for adult gamers and has a surprisingly large amount of depth for this type of release. While the controls are occasionally a bit troublesome, the entertaining single player campaign, loads of mini-games and well balanced set of achievements definitely offer an excellent Xbox 360 gaming experience. It’s definitely fun for people of all ages and should be picked up if you have any interest in Jerry Seinfeld’s humor or just a solid action / adventure title.
The presentation for Bee Movie is really quite clever. At the outset of the game, Barry is giving an interview to a bee version of Connie Chung. There is also a wonderful little quip about video games in the opening dialogue. As Barry relays past events to Chung, the player is transported to that time in his life and the game begins. This format is continually revisited throughout the game, wonderfully teasing the player with the events ahead. The cinematic nature of the narrative is certainly appreciated and Beenox did an excellent job molding the core gameplay around the plot of the movie.
Gameplay
In the opening level, Barry is thrust into the suburbs of New Hive City and his friend Adam gives you instructions on how to control Barry, walking and driving. Barry can hop into any nearby car and take off to his next location. Interestingly, you can also hop into the cars of other Bees and control the vehicle from the passenger side. It’s a friendly environment, I suppose. Barry pulls a shift at Honex (the main honey factory) and decides to hook up with the soldier bees to head outside.
Once the player enters the world outside the hive for the first time, an overwhelming feeling of enormity takes you by hold and doesn’t let go. There is a very unique quality to this rush of emotion, mostly due to the chaotic experience. The miniscule scale of Barry compared to the huge world that surrounds him is hard to fathom. It also may cause motion sickness and make some players dizzy at the very sight of Barry zipping though the park for the first time. I really have to give the developers credit for offering up a unique experience rarely found in this type of release.
As Barry explores the outdoors, the player is introduced to the Pollinator Gun and how it revives wilting flowers. The player can suck the excess pollen out of a healthy flower and despite the load into the dying flower. Fixing flowers is required to complete certain levels and just for an extra achievement on other levels. Barry is also introduced to combat on the first romp out of the hive. A fleet of dragonflies attack in the park and the player can fire homing rockets with the right trigger to fend them off. The game uses an auto target system that’s very accurate and just requires the player to head in the direction of the enemies. Enemies also fire projectiles back at Barry, which increases the difficulty slightly.
Barry will also gain access to a couple useful bee powers early in the game; vision and speed. By turning on Bee vision, a layer of heat vision coats the screen and points out the most important objects in the environment. It’s great for tracking down collectibles. A slowdown meter unleashes Barry’s speed and allows him to move in bullet-time for a short period. While bullet-time isn’t a new concept, watching the giant raindrops slow to a crawl is a very impressive effect.
As Barry interacts with humans for the first couple times, the player will notice a trend of timed button presses to escape dangerous situations. The player gets a healthy amount of time to react to the flashing on-screen button as well as the remaining combination of buttons. Also, human interaction brings up a fear meter for Barry to fill, which triggers the previously mentioned button combination. Basically, the player has to buzz around in an allotted space and avoid human attacks. It’s a well thought out reaction to the presence of bees, but gets a bit old by the latter stages of the game.
When Barry returns to the hive, he has the option of working in Honex or doing odd jobs around New Hive City. Within the factory, there are three jobs to do: catching blocks of honey in cylinders, filling pods with liquid honey and transporting honey cylinders. Only the first job is open at the beginning of the game and the remaining two open up as the player progresses through the campaign. These jobs increase in difficulty as time goes on as well.
The odd jobs in New Hive City include things like driving a taxi, delivering food, competing in races and working at the local auto shop fixing cars. Driving a taxi just means racing from point to point, but food delivery requires the player to balance the stacked boxes on the back of a motorbike with the left & right triggers as well. Racing cars is a bit like Mario-Kart with power-ups along the track. The auto shop is more of a button press scenario. Timed button presses are required to reattach wires, change the oil and tighten all the bolts. Similar to the Honex jobs, these jobs get tougher and more rewarding as the single player story unfolds.
