"Filled with voodoo, this game is cursed."

Corpse Killer is a straight game that came to the 3DO with some good intentions, but seems to have dropped some good looking visual presentation that you might look for. Although the story is interesting and the game play can be a little fun, there are a tone of problems that you’ll find from the start of the game and continue to plague it from start to finish. If you can look past all of the problems, you’ve actually got a game that might be well worth playing, but if you can’t look past those apparent problems, then you’ll find that there is nothing worth watching or playing here.

The story line hasn’t changed much from the other versions of the game, in which you are dropped onto an island that is full of demons, monsters, voodoo and some wickedly evil scare crows! Through your adventures on this enchanted evil island, you’ll be helped out by a hippie and a girl that give you both clues, directions and sometimes items that you can use to defeat the evil within the island. Looking at this edge of the story, you could consider this a Resident Evil prototype that just didn’t have enough going for it to get it off the ground!

-The Game Play-

The game play that you find is point and shoot gaming that really has no purpose. From time to time, you’ll find monsters that just pop up and you have to waste them before they kill you, but for some of these monsters, you have to use a specially made bullet to defuse the voodoo that controls them. While this may add some pretty cool features to the way that you take on your enemies, these bullets are limited in number and if you waste them then you’re pretty much looking at a short game filled with a continue screen. As you go through the island, you can locate yourself on a large map, which does help in some ways and keeps the game moving, but once you’ve been through this hell hole, then you won’t want to come back for a second romp!

The control is another factor that just seems to die with the game in which you have to really look at what you’re doing and where you’re aiming your weapon. With the way that the controller is laid out, there are some points that will take you some time to learn and once you do have it on cue, the directional pad just seems to make the cursor move slow across the field. What this does is add more difficulty to the game because you’ll take unnecessary damage from monsters in your way while trying to get a bead on them to fire off some rounds!

-The Visuals-

Visually, the game has taken a dive for the worst and leapt away from the grainy CD visuals and into something less that pleasant, or so it seems that is both grainy and extremely hard to focus on. With the monsters and their designs as well as the different places that you’ll travel, it’s hard to really get into the game and the way that it looks when the theme itself is lost with the blurred edges and visual break up. I’m really not sure what the deal is with the copy that I have, but it seems to me that everything but my cursor moves at an exponential rate while I aim slowly. The special effects are limited to monsters dying and literally no explosions, so there isn’t any visual excitement that you’ll find here.

-The Audio-

The audio is almost as bad, with the music trying to play off the game as being something that is a race against time. Although it doesn’t do a bad job in some parts, it all blends together or buts up to make the pace and theme of the game seem jittery in some areas. The sound effects sound as though they have been run through a grater and you’ll find that after listening to the way that the effects and the music clash together, it’s simply a good idea to mute the damned television and listen to something a little more worth your while.

-The Verdict-

Corpse Killer for the 3DO is, in my opinion a disaster of a game that really shouldn’t have been spawned. I figure that the game was created to fill in the low slots of games that were released, but with the console wars at the time, there just wasn’t enough attention that was given to the game and this is the end result. With poor visuals, sub-par audio and very sluggish control as well as game play that is both cheap and boring at the same time, this game is a collector’s item ONLY if you’re into keeping games for systems that are no longer available. Otherwise, save your money and go buy something else for the 3DO, and leave this one to rot where you found it.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 10/01/02, Updated 10/01/02