''Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures'' is an
episodic graphic adventure game
An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...
based around the characters of ''
Wallace and Gromit
''Wallace & Gromit'' is a British stop-motion comedy franchise created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations. The series consists of four short films and one feature-length film, and has spawned numerous spin-offs and TV adaptations. The series c ...
'' created by
Nick Park
Nicholas Wulstan Park (born 6 December 1958) is a British animator who created ''Wallace and Gromit'', ''Creature Comforts'', ''Chicken Run'', ''Shaun the Sheep'', and '' Early Man''. Park has been nominated for an Academy Award a total of ...
and
Aardman Animations
Aardman Animations Limited (also known as Aardman Studios, simply Aardman or Aardman Animation and stylised as AARDMAN as of 2022) is a British animation studio based in Bristol, England. It is known for films made using stop-motion and clay an ...
. The game was developed and published by
Telltale Games
Telltale Incorporated (trade name: Telltale Games) was an American video game developer based in San Rafael, California. The company was founded in July 2004 by former LucasArts developers Kevin Bruner, Dan Connors and Troy Molander, following ...
. It consists of four episodes, which were released to
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
from March 23 to July 30, 2009, and to
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...
from May 27 to November 4, 2009.
Episodes are developed by Telltale Games in collaboration with Aardman Animations to develop the story, characters, and setting.
Players control both Wallace and Gromit at times through the gameplay.
Ben Whitehead
Benjamin Whitehead (born 15 May 1977) is an English actor. He is best known as the current voice of Wallace in the ''Wallace and Gromit'' franchise following Peter Sallis' retirement and subsequent death.
Career
Whitehead began working on film ...
, Aardman's official backup voice actor, portrays Wallace, instead of
Peter Sallis
Peter may refer to:
People
* List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Peter (given name)
** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church
* Peter (surname), a sur ...
, who had voiced the character in all screen appearances up to that point.
A playable demo of the first episode was made available on March 16, 2009, and can be downloaded from the official site as well as Yahoo Games. It is also included on the Region 2 DVD and Blu-ray releases of ''
A Matter of Loaf and Death
''A Matter of Loaf and Death'' is a 2008 British stop-motion animated short film produced by Aardman Animations, created by Nick Park, and is the fourth short to star his characters ''Wallace and Gromit'', the first one since ''A Close Shave'' ...
'' as DVD-ROM content. On January 14, 2014, Telltale Games removed the game from sale due to the expiration of their distribution rights for the ''Wallace & Gromit''
intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
;
customers who previously purchased the game were still able to download the episodes from their game library.
On December 7, 2020, the game was relisted on
Steam
Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...
,
GOG.com
GOG.com (formerly Good Old Games) is a digital distribution platform for video games and films. It is operated by GOG sp. z o.o., a wholly owned subsidiary of CD Projekt based in Warsaw, Poland. GOG.com delivers DRM-free video games through its ...
,
RobotCache and
Green Man Gaming
Green Man Gaming is an eCommerce portal from British-based online video game retailer, distributor and publisher, ''Green Man''. It has gained 4.7 million users since its 2010 release.
Business model
Green Man Gaming works with companies li ...
for Windows, along with Telltale's other titles
Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People
''Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People'' is an episodic graphic adventure developed by Telltale Games and based on the ''Homestar Runner'' web cartoon, with Strong Bad as the lead character. A total of five episodes were released for Mi ...
and
Texas Hold'em
Texas hold 'em (also known as Texas holdem, hold 'em, and holdem) is one of the most popular variants of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five community cards are dealt face ...
.
Synopsis
Episode 1: Fright of the Bumblebees
Wallace and Gromit have opened a new business, "From Bee to You" specialising in delivering freshly made honey to customers. They take up the offer to provide fifty gallons of honey as repair payment to fix local grocer Mr Paneer's shop after Wallace's new prototype robotic cheese-detecting mouse accidentally rampaged through the store on a test run. However, Wallace has used up all the flowers in his garden, and is forced to improvise a growth formula to turn some daisy seeds provided by his neighbour, Ms. Flitt into giant flowers. The formula is a success, and he meets his client's demand but things soon go wrong when the bees react to the growth formula, becoming huge and terrorizing the town and Wallace's home. Gromit is able to trap most of the bees, but Wallace is stolen away by the giant bee queen. Gromit gives chase in Wallace's honey tanker truck, and is able to rescue Wallace. The two work together to feed the queen more honey dosed with more of the growth formula, forcing the bee to become stuck in a tunnel. Wallace works out an antidote to the growth formula to restore the bees to normal, though he accidentally shrinks himself in the process.
Episode 2: The Last Resort
Wallace prepares to take Gromit to
Blackpool
Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...
, but the weather both spoils their plans and creates a small flood in the cellar. The flood eventually gives Wallace the idea of temporary converting their cellar into an indoor holiday resort. He and Gromit do it up, scavenging the necessary supplies from town, and he then decides to open it for the rest of the townsfolk. The guest aren't happy at first, due to Ms. Flitt's two puppies, Pudgie-Woo and Tinkie-Wee causing havoc or due to being bullied by Flitt's “boyfriend”, Duncan McBiscuit. Wallace manages to satisfy everyone before dinner time and avoids having to give refunds.
