Level 1: Shrek's Swamp
The level starts off with a short cutscene of Shrek, Fiona, Donkey, and Gingerbread Man outside the swamp, while Shrek expresses a want for some snacks for the trip to Far Far Away. The game begins! You may play as any of the characters, you can switch to any of them using the L1 and R1 buttons (on PS2), the L and R triggers (on the Gamecube), and L and R triggers (for Xbox). Now, you must collect eyeballs from snails, seen crawling all over the swamp grounds. Eyeballs may already be sprawled throughout the swamp, or you may need to beat it out of them. Using the attack button(Square for PS2, X for Xbox, and B for Gamecube), you can hit snails with or without their shells, once you do this, their eyeballs will pop right out, thus giving you the opportunity to collect them. Keep doing this to snails around the swamp, until you finally collect all 18 eyeballs. While doing this, you can find a staircase-like set of stumps leading up to a boulder. There is one of seven dwarfs trapped in a cage suspended above the boulder. Destroying this boulder will free him, and he will thank you. If you drop carefully off the 2nd highest platform(where the boulder was) and onto a slab of the 3rd highest stump, there will be a magic bean you can obtain. 12 magic beans are located on every level and you may have to search carefully for these.
Once all 18 eyeballs are collected, the camera will pan to a gate opening on the right of the area, text will show up saying "Good Job!" and you may now advance to the next section of the level called "Le Hood". Go past the gate and ahead there is another closed gate. To the bottom left of the closed gate is a lever, which can be opened by any character with the Interact button (Circle for PS2, X for Gamecube, and B for Xbox). This lever opens the gate and you can now advance. You may hear a plea for help from another dwarf trapped in a cage. The boulder can be destroyed and you may free the 2nd dwarf. Here you may also see a box with the shape of Shrek's head on it, this means Shrek and Shrek only can lift this with the Special button (Triangle for PS2, Y on Gamecube, and Y on Xbox), and place it in the box shape located behind it, now he can jump on the box, and jump up again to reach the 2nd magic bean. Note: Although there are still snails, no more eyeballs need to be collected!
Continue to the right and up the ramp, and a cutscene will occur with Monsieur Hood/Robin Hood (as seen in the very first Shrek film) call out "Oh merry men!", triggering a brawl. Using the attack button, you can defeat all of the merrymen, but they will keep spawning if you don't defeat a particular enemy playing the accordion sitting on a swing on the top-left of the area. There is a blue potion next to an arched tree on the top-left side of the area, this makes you and your friends invulnerable for a limited time, which helps. If you don't first kill the guy with the accordion, the fight will be endless and the spawning of an enemies will be inevitable. After the battle is over, you may explore to the left. Be careful for traps! You can avoid these by destroying the two boulders that can be seen. If a character is trapped, you can free them by destroying this boulder. Moving to the left, you can encounter another trapped dwarf, a turtle (they bite), and some more snails. Coins can also be found. Now advance to the right, go past where you battled the merrymen.
Head down the hill, where another dwarf is stuck in a cage at the bottom, to the left, so of course, you can free him. There is also a turtle to defeat. Now hit the target on the right one time, next to the gate, and it will open. Glitch alert! If you hit the target too many times, your character may die! But don't worry, your checkpoint is saved. Move forward, you will meet Larry the Leprachaun, who gives a little verse pretty much saying that he will open the next gate only if you bring him all the fairies flying around in the field. You will then see a hourglass that can be obtained, and the Mirror (he gives tips that can be heard throughout the game, if you want) will tell you what it can be used for. Once you get the hourglass, you can trigger "Fionatime". Fionatime can be used by Fiona and Fiona only! Fionatime is just a slowdown sequence that gives you time to evade a harmful environment or enemies, or in this case, catch all the fairies. Press the Special button to start Fionatime and give you the advantage of catching these fairies easily. It may need to be used more than once to catch all 12 fairies, be mindful, however, of the amount of Fionatimes you have left, which can be seen above Fiona's character picture on the bottom of the screen. Once all the fairies are obtained (all you have to do is touch them once and you will catch them), advance to the leprachaun and he is satisfied all the fairies are in the jars, so he opens the next gate.
Continue onwards, and there are two turtles to defeat. Once that is done, there is a target upheld on the right. Gingerbread Man (or Gingy) can hit this target with his candy cane. To do this, press the Jump button (X for PS2, A for Gamecube, and A for Xbox), and then hit the Attack button to throw the cane. Note: Make sure you're facing the target to ensure you throw it at the bullseye.
Proceed and you will see a floating cookie, once you run to it, a cutscene will be triggered. This cinema will inform you on what this cookie and does and tells you that only Gingy can use them. Gingy and Gingy only can throw these cookies by holding the Special button, and directing where you toss it with the left stick. Ahead, there are three turtles, fronted by two traps ahead of them. This is a great time to utilize Gingerbread Man's cookie-tossing ability to entice the turtles and lure them toward the traps, there will be, however, one more turtle left so you can easily defeat it. Proceed forward and there will be turtles to defeat, a brown turtle is resting beyond the three black turtles. The brown turtle is a little more difficult to defeat considering it can survive longer and can perform a jumping spinning attack. Now, to the left there is another dwarf to free. To the right, there is a seesaw and next to it, a TNT barrel with Shrek's head on it. Now, you can place any character on the lower side of the seesaw, and on the end closest to the gate, you can have Shrek jump on, or you can pick up the barrel and throw it on to the empty end of the seesaw while it's pointing upwards. To throw the barrel, first pick it up with the Special button, then hold the Attack button. Whilst doing this, use the left stick to aim to the end pointed upwards, and let go of the Attack button. Another option is having Shrek jump on the empty end facing opposite of the other character. Get both characters bouncing. While Shrek is in mid-air, press the Attack button and he will perform a belly flop, which propels the other character over the gate, and the gate will open. Donkey can also be used for this. Continue. Note: The other seesaw's purpose is to collect coins. So it's optional.
