Does the Wallace and Gromit season finale hit a hole in one?
After the end of Muzzled, Wallace got himself in some pretty hot water with Miss Flitt by accidently popping the question. The Last Bogey takes place a day later and Wallace has to find a way out of this, luckily Gromit stumbles across the answer by listening in on a conversation between Miss Flitt and her Aunt Prudence that their family doesn’t mix with members of the local golf club known as Prickly Thicket. The answer becomes obvious…get Wallace into the ranks of the club and get a free pass out of the proposal. But in typical Wallace and Gromit style, things don’t go quite as planned…
For a season finale, you might think that this is a bit tame. Sam and Max’s Season Two finale was in the depths of Hell while Strong Bad entered a videogame universe trying to kill a dragon, but I guess you really couldn’t have anything like that for a Wallace and Gromit finale. But don’t go jumping to conclusions just because the episode is about golf, it actually has quite little to do with it and more about saving West Wallaby Street for a bulldozer. How does it end up there? Well, you’ll have to play it to find out…
The puzzles in this episode are perhaps the trickiest of the season, they took me quite a while to figure out and I can’t wait to go through it again when the episode hits XBLA. Sure, the game still has a few control issues with moving and the camera isn’t always in the best place, but these are small problems that don’t ruin the experience or the great writing that you find with the season. I hope that Telltale do come back to do another season of Grand Adventures…but I guess it’s still too early to tell if they will.
The season has been full of great voice-work and the finale is no different. The script is hilarious as ever, just as long as you are fan of Wallace and Gromit. Visuals are the usual we’ve come to expect and are authentic to the style of the series is known best for.
The series as a whole has been a mixed bag, but ultimately a triumph for Telltale who turns every license to gold with their games. I wonder what else they could turn their hand to? I personally would love them to tackle either a Simpsons, South Park or Family Guy license next. Since all have not one single good game between them, it’d be good to see if Telltale could break the curse, and I bet they could.
The Verdict
The Bogey Man is a surprising, yet good finale to a great first season of Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Adventures. It stands as the best in the series and hopefully paves the way for more episodes in the future.
