Pixar vs Dreamworks
Which animation studio makes the best bad games?
Another mediocre win for the House of Shrek! Maybe I should just congratulate Dreamworks so we can move the hell on… So kudos, I guess. You’re pathetic, shitty-by-any-other-standard-but-your-own action game featuring guns, goliaths and extraterrestrials beat out an unadaptable licensed game starring an 80-year-old protagonist and a talking dog. Hope it feels good, DW!
Which brings us to this… Right back to where we started, with both animation houses’ golden franchises competing head-to-head, presumably for the last time. Shrek’s final chapter is doing well at the box office, yet we all know that’ll be forgotten by the time Toy Story 3 comes out next weekend. But Jesus, that game score? From the looks of the wickedly customizable Toy Box mode, I thought the Toy Story 3 game looked infinitely more promising… but I’m not sure it’ll be able to match the generous scores bestowed by the handful of outlets who still bother to review movie licensed games. Not only is Shrek Forever After on the Xbox 360 the ogre’s best reviewed game to date, it has the highest meta-score of any game on this entire list.
Dreamworks? Seriously?! A sad day for Pixar fans, as The House of Shrek tallied out to a 5 to 3 win according to our list and the data provided Metacritic and Game Rankings. Even if Toy Story 3 can manage to outscore Shrek Forever After in the final hour it wouldn’t even result in a tie. Dreamworks may produce far more movies and games, but their titles based directly off films, pound for pound, result in higher quality. Now, what’s of slight interest is the reason why…
Let’s take a look at some Pixar games that didn’t meet the criteria of our list, yet fared much better with critics
Dated though they may be, those meta-scores are higher than all but one Pixar game on our entire list. Okay, now can anybody see what they have in common? Take a look at the incredibly weird call out on the N64 version of A Bug’s Life.
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Above: “Sold” by Activison?
Whatever the hell that means, you’ll notice above that Activision jumped ship to work on all of Dreamwork’s games right around Shark Tale, and that’s when they began critically surpassing Pixar games. You could say that THQ is responsible for the downward spiral of quality in Pixar’s games, but it’s much more fun and sensational to declare that Dreamworks gaming dominance is due to an unholy alliance between two companies the internet loves to hate! Activision and Dreamworks: A Forgettable Game Factory!
Jun 10, 2010
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