The Game on Wii by jeuxvideo.com

You play as Barry B. Benson, a young bee who has just graduated, but who refuses to spend the rest of her life working at Honex, the honey factory. Barry will do everything to avoid this unique prospect of the future by trying his hand at multiple professions. So you start the game in the hive, which you can freely explore in search of more or less lucrative activities. Of course, you always have the possibility to go to Honex and try your hand at harvesting honey. But you will probably prefer to discover other professions more suited to your taste for action (and immoderate risk). These different jobs are the occasion for as many mini-games which are divided into two very specific genres. Motor racing events on the one hand, with the professions of taxi driver, meal delivery, and even pilot. And skill tests on the other hand, with the trades of honey harvester, crane operator or mechanic. All these mini-games are of unequal interest, the most amusing remaining undoubtedly the Mario Kart clone. They will all allow you to win a few drops of nectar, the current currency among bees, with which Barry can buy costumes and vehicles in dedicated shops.

All these trades also have a dedicated kiosk, where you can come back and log in to practice them at your leisure: a dozen levels await you per mini-game, of increasing difficulty, and sometimes a little too high given the target audience. In any case, it is very pleasant to be able to roam freely in the hive, particularly populated and lively, alongside your fellow creatures who walk, fly or drive their small cars to get to work. This dimension of the game has furious airs of GTA in the bees, except that we quickly went around the hive and that it is impossible to reverse a granny-bee to steal her purse. Because Barry is a well-behaved insect!

Anyway, there is no question for Barry to go about indefinitely without a specific goal. Like the scenario of the film, he will quickly realize his dream of discovering the outside world by joining the squadron of the Apollons of Pollen. Their goal is to fly to the flowery parks of Manhattan, armed with their pollinator, to harvest the precious substance. Apart from the journey to get to the said parks, strewn with obstacles that you have to avoid while you are launched at full speed, the harvest itself nevertheless takes a rather boring turn: target a flower, extract the pollen (or failing that treat it), and start again. We have already seen more exciting. A few squads of dragonflies come to get in your way from time to time, but without affecting the soporific aspect of these phases of the game. Fortunately for you, and unfortunately for Barry, it only takes one thing to go wrong to really spice up the situation : time ! The rain begins to fall, causing a general panic among the bees for whom it represents a real danger. Barry must then activate his special Pollen Apollo power: “super reflexes” that allow him to slow down time to slalom between drops of water and fly from shelter to shelter. It can also borrow air currents to fly faster, or hide under the umbrellas of humans to breathe a little. Or how to make ingenious and dynamic game phases a priori without interest. Better: your setbacks in the outside world will inevitably lead you to meet humans who, far from being grateful to those whose honey they eat, will most of the time try to eliminate you. the gameplay then takes the form, simplistic but adapted, of Quick Time Event where you need to, using the Wiimote, shoot the targets that appear stealthily on the screen to avoid getting crushed. These moments of play with limited interactivity, but funny and spectacular, are for the most part directly taken from the strong scenes of the film.

If this journey into the infinitely small is so pleasant, it is because it allows you – not without a great deal of second-degree humor – to adopt the point of view of these insects to which the authors have lent attitudes and genuinely human gestures. Barry and his congeners have therefore benefited from particular care in the graphics and in the animation, which do honor to the DreamWorks film. The same cannot be said for the backgrounds, which are sorely lacking in polygons and are adorned with textures that are not very pleasing to the eye. On the other hand, the graphic poverty of the environments allows the engine great flexibility, whether indoors or outdoors, and preserves the dynamism of the action. We regret all the more the lack of fishing of the sound environment. It is very disappointing, despite good quality French dubbing, which manages to restore the absurd humor of certain dialogues. But the real black point in the technical aspect of this Wii version is its playability, which ranges from perfectible in certain events, to downright catastrophic during the aerial phases. See instead what a simple action movement in flight represents: while with the nunchuck you desperately try to move around while controlling the camera, you must simultaneously hold the B button to lock onto your target, while aiming your Wiimote to activate it. Bees may have 6 legs, but humans only have one pair of arms. It’s very simple: imagine Red Steel in 360 degrees and you will have a clear idea of ​​the gameplay during these flight phases. This lack of intuitive handling is all the more problematic as the game is aimed at a particularly young audience, who will probably throw in the towel before they have been able to taste all the little pleasures.