Shrek is a video game based on the first installment in the popular movie series

Shrek

Shrek is a 2001 American computer-animated fantasy comedy film directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, featuring the voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, and John Lithgow. Loosely based on William Steig's 1990 fairy tale picture book Shrek!...

. It was released exclusively as an Xbox

Xbox

The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...

 launch title

Launch title

A launch game, or launch title, is a video game released to consumers synchronously with the release of its respective video game console, meaning they are the only available games at the time of the console's launch. Several of these games are also packaged with the console...

 on Wednesday, November 14, 2001.

This is the first Shrek video game to be rated T for Teen by the ESRB

Entertainment Software Rating Board

The Entertainment Software Rating Board is a self-regulatory organization that assigns age and content ratings, enforces industry-adopted advertising guidelines, and ensures responsible online privacy principles for computer and video games as well as entertainment software in Canada, Mexico and...

. The game was also noted for being one of the first commercial titles to make use of deferred shading

Deferred shading

In computer graphics, deferred shading is a three dimensional shading technique in which the result of a shading algorithm is calculated by dividing it into smaller parts that are written to intermediate buffer storage to be combined later, instead of immediately writing the shader result to the...

, a feature which was relatively uncommon in games until the release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is a first-person shooter video game by the Ukrainian developer GSC Game World, published in 2007.It features an alternate reality theme, where a second nuclear disaster occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone in the near future and causes...

and Grand Theft Auto IV

Grand Theft Auto IV

Grand Theft Auto IV is a 2008 open world action video game published by Rockstar Games, and developed by British games developer Rockstar North. It has been released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles, and for the Windows operating system...

.

Gameplay and Premise

Shrek takes place after the movie. Shrek and Fiona

Fiona

Fiona is a feminine given name. The name Fiona was invented, and first used, by the Scottish poet James Macpherson , author of the Ossian poems, which he claimed were translations from ancient Gaelic sources...

 are married and living happily until Fiona is captured by an evil wizard, Merlin, who has placed a seemingly impassable fog to guard his fortress. The fog can be breached by completed good deeds. The Magic mirror

Magic Mirror

Magic Mirror is a lithograph print by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher which was first printed in January, 1946.It depicts a mirror standing vertically on wooden supports on a tiled surface. The perspective is looking down at an angle at the right hand side of the mirror. There is a sphere at each...

gives Shrek a mission book which guides him through the lands.

The player completes objectives ("Good Deeds"). In most objectives, the player hunts for an object and completes an action. Not many objectives vary from this, though a few will occasionally vary. Notably, Shrek's ally and best friend Donkey is completely absent in the game, and is not mentioned at all.