At the table during dinner time, the day appears to be a big success until Duncan is almost murdered by only one of the other guests during a blackout. Whilst Wallace attempts unsuccessfully to use his new crime-solving machine, Gromit eventually deduces from evidence and testimony from everyone including a hurt Duncan that Pudgie-Woo and Tinkie-Wee attacked him after he bullied them. When Wallace, Gromit, Pudgie-Woo and Tinkie-Wee fall in the pool, the cellar drain becomes dislodged and the puppies’ favourite chew toy goes down the drain. Wallace watches the disheartened Pudgie-Woo and Tinkie-Wee jump down the drain after their toy, with Gromit making it back to shore before Wallace wishes all the appalled guests that they had a good time before their departure. Pudgie-Woo and Tinkie-Wee eventually re-emerge from the drainage system, ending up in the cells at the police station. Despite the mess made, Gromit finally enjoys the resort in private.
That night, a whistling man with a mustache posts a flyer for a charity fair through the door to 62 West Wallaby Street.
Episode 3: Muzzled!
Shortly after the holiday season, a charity fair comes into town, run by Monty Muzzle, to raise money for a new dog shelter, the old one being destroyed in the storm last episode. After dealing with three strays in their home, Wallace and Gromit go to the fair with Wallace's new invention, an ice-cream van that can create any flavour of ice cream. At the fair, Gromit discovers that Mr. Muzzle is actually attempting to steal away the townspeople's donations and using the strays as manual labor for the fair. When Wallace and Gromit uncover Mr. Muzzle's intentions, he escapes on a makeshift balloon, but Wallace and Gromit give chase, denying Mr. Muzzle of his ill-gotten money while saving all the strays. Ms. Flitt, who dumped Duncan McBiscuit earlier in the episode and has grown to admire the "bravery" of Wallace (unaware that it was actually Gromit that stopped Muzzle), mistakes his confusion at finding a loose
fastening nut as an engagement ring and a marriage proposal from him.
Episode 4: The Bogey Man
Wallace and Gromit start a new business called Golden Retrieval which aims to find lost objects and Major Crum hires them. In order to defuse Ms. Flitt's mistake in accepting what she had mistaken as a marriage proposal from Wallace, Gromit manages to make him a member of the local
country club
A country club is a privately owned club, often with a membership quota and admittance by invitation or sponsorship, that generally offers both a variety of recreational sports and facilities for dining and entertaining. Typical athletic offer ...
, Prickly Thicket, which Ms. Flitt's aunt Prudence loathes and soundly rejects her niece's marriage to Wallace. Ernest Dibbins, the local constable, jealous that Wallace was admitted over him, partly due to the closure of Mr Paneer's shop for public health violations, uses an obscure
bylaw
A by-law (bye-law, by(e)law, by(e) law), or as it is most commonly known in the United States bylaws, is a set of rules or law established by an organization or community so as to regulate itself, as allowed or provided for by some higher authorit ...
to threaten the club with closure since it does not have a golf course–or rather it does, but members do not know where it is because the deed is missing, safely held in a security system designed by Wallace's (apparent) ancestor, Goodman Witless (and his faithful dog Gimlet). Using his detective equipment Wallace manages to find the deed which Major Crum hired him to do, but discovers that the entire town was built on the golf course, and a vengeful Duncan decides to have the town destroyed in order to rebuild the course. Wallace challenges Duncan to a golf tournament so that he may become chairman and tear up the deed, saving the town, and manages to win with Gromit's help. However, as he goes to tear the deed, the security system traps him and the other townsfolk in a room, and Gromit is forced to disable the trap and free everyone. Wallace tears up the deed, and is thankful to find that Ms. Flitt has cancelled their engagement and gone back to Duncan, who her aunt almost now approves of since he is no longer the club chairman. With a newly opened vacancy, Mr Paneer agrees to nominate Constable Dibbins for membership of the club as part of a quid pro quo for the reopening of his shop.
Reception
Episode 1: Fright of the Bumblebees
''Episode 1: Fright of the Bumblebees'' received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites
GameRankings
GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...
and
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
gave the PC version 78% and 76/100
and the Xbox 360 version 75% and 73/100.
Episode 2: The Last Resort
''Episode 2: The Last Resort'' received moderately positive reviews. Aggregating review websites
GameRankings
GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...
and
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
gave the PC version 74% and 72/100
and the Xbox 360 version 72% and 73/100.
Episode 3: Muzzled!
''Episode 3: Muzzled!'' received positive reviews. Aggregating review websites
GameRankings
GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...
and
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
gave the PC version 77% and 75/100
and the Xbox 360 version 75% and 72/100.
Episode 4: The Bogey Man
''Episode 4: The Bogey Man'' received mostly positive reviews. Aggregating review websites
GameRankings
GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...
and
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
gave the PC version 74% and 72/100
and the Xbox 360 version 74% and 72/100.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallace and Gromit's Grand Adventures
2009 video games
Episodic video games
Focus Entertainment games
IOS games
Point-and-click adventure games
Single-player video games
Telltale Games games
Video games about insects
Video games developed in the United States
Video games scored by Jared Emerson-Johnson
Grand Adventures
Windows games
Xbox 360 games
Xbox 360 Live Arcade games
Video games set in Lancashire