Despicable Me is a good concept that has a lot of potential as a platformer and puzzle game, but a lack of polish really hinders the overall satisfaction and fun of the game.

Based on the movie of the same name, Despicable Me's visual style draws heavily upon the CG film. The main characters you will see are Gru and his little yellow minions, and while they look really small on the screen, they are discernible enough to get the point across. While the game looks good, there definitely isn't anything to write home about, and while this is definitely one of the ares that could use some polish, it pales in comparison to some of the game's bigger issues.

Audio-wise, it sounds like Steve Carell has reprised his role as the world's second best evil genius, but I couldn't really find any hard evidence to back that up. If it isn't the comedic actor, then the stand-in did a great job reproducing the character's voice.

Despicable Me puts you in control of Gru, an evil genius who has decided to steal the Moon. All he needs are a few parts for his rocket and he will be able to accomplish his goal. The problem is, his rival, Vector, has also gotten it in his head to steal the Moon. So it is a race against time to get the last few parts necessary. As Gru, you will not only have a small variety of weapons, but also your little yellow minions.

The game is a series of side-scrolling levels filled with challenges, both of the platforming variety and of the switch-throwing, puzzle-solving kind. While dealing with the platformer stuff, it will pretty much be just you and Gru and Gru's gun. You will have to do everything from freeze platforms, run for your life with expert timing, and even take down the occasional enemy. In the puzzle rooms, you will have various gaps to cross, doors to get through and buttons to push, all by using various combinations of your minion's configurations, but more on that later.

Throughout the game, you will also get the chance to do various despicable acts like defaming paintings and messing up cars and artwork, all to help build your Despicable Meter, though the reward for doing this isn't all that grand. Outside of that, there are various collectibles scattered across the game for those people out there who have to pick up every last item.

Put simply, Despicable Me is a challenging game. Not only does it offer a lot of puzzles that take a good bit of time, and often multiple attempts, to actually get through, but a lot of the platformer areas are downright killers. The problem is, it seems like a lot of the difficult platformer sections are overly complex and simply designed to make you die easily. To cite a section early in the game, you will find yourself in a hall with three platformers that move up and down. Both below and above them are laser beams that will kill you instantly. The trick is to freeze the platforms with your gun so that you can jump across. The problem is, unless they are below a certain height, you will fail, because even a single jump will cause you to hit the upper lasers in most cases. A challenge like this, combined with the game's loose controls, makes a lot of these areas really hard to get through. It's no wonder after losing several times, the game will ask you if you want to skip that particular puzzle and pop up just after that section of the level.

The non-platformer based puzzles, the ones typically involving organizing minions and manipulating them, have a variety of challenge levels, and while a good number are middle of the road, many require a lot of thought and steps to get past. The game does have collectibles that will allow you to see steps to solve a puzzle, but there are nowhere near enough to help you through every tough spot.

Despicable Me's got two interesting mechanics that have widely different feels and really makes the game feel like an attempt to blend their respective genres. On one hand, it is a platformer where you will have to run, jump and double-jump your way across environmental hazards, as well as take out the occasional enemy. On the other, you will use your supply of minions to knock things down, cross gaps and hit numerous buttons, and for the most part, these two gameplay styles are separated from each other.

While in a room requiring the use of minions, a simple push of the button causes a minion launcher to appear on the HUD and you get to select which configuration of minion(s) you want to use. These can be anything from a single minion, to stacked ones, to ones arranged in a wheel. You can use your weapon and its various abilities to affect the minions. You start with a freeze gun and a wind gun. Using the freeze gun, you can make them a solid, and stronger block, while the wind gun can cause a single minion to float up, a stack to fall over (making a bridge) or a wheel to turn sideways and make a fan. Tougher puzzles will require you to use combinations of minion styles, as well as combinations of gun attacks, in order to get to the other end of the puzzle and get out.

As for the game's platformer aspect, as I mentioned before, the controls are very loose and while I appreciate Gru's ability to aim his gun in pretty much all of the 360 degrees around him, having to use the PSP's little analog nub makes it really hard to be exact. That combined with the loose jumping and double jumping makes getting through a lot of what appear to be simple platformer areas tough. This is definitely one of the areas that could have used a lot more polish.

Despicable Me isn't a total wash; it has a lot of potential, and as a challenging game, it might be worth the purchase to a few gamers out there who enjoy those super hard games for the simple fact that they are super hard. In the end, the game feels rushed, and it would have been nice to see how it would have turned out if a bit more time and tweaking had gone into it. As it stands now, Despicable Me is a rental at most for those actually interested in the game.