Wallace & Gromit: The Last Resort for iPad Review

Like most things in British comedy, the claymated duo of Wallace & Gromit is a take it or leave it kind of show: either the pair will make you laugh out loud, or you'll scratch your head and turn the channel. If you're a laugh out loud type, then you should really enjoy Wallace & Gromit: The Last Resort, the click-based adventure game from Telltale Games.

This is a classic PC adventure game, and in fact was originally released on the PC platform. You navigate the game area as either Wallace -- fumbling your way through conversations and stumbling upon ideas -- or Gromit -- keenly solving more straightforward puzzles -- depending upon the chapter. The game is played though touch-select interaction, doing a solid job of translating a mouse-based interface to the touchscreen.

The Last Resort really does an excellent job of recreating the style, tone, and dry humor of the series. During the game's best moments, it really feels like you're playing in the cartoon. The characters have been accurately recreated, looking and moving like their clay counterparts, and the whole thing is acted out with an excellent voiceover. The puzzles themselves are generally pretty obvious affairs; don't expect a to need a walkthrough. But this is in keeping with the fun. You play this game because you like Wallace and Gromit, not because you want to be frustrated. And it is a really fun game.

Unfortunately, this is also the glitchiest game I have ever played on my iPad. Animations routinely run out of sync with the soundtrack, or drop lines altogether; the flower in one character's hair floated persistently in place whenever she moved her head;

and the game crashed on me more times in a couple of hours than all my other iPad apps have ever crashed on me combined. I don't know if the game is stressing the RAM to its limit, or if it's something inherently wrong with the code, or if it's a combination of factors. But it’s a significant issue with the app.

These technical problems are a real disappointment, because Wallace & Gromit: The Last Resort would otherwise be a light and delightful game. I certainly hope that future updates improve the stability of the app, because as it stands, I haven't actually finished the adventure; after the game crashed in the exact same place three times, I gave up trying to progress further. And that's never a good last impression for a game to give.