Shrek Forever After comes to the console and handheld with some pretty decent gameplay and great graphics for both versions but the same story plays out on both systems but for young Shrek fans it works.

Shrek Forever After comes to just about all the gaming systems and I received the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo DS versions which are both almost identical in gameplay. You start out the game as Shrek but eventually get to play as Fiona, Puss In Boots and Donkey as you follow along with the same story line of the animated film.

Rumpelstiltskin is taking Shrek on his latest adventure by removing the one event that changed his life, meeting Fiona and sending him through his current films, er, adventures. Shrek is given a chance to see what his life would be like if he never met Fiona so you have this two world adventure to puzzle your way through.

You play one of the four characters of Shrek, Fiona, Puss and Donkey each with their own special abilities to fight your way through each level. The games have both enemies to fight and puzzles or mini games to work through using the four characters with general fighting, combination attacks and special abilities.

The game has you start out as Shrek and introduces you to the gameplay mechanics of going around bashing stuff and solving some decently simple puzzles. This is definitely not an adults game but more of a young adult to kids game who loves the Shrek world and wants to immerse themselves in the last of the Shrek films and games.

Once you have continued on in your adventures you will unlock both combination moves and each characters signature attacks as well as more areas to explore. While the Nintendo DS game leaves out as many areas to explore and items to collect both games have plenty to do and find.

Each character has its own special abilities that are used to solve puzzles throughout the levels with Shrek being able to manipulate objects, Fiona can set things on fire, Puss can climb and Donkey kicks things. Using  these combinations you are put to task to solve puzzles as well as fighting using the various styles of each character.

Weapons for Fiona and Puss are swords while Donkey kicks with Ogre being the bare fisted boxer type and each also has some combination moves with button combinations. Most of these moves work well but are more button mashing attacks that are common in adventure games.

Controls for the PS3 game are the usual buttons and triggers of the Six axis controller and the Nintendo DS uses both the buttons and the touch screen for puzzles and mini games. The puzzles are not all that hard and kids should have few problems solving them except for a few toward the end of the adventuring.

Things get tougher as you move toward the end battle with Rumpelstiltskin but youth should have no problems being able to complete the game on either console system. I found both games enjoyable enough but after a time it does get repetitive and much like other button mashing adventure games but kids should find it enjoyable if they like Shrek or adventures of this type.

Shrek Forever After for the PS3 has some decent graphics with good audio and is very good for a console game from an animated film. The Nintendo DS version looks and sounds about as good as you would expect but not nearly as good as it could have been given a bit better budget and a little more time in development.

Both versions play well and there were no major problems with either but they are also not the best as an adult adventure game but kids should have fun. Both versions are well worth the cost of a purchase or rental for Shrek fans who just want more of that big green ogre for a last romp through his life and times.