The G-Force movie is currently number one at the box office; a story about guinea pigs out to save the world from an evil billionaire (apparently all billionaires are evil when it comes to these types of movies). While the movie is by no means an artistic hit, the game might actually be better than the movie this time. And that’s quite rare. Very rare, actually.

You assume the role of one of the guinea pigs, Darwin, the leader of the “G-Force” and your job is to, well, save the world. Obviously. You see, Leonard Saber, the billionaire antagonist of the story, has created a device that turns everyday home appliances into deadly weapons, who’s purpose is to kill their owners. It’s now your job to stop him, and you do that by fighting your way through a series of levels, and battling the very home appliances, ranging from deadly toasters to computers to even air fresheners, which give off a toxic gas. Other than that, there isn’t much to the story, and players are supposed to watch the movie to get the whole “package”. Or you can just read about it on Wikipedia.

Being an action platformer, the combat in the game is surprisingly fun, considering that enemies vary a lot and all need to be defeated in a different way. This keeps the player focused, and offers some challenge without being too complicated. The head-on action with enemies is broken up by a few driving sequences, but these don’t work well and feel like the developer dropped them in for the sole reason to have some “variety”.

In addition to the combat, you have several puzzles to solve as well (with this being a platformer and all). These range from figuring out how to open a locked door to hacking computers. You also have your friend Mooch, a fly that is with you at all times, and that you can take control of and fly to places where you can’t get. This way, you can disable enemies, turn of switches and scout the area, which is a nice touch to the game, but by no means necessary. But in and of themselves, the puzzles aren’t challenging, and you can at any time press a button and tell the game to guide you where you’re supposed to go. It’s not a bad thing, but shows that the game is clearly intended towards younger audience, just as the movie is.

One of the things that the game suffers if lack of variety when it comes to levels and missions. While the campaign is a solid ten hours, all the missions take place at a handful locations, like labs, homes and offices, which all look the same. After a few hours, the gameplay will start feeling boring, despite the rather fun combat. Worse, the some of the missions take way too long to complete, and go on and on, which will certainly force you to yawn a few times, thinking, “when does it end?!”. Since this game is targeted towards the younger audience, it’s surprising to see the levels being that long.

Technically, the game is up to par with what one might expect; the graphics looks decent and things are rendered properly, sounds and music are okay, as well as the voice acting.
Unlike many other games that are tied in with movies, and that have been rushed to release, G-Force feels quite polished. What’s interesting for G-Force though, is that the game is in 3D and comes bundled with a pair of 3D glasses (at least the Xbox 360 version, which is reviewed here). Playing the game with the glasses does give an extra sense of depth of field, however, the colors will greatly be desaturated, almost all in grey, and playing with the glasses for an extended period of time will hurt your eyes.

The Good:
Fun setting
Decent action/puzzle
Comes with 3D glasses

The Bad:
Mostly for kids
Levels are way too long
3D effect could be better

Overall score: 7/10