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Last year TDK and Tose brought fans of the Shrek series Hassle in the Castle on the Game Boy Advance. It was a cute simple side scroller that you could beat in an afternoon. The follow up is Reekin' Havoc, and its just as simple, short, cute, but doesn't bring anything new to the table.

You choose from Princess Fiona or Shrek to battle the now deceased Lord Faarquad's ghost. It's a new story, but a short one at that. Visually, Shrek looks decent with lush detailed backdrops and the big head, super-deformed characters to give the game personality. The level design is basic, yet has enough puzzles about to keep your noggin a' ticking. The enemies in each level suit the personality within each terrain. From the masked hecklers in Pinocchio's level, to the rats in the castle, the game adds new enemies to keep the game fresh level to level. Your combat moves are varied, yet limited and the magic effects for your super power ups aren't very impressive. Overall Shrek gets by with passable visuals.

Audio in the game is surprisingly good. TDK knows audio and it shows in this title. The soundtrack is a mixture of funky beats and medieval themes. What's impressive is how well the music sounds. It isn't just a bunch of MIDI tunes; this is actually rich, stereo, sounding tunes. The other effects in the game are unfortunately rather bland. Thankfully the sound effects doesn't drown out the more impressive score.

Gameplay is your basic side scrolling, respawning enemy, get to the boss scenario with a few puzzles thrown in for good measure. The controls are your typical jump and punch variety, and if you press two buttons together, Magic! The biggest issue is that the game is only 6 levels long. While the levels are relatively big, the game can be beaten in a matter of hours! This was okay in the 8-bit realm, but come on folks, for my 20 beans I want some meat in my game.

All in all Shrek has been done better and worse, and this stands somewhere in between. It's very short, not too difficult, and feels like a watered down expansion pack to Hassle in the Castle than a true follow up. If you or your children just have to have every piece of Shrek merchandise you can find, then pick this one up. Otherwise wait for it to drop half price before purchase, as there just isn't enough game here to merit the 20-dollar price tag.