Shrek 2's licensed tie-in game is coming back for a new generation. On October 20, during the ID@Xbox Showcase, Aspyr announced DreamWorks Shrek 2 Remastered. It launches on November 10 for $29.99 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch and PC through Steam and the Epic Games Store, and pre-orders are open now. The original came out in 2004 on PS2, Xbox, GameCube and PC. That makes this one of the more unlikely revivals of the year, and the four-player brawler has kept a loyal following for more than two decades.
What is being remastered
Aspyr is not reimagining the game. It is rebuilding it. Shrek 2 Remastered keeps the structure of the 2004 original: a chapter-by-chapter co-op action adventure that loosely follows the film, from Shrek's swamp to the kingdom of Far Far Away and Fiona's family castle. Combat is still the simple, pick-up-and-play smashing, throwing and kicking that made it a living-room favourite. Bosses, light environmental puzzles and a rotating party of heroes break things up.
On the presentation side, Aspyr says the textures and UI have been rebuilt, the game now runs at 4K, and the cutscenes have been redone. The studio's first batch of screenshots shows how far that goes. Character models like Shrek, Donkey, Puss in Boots and Gingy now look much closer to their film counterparts than to the chunky sixth-generation models many players remember.
Four-player co-op, now online too
Co-op was always the point of Shrek 2, and the remaster expands it in the most obvious way. The 2004 release was a local-only affair. Shrek 2 Remastered supports up to four players in couch co-op, online multiplayer, or a mix of the two. One household can bring a couple of players to the sofa and fill the remaining slots with friends over the internet. The game is still fully playable solo.
The hero-swap system also returns. At any point you can switch to a different member of the party, and each character has their own abilities for fighting, beating bosses and getting past environmental puzzles. In practice, the right hero for the job is often the one who opens the way forward.
Photo Mode and Cheat Mode
The remaster adds two new features. The first is Photo Mode, which lets you freeze the action and frame a shot. It's an easy pitch for a game this full of cartoon slapstick. The second is Cheat Mode, a menu of unlockable cheats meant to smooth out a playthrough. That should help younger players, or anyone who just wants to see the story through with friends without getting stuck on a tricky section.
Aspyr also promises that the hidden Easter eggs and iconic moments from the movie are still in place. The new screenshots cover the original's spread of fairytale locations, from the cobbled streets of Far Far Away to farmland where a flying Shrek has the local poultry scattering.
Price, platforms and pre-orders
DreamWorks Shrek 2 Remastered costs $29.99 on every platform. At the time of writing, the Steam pre-order carries a 10% discount, bringing it down to $26.99. The full platform list:
- PlayStation 5
- Xbox Series X|S
- Nintendo Switch 2
- Nintendo Switch
- PC (Steam and Epic Games Store)
The game is developed and published by Aspyr, the studio behind a long run of re-releases that includes the Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection and the Tomb Raider I–III Remastered trilogy.
PC specs
For a remaster of a 2004 game, the PC requirements are not trivial, which reflects how much of the art has been rebuilt. Both tiers ask for 16 GB of RAM, DirectX 12 and 12 GB of storage on 64-bit Windows.
- Minimum: Windows 10/11, AMD Ryzen 5 5600 or Intel Core i5-12400F, AMD Radeon RX 7600 or RX 6700 XT (12 GB preferred) or Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 or RTX 3060 Ti.
- Recommended: Windows 11, AMD Ryzen 7 7700X or Ryzen 5 7600X or Intel Core i5-14600K or Core i7-13700K, AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT or RX 9070 or Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 or RTX 5070 (12–16 GB VRAM).
The game has full controller support on PC, which makes sense for something built to be passed around a sofa. With November 10 less than three weeks away, Shrek 2 Remastered has a short runway to launch, and it lands just ahead of the holiday season, when a four-player family game finds its biggest audience.
