As the titular character Shrek, the player completes objectives named "Good Deeds" in different areas accessible in a storybook overworld.

Shrek must travel to Merlin's Dark Tower Fortress of Pure Evil, but an impassable fog has been laid across the Fairy Tale Lands.

[6] On February 6, 2001, the next-generation console was announced to be Xbox, development duties would go towards Sandbox Studios, and the game would use character and object models from the original movie.

[10] On May 16, 2001, IGN released nine clips of gameplay footage from the Xbox title, noting "details in the graphics including loads of bump mapping an [sic] per pixel shading.

"[11] During development, Sandbox Studios was acquired by EA DICE (prior to their acquisition by Electronic Arts) and renamed to Digital Illusions Canada.

[25] Extra Large's visuals were less favorably received, with IGN critiquing the game's lack of bump mapping when transitioned over to the GameCube as well as the poor animation.

[26] NextGen said of the Xbox version, "This young-skewing platform adventure is kept from greatness by a few small things – namely, bland, broken gameplay; an uncannily counterintruitive camera; unfocused, comically haphazard level design and goals; and ho-hum sound.

"[28] On December 11, 2001, TDK Mediactive CFO Martin Paravato reported sales for both Fairy Tale Freakdown and the Xbox version making up "a significant portion of our revenue.