Barry can also play arcade games, buy new threads, or invest in various speedy automobiles. The arcade games are bee adaptations of classics like Space Invaders, Frogger, and Zaxxon. After a player unlocks one of the machines, up to two players can play anytime and try to beat the high score. With a surprising Xbox Live addition, scores are transmitted online to Xbox Live leaderboards. It’s a nice add-on for a title nearly devoid of online features. Players can purchase clothing such as wasp / dragonfly costumes to blend in with the enemy or just fly around in a lawyer suit all day long. Cars can also be purchased and stored in the garage at Barry’s house. Most of the cars are just for collecting while a couple really do seem faster than the other automobiles on the road.
In order to purchase all these goodies, Barry must spend nectar collected during the single player story or from the jobs in New Hive City. Nectar is awarded when the player completes tasks like pollinating flowers or defending the hive from wasps. Barry will need a massive amount of nectar to purchase every item in the game, upwards of 300,000 to 400,000 units of nectar. Players can also find nectar in the honeycomb collectibles spread throughout every level.
It takes quite a bit of effort to impress me with a solid batch of achievements and Beenox pulled it off. The 50 achievements are spread over campaign tasks, mini-game completion, and badge collection. Opposite from most releases for younger players, many of the story-based achievements require skill to complete. The majority are awarded for avoiding damage in specific boss battles or chase scenes. The mini-game achievements aren’t overly tough to garner, but require a sizable chunk of time to complete. The bulk of the gamerscore points are actually awarded for collecting badges, basically completing a set of tasks. I found the achievement set offers enough challenge to all players, but doesn’t alienate casual gamers with difficulty.
The developer included a 2-player multiplayer mode. It’s also restricted to lap racing, but does offer options for CPU players. While the inclusion of a minor multiplayer mode is always welcome, it adds very little replay value to the title.
Graphics
Visually, Bee Movie is representative of a multi-platform release instead of a level of detail common to games built specifically for the Xbox 360. While the color scheme is wonderfully bright, varied and aesthetically pleasing, the textures seem to be almost hazy in high definition. Most of the character models are detailed, but much of the surrounding area is not. I will say the water reflection effect is pretty darn amazing. When Barry goes into slow motion, the player can see a reflection of the surrounding environment on each raindrop. The pond and small stream in the park looks fantastic as well. Also, the smoke effects on the homing rocket trails aren’t too shabby. Overall, the game runs very smoothly and the load times are minimal on the Xbox 360.
Audio
The voiceovers are absolutely fantastic, specifically because several of the voice actors from the movie are used in the game. Jerry Seinfeld provides the voice for Barry and his talent really gives credence to the quality of the audio. You will notice other celebrity voices in the mix such as Matthew Broderick and Patrick Warburton, who both do perfect jobs with their roles. Sadly, not all the voice talent signed the waver to include them in the game. Much of the supporting cast isn’t included and it sounds like someone is doing a Renee Zellweger impression for the voice of Vanessa. Still, Seinfeld’s quips are enough to keep you laughing throughout the game. My only minor quibble is that some of Jerry’s phrases are repeated incessantly in boss battles. The sound effects are excellent as well, particularly the use of directional audio in the open area chase scenes. Listening to bicycle messengers whizzing past, cars screeching to a halt, and semi-trucks narrowly missing Barry absolutely tickles the ears. Much of the music in Bee Movie seems derivative of the music in the movie. The score matches the emotion of each level and crescendos at the appropriate times to accent the mood.
Overall
So often movie related games are of poor quality, but that’s not the case with Bee Movie. It has plenty of humor for adult gamers and has a surprisingly large amount of depth for this type of release. While the controls are occasionally a bit troublesome, the entertaining single player campaign, loads of mini-games and well balanced set of achievements definitely offer an excellent Xbox 360 gaming experience. It’s definitely fun for people of all ages and should be picked up if you have any interest in Jerry Seinfeld’s humor or just a solid action / adventure title.