Shrek Super Party

Shrek Super Party is a party video game released in 2002 by Mass Media. The game is based on the Shrek movie series. This game is also similar to Pac-Man Fever (which has the same developer) and the Mario Party series of games.

Overview
The characters Shrek, Fiona, Donkey, Lord Farquaad, Thelonius, and Monsieur Hood are available for play. Five realms are available for play, each with its own mini-games: The Keep, The Windmill, The Swamp, The Castle, and The Farm. The cover features four colored castles and four characters Shrek, Donkey, Princess Fiona, and Lord Farquaad. Some are team games and the teams are always restricted to P1/P3 vs P2/P4.

Gameplay
The purpose of the game Shrek Super Party is to be the first player to collect a certain number of "Precious Drops". This number can be preset in the "game settings" menu at the beginning of the game as anything between 200 and 800 in intervals of 100. The drops can be collected through making bug matches or by reaching "Realm Caches".

At the start of the game, players compete in a mini-game called "Bug Catcher," where players must run over bugs of various colors that wander around Town Square. At the end of the time limit, each player receives a starting number of precious drops calculated from the value in precious drops of each match collected. Throughout the game, each player maintains a hand of 5 bugs, color-coded by value: At the end of each mini-game, each player has the opportunity to trade bugs with the other three players. The order and number of bugs traded is determined by the outcome of the previous mini-game. 4th place does not get to trade bugs, 3rd place can trade 1 bug with any other player, 2nd place can trade 2 bugs with any player(s), and 1st place can trade 3 bugs with any player(s). Following team matches, each of the winning players gets a turn to trade two bugs with either of the losing players. After trading is done, each player is awarded the amount of precious drops that their hand of 5 bugs is worth. Bugs only have value if part of a match, and bonus points are awarded depending on the size of the match:

For example, a hand with 2 blue bugs and 3 yellow bugs would be worth [(5x2)+10]+[(3x3)+15]=44 precious drops. Once precious drops are added to each player's score at the end of the trading round, all of the matching bugs are replaced by randomly generated bugs that replenish each player's hand.

Each player chooses a realm to traverse toward a "Realm Cache". The game is set up along a board game model, with each player taking turns moving spaces along paths towards the "Realm Cache". The Realm Cache increases each time a player selects the realm. Player movement is determined by a ball drop game over a three by three numbered grid, with each of the numbered squares corresponding to a different number of spaces the player moves forward: 1 to 9.

Each square also results in a different outcome. The possible outcomes include: Epic Battle, Daring Duel, Lose Drops, Gain Drops, Magic Mirror, Boots (which send the player to the evil bog), Magic Portal, Pixie Dust, Short Cut, and the final Realm Cache. The squares Magic Mirror, Boots, Magic Portal, Pixie Dust, and Short Cut appear only once per realm. Landing on another player sends that player to the evil bog. Shrek Super Party is a strategy game. Success is dependent on a player's knowledge of their opponents' and their own strengths and weaknesses at each of the 30 mini-games. The impact of mini-game outcomes can be offset or amplified by the skill with which players trade their bugs.

Reception
The game was met with negative reviews upon release. GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score of 47% and 30 out of 100 for the PlayStation 2 version; 44% and 40 out of 100 for the GameCube version; and 39% and 33 out of 100 for the Xbox version.

Trivia

 * This was the last Shrek game to be published by TDK Mediactive.