Shrek 5 Trailer Officially Brings the Ogre Back, But It Shouldn't Be His Only Comeback

The Shrek 5 trailer has finally been revealed, with the movie now set to release in theaters on June 30, 2027. Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz are all back, giving DreamWorks’ most famous ogre his first proper movie since Shrek Forever After in 2010. That means Shrek 5 is arriving 17 years after the last mainline Shrek film, which is wild for a franchise that still feels like such a big part of present pop culture.

If Shrek is officially making his movie comeback, though, then there’s no reason his return should stop at theaters. The franchise has been away from gaming for almost as long, and that absence feels especially strange now that licensed games are starting to feel exciting again. Before Shrek 5 arrives, DreamWorks should seriously consider giving another chance to the strangest Shrek game of them all, Shrek SuperSlam.

LEGO Shrek Officially Revealed

An officially-licensed LEGO set based on the Shrek franchise has just been revealed, and pre-orders are open already.

Shrek SuperSlam Was One of the Franchise’s Weirdest Gaming Experiments

Shrek SuperSlam was released in 2005, between Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third, and it didn’t try to simply retell the plot from one of the movies. Instead, it turned the franchise into a chaotic fighting game where characters from the Shrek universe slammed each other through walls, windows, and fairy-tale arenas. Players could control characters like Shrek, Donkey, Puss in Boots, Fiona, Prince Charming, and other familiar faces in a game designed purely around over-the-top brawling—similarly to games like Super Smash Bros.

Who’s That Character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Who’s That Character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)

That concept alone makes Shrek SuperSlam stand out from the rest of the franchise’s gaming history. Plenty of Shrek games were built as platformers, party games, racing games, or direct movie tie-ins, but SuperSlam understood that Shrek‘s world was strange enough to support something even sillier. It essentially treated the franchise like a playground of oddball characters who wanted to destroy one another rather than a movie plot that had to be copied scene by scene.

The game’s main idea was simple, but it fit Shrek better than it probably had any right to. Every character had a SuperSlam attack, and the environments were fully destructible during matches. That meant the appeal wasn’t just winning a fight, but watching fairy-tale chaos unfold in a way that felt very on brand for Shrek‘s personality.

Shrek SuperSlam wasn’t a critical masterpiece, though, although it did perform better than many other licensed games from its era. Metacritic lists the Xbox version of Shrek SuperSlam at 71, the GameCube version at 70, the PC version at 69, and the PlayStation 2 version at 67, while the handheld versions landed a bit lower. For a 2005 licensed Shrek fighting game, that’s not exactly a disaster.

Plenty of Shrek games were built as platformers, party games, racing games, or direct movie tie-ins, but SuperSlam understood that Shrek‘s world was strange enough to support something even sillier.

What critics and players seemed to like most about the game was its premise. Shrek SuperSlam had an immediately understandable appeal, especially for younger gamers, because it let them throw familiar characters into absurd battles with destructible stages and exaggerated attacks. It wasn’t trying to be a polished competitive fighting game because it didn’t need to be one, and that actually worked in its favor.

The problems were pretty clear as well. Some reviewers found the game too easy, too short, repetitive, or shallow, and the handheld versions didn’t carry the same appeal as the console versions. It had the shape of a great Shrek party-fighting game, but it didn’t have the depth or longevity to become a true franchise pillar.

But that’s exactly why it feels like the right kind of game to revisit now that Shrek 5 is on the way. The original Shrek SuperSlam had a strong enough idea to be remembered, but enough obvious limitations that a modern revival could improve almost everything about it. A new version could keep the absurdity while adding better combat, arenas, multiplayer support, online play, and a much larger roster of characters from Dreamworks’ Shrek universe.

Shrek has also had a much longer gaming history than some fans may remember. In fact, Shrek was once everywhere in games, even if not every release was good or especially memorable. Now that the movies are finally waking back up, the gaming industry shouldn’t act like that entire part of the franchise simply never happened.

The Biggest Shrek Video Games Ever Released

Shrek (2001)
Shrek: Fairy Tale Freakdown (2001)
Shrek: Swamp Kart Speedway (2002)
Shrek: Treasure Hunt (2002)
Shrek Super Party (2002)
Shrek: Hassle at the Castle (2002)
Shrek Extra Large (2002)
Shrek 2 (2004)
Shrek 2: Beg for Mercy (2004)
Shrek SuperSlam (2005)
Shrek Smash n’ Crash Racing (2006)
Shrek the Third (2007)
Shrek n’ Roll (2007)
Shrek: Ogres & Dronkeys (2007)
Shrek’s Carnival Craze (2008)
Shrek Kart (2009)
Shrek Forever After (2010)
Shrek’s Fairytale Kingdom (2012)
Shrek Sugar Fever (2017)
Shrek Swamp Tycoon (2024)

Shrek’s Gaming Comeback Doesn’t Need to Be a Simple Movie Tie-In

A direct Shrek 5 game could work, but only if it avoided feeling like an old-school obligation. The licensed tie-in era often produced rushed games that existed mostly because a movie was about to hit theaters, and Shrek had its fair share of that. To justify its own existence, then, a new Shrek game would need to feel like a real project with its own reason to exist.

Guess the games from the emojis.

Easy (120s)Medium (90s)Hard (60s)

That’s where Shrek SuperSlam makes more sense than a straightforward adaptation. A modern SuperSlam revival could use the excitement around Shrek 5 without being trapped by the movie’s plot. It could bring back classic characters, add new characters from the sequel, and fold in the wider Shrek and Puss in Boots universe.

A direct Shrek 5 game could work, but only if it avoided feeling like an old-school obligation.

The timing is also better than it might seem. Licensed games have become a lot more interesting in recent years, with Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man games showing how powerful a high-quality adaptation can be. Marvel’s Wolverine is now giving Insomniac another major licensed character to tackle, and Warhorse Studios is working on an open-world Lord of the Rings RPG.

In other words, the industry isn’t just throwing away the idea of licensed games anymore. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle also proved that a classic movie franchise can work in games when the project is built around what makes that property fun to inhabit. If studios are willing to take Spider-Man, Wolverine, Indiana Jones, and Lord of the Rings seriously, then Shrek shouldn’t be limited to nostalgia memes and theater seats.

Of course, Shrek doesn’t need the same kind of prestige-game treatment as those franchises either. The right Shrek game should probably be funnier, weirder, and more chaotic than most modern licensed games. That’s why SuperSlam is such a good starting point, because it already knew Shrek was at its best when fairy-tale rules were being broken.

Even if DreamWorks never revives Shrek SuperSlam specifically, Shrek 5 should still make a new game easier to justify. The franchise has the characters, settings, humor, and nostalgia to support something more ambitious than a quick mobile release. A co-op adventure, party game, brawler, or open-area fairy-tale comedy game could all make sense if the studio behind it understood the tone.

The biggest point is that Shrek‘s comeback should arguably feel bigger than one movie. Shrek 5 is already bringing the ogre back to the big screen after a long absence, and that alone will probably be enough to make longtime fans curious. But if DreamWorks wants Shrek‘s return to feel like a true franchise revival, gaming deserves to be part of it, whatever that might look like.