Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Adventures is another season of humorous adventures from Telltale games. Episode 1: Fright of the Bumblebees follows the loveable duo starting their own honey business and getting into some trouble along the way. The game is short but sweet, so as Wallace would say, “Let’s Get Cracking.”

Gameplay: 7/10

The gameplay revolves around visiting different locales, collecting items, interacting, and solving puzzles. I didn’t find any puzzle particularly challenging. I wish that more of the puzzles revolved around the construction or repair of Wallace’s crazy gadgets, but perhaps they are saving that for future episodes. While the gameplay is typical of a point and click adventure game, the Story of Fright of the Bumblebees will keep you playing till the end of the episode.

One of my biggest complaints about the Xbox version is that the framerate is terrible. Animations pause and the game just chugs along at certain points. There’s no reason the Xbox should struggle with this relatively slow paced game. I also ran into a few bugs that completely froze the game. Surprisingly, this was entirely the game’s fault and I was still able to access the Xbox Dashboard and exit out of the game. This poor port to the Xbox does cause needless frustration and affects the enjoyment of the game.

Graphics: 8/10

The graphics of the game do an excellent job of capturing the claymation that Wallace and Gromit are known for. It’s a shame that the graphics weren’t done entirely in clay, but for the sake of time I guess it is ok. As mentioned earlier, some of the technical difficulties affected the otherwise brilliant animations.

The characters that populate West Wallaby street may all be top-notch, but some of the environments in the game were a little sparse. While Wallace’s house has an excellent attention to detail, I felt that some of the other environments could have used a little more attention. I found the road to the town square especially jarring. This pulled me out of the delightful British world of Wallace and Gromit and made me feel like I was looking at polygons rather than a quaint world of clay.

Sound/Music: 8/10

The voice work in the game is top-notch, well executed and captures the tone of Wallace and Gromit. While a seasoned Wallace fan will notice that Wallace is voiced by someone else, they do a pretty good impression and it doesn’t really detract from the game or story. The music is varied throughout the few acts in this first episode and fits each troubled scenario that Wallace and Gromit face.

Lasting Appeal: 7/10

Let’s get the bad out of the way… there is pretty much zero replay-ability for this game. Half the fun of a click adventure game is learning how to solve a particular puzzle. The other half is experiencing the story. While the Xbox version has a few achievements you may need to replay a particular act to get, the gameplay of these types of games will never be their selling points.

That being said, the story of Fright of the Bumblebees is excellent. The game serves as an extended Wallace and Gromit episode, so if you’re a fan of any of their TV specials or movie you simply must experience this game. Despite all the technical hiccups and shortcomings of Fright of the Bumblebee as a game, I can’t help but look forward to playing through and experiencing the next game. Not because I want to solve puzzles and play it, but because I want to watch and enjoy the story.

Wallace and Gromit will certainly satisfy any adventure gamer out there yearning for a new point & click adventure, but what the game does best is serve the fandom of the claymation cartoon. If you are a fan of Wallace and Gromit, make sure you don’t miss any of these new episodes (I recommend the PC version over the XBLA).