The Princess Bride Game Review (PC)

By Joe Haygood | July 7, 2008

When the first announcement of a Princess Bride game was made, I had a ton of skepticism, because the rumor was that it was not going to be a solid adventure game, but a casual mini-game affair that would appeal to the soccer moms of the world.  Now that the final version of The Princess Bride Game has arrived at my doorstep and I have played it, the game is better than I expected, but leaves a lot more wanting after seeing what could have been with some expansion of the concept.

The Princess Bride Game has five stages, each covering a different variant of a type of mini-game.  The different stages vary from one to the next and give you a nice change up with each type.  All the matches start with six levels that you advance through to push the story forward.  However, when you are finished, you can go back and play through the rest of the 13-14 other levels in each mini-game, each level adding to the difficulty of the game.

The mini-games are simple affairs, combining a mix of games that are currently available.  One will have you playing Diner Dash style, growing carrots, by fetching water, picking the carrots, before the rabbits eat them, and then getting them to the Princess.  Another has you matching wits with Vizzini, where you have to figure out anagrams, multiple choice, word association and other S.A.T. type questions.  All the games start off deceptively simply, but really start to get crafty as you start to get to level 10 and beyond.

Production values are very high and stand out quite nicely.  While the game seems to be Flash based in nature, the animation is very well done and really looks to be of professional quality.  I looked forward to finishing a segment of the game to see the cut scenes as they were really good looking and sounded fantastic.  Several of the voices from the movie, including Mandy Patinkin, Robin Wright and Wallace Shawn, put in performances here and really sound good.  No one seems to phone it in, and I really thought that if some time was put into it, this could have been such a bigger part of the game than it was in practice.

With that, I have the biggest problem with the game.  While the puzzles were fun and a great workplace diversion, I kept yearning for more from the game, after I would watch a high quality animated sequence.  The framework is here for a great adventure game, with more animation, while mixing in the puzzles that they used in the game.  It is not a knock against the game, but it could have been so much more, with the quality and production values that are present.

The Princess Bride Game is a good value for its $20 price tag.  You get a lot of puzzles and levels that will keep you thinking, while the production values will really stun you for the price.  About the only thing that will keeps the game from really becoming great, is that there just seems like there could have been so much more to it.  Aeropause gives The Princess Bride Game 3.5 out of 5 Aeropausonauts.