Moving forward, on the top of the hill, a cutscene will occur, introducing you to Lil' Red and her chickens! She asks if the gang could help her get some chicken for her grandma's soup. Shrek pretty much has no choice at this point.
To finish this objective, all you have to do is stun a chicken by hitting it once, and then get behind it at the right angle facing the pot of soup, and strike it again to have it launch in the soup. An easier way, however, is to stun the chicken and lift the chicken using Shrek. To do this, press the Special button to lift it and hold the Attack button. While holding the Attack button, use the left stick to aim to the pot of steaming soup, and release the Attack button to throw. Once this process is done to all 8 chickens, you can proceed onwards as Lil' Red thanks you and you move past the next gate. Once you go through the gate, you can go to the left, where some turtles are and a red springboard is.
The springboard's purpose is to get you up to a target lying atop a set of platforms. Hit the target and it will open a gate to the left of the platforms. Here, there is a little area of brown turtles, orange potion and another boulder on a platform on the left that a springboard can get you up to. As always, you can rescue this dwarf by destroying the boulder. To advance, leave the area and advance to the right where you will pass a crocodile warning sign and a sign directing you to grandma's house. There is a target hoisted up next to a large tree trunk, and you can hit it with Gingy's candy cane weapon by pressing the Jump button and in mid-air, pressing the Attack button. Now, yet another gate will open and Mirror will give you a message, informing you that Fiona can use Fionatime to get across safely. A special Fionatime hourglass can be collected before the gate is opened.
Now, you need to time this next sequence carefully and precisely. Using Fiona, once the crocodiles have backed away enough, press the Special button and slowdown will start, giving Fiona and the rest of the group an opportunity to get by before the yellow-eyed crocodiles come back to bite again. A checkpoint is saved after you get past those vicious crocs. After getting past them, you can break boxes surrounding you for some coins and other collectibles. Follow the path where some snails are lurking, and after making your way around this curved path, a target can be seen standing beside this path on the left. Use Gingy to hit the bullseye with his cane, and a wooden bridge has fallen to lead the gang to a platform that couldn't be reached. From here, you can see a boulder in the distance on a lonely miniature isle-type platform that is holding the final dwarf enclosed in a cell above you. Note: Before you destroy the boulder using Gingy's boomerang candycane attack (jump and attack), you may want to defeat the turtles that were ahead of the curved path, because Gingy's candycane may keep trying to hit the turtles first before it hits the boulder. Using Gingy's boomerang attack (the Jump button and Attack button while in mid-jump), he can throw his candycane to the boulder repeatedly to destroy it, releasing the final dwarf.
Make your way past the target that you hit before, and there will be four brown turtles awaiting you. Defeat them, and next to you, there is a blockade with a padlock on it. There is an image of a familiar-looking donkey on it, signaling Donkey's ability to get through. Pressing the Special button using Donkey makes him perform his Burrow Blast, which is, in short, a powerful backflip kick that can cause much destruction. This padlock means that Donkey and Donkey only can get through it. Use the Burrow Blast, you can demolish the barricade. Now, we see a box with Shrek's head on it again, so he can lift it using the Special button and drop it with the same button. You can set it down next to the platform nearby, where a red health potion rests. Now, lift this same box with Shrek and head out of the little area where the barricade was blocking and there is a platform ahead on the right of the path. Set the box down next to this platform where a lever lies. Gingy is the only high jumper of the group, so only he can jump high enough to reach the platform where the lever rests. From the box, jump on the platform with Gingerbread Man and pull the lever with the Interact button.The gate to Lil' Red's grandma's house has opened, and you may advance.
A cutscene begins with Lil' Red and the rest of the gang meet at grandma's house, where Lil' Red introduces the gang with chickens in hand. Grandma is pleased and would also like some blackbirds to bake "the best blackbird pie" for everyone. Mirrors shows up and introduces Hero Time. Hero Time is a special mini-game for one character to be a hero and showcase or highlight a special ability to save the day. Fiona can "bring home the blackbirds" with her singing (since it is her specialty), as she is the first character who has a Hero Time.
All you have to do here is match the corresponding button in rhythm of Fiona's song. At the end of her song, Fiona goes in for the kill with a final, high-pitch, shrieking note, that inflates the birds and makes them explode. Hero Time is complete!
The final cutscene of the level plays. Gingy says "see ya soon for now"; he has a blind date. To take his spot, Lil' Red catches a ride with Shrek, Fiona, and Donkey since she has a game to pitch in Far Far Away. So now the ride to Far Far Away begins! Level 1 attained!
-5redmac27
