Futurama

"Futurama makes the jump to video games."

Futurama is one of my favorite cartoons. When I heard that they had a game coming out based on the show, I got a little excited, and started looking for information on it. When I heard it was a really short game, it dampened my enthusiasm to get it right away, and I ended up kind of forgetting about it. I saw it the other day for $20, so I decided to pick it up, and see what it held in store for me. Here's my opinions on the game.

Story (9/10): Professor Farnsworth sells Planet Express to MOM, who now owns over 50% of Earth, and has declared herself ruler of the world. She wastes no time in changing the name Mother Earth to MOM Earth, as well as enslaving all humans. She then sets her sights on taking over the entire universe. Fry, Bender and Leela decide that they have to stop MOM, and enlist the help of Professor Farnsworth's brains and inventions to help them out.

Gameplay(7/10): You play as 4 characters from Futurama, Fry, Bender, Leela and Dr. Zoidberg. Fry, Bender and Leela are the main characters, and they each have quite a few levels. They all have different ways of attacking, but that is pretty much the main difference between playing as any of them.

In Fry's levels, he picks up guns and ammunition to blast away the robots and other creatures that try to stop him. He can target onto people and things, making it pretty easy to kill everything, and once you see how some of the things attack, you should probably almost never get hit.

When playing as Bender, he can swing his arms around and do a butt slam attack as well. He also has a special move that turns him into sort of a tornado of flailing arms and legs that lasts for a few seconds. In Bender's levels, some of the enemies can spit acid at you from far away and with deadly accuracy, so it is imperative to get to them quickly and kill them, or you may find yourself dying every now and again.

Leela punches and kicks her way to killing enemies, most of which are easily disposed of and pose no real threat. She also has a special move that results in her unleashing a vicious kick that causes a bunch of damage.

All 3 of these characters have health pickups strewn across the place, as well as Nibblers and some sort of valuable item to collect. Most of them are easy to find, but there are a few hidden away that may make you think for a little bit.

Dr. Zoidberg only has one level, and I personally did not like it. Fortunately, it's a short level, so once you beat it, you can go on your way, and pretend like it never happened.

Graphics (6/10): As you'd expect, the graphics are cartoony, and they also attempt to use cel shading. However, with so many games using the cel shading technique, it stands out if it isn't done well, and I don't feel that it is done very well at all in this game. The character designs looked very similar to their counterparts on TV, and most of the worlds were finely created, but it just seemed like it was lacking in some areas, and could have been better.

Sound (7/10): The voices for the characters were great, but after hearing them say the same 2 or 3 things over and over again whenever you do something, it gets old. I'm almost getting to the point where I wish if game makers would either not have the characters say anything funny or witty, or else write more than the 2 or 3 lines most games have. The music was enjoyable, though after awhile, I did turn the volume off except during cutscenes.

Difficulty and Length (6/10): This game was painfully short. I collected almost everything in the game on the first run through, and still beat it in just over 6 hours. I consider myself to be about an average gamer at best, as well. I probably would have done it a little quicker as well, but Dr. Zoidberg's level took me way too long to beat. There are 24 levels, but most of them only take 5-10 minutes to run through, even checking out everything in the game. The game is also incredibly easy, and by the end of the game, you should have a ton of extra lives accumulated. There was a hard spot every now and again, but for the most part, I would imagine that you would breeze through the game.

Replayability (6/10): The main replayability will be to collect everything there is in the game. There are some rewards for doing so, such as unlocking all the movies as well as the loading screens. Most of these are pretty humorous, and along the lines of what you would expect from a Futurama game. Other than that, though, the only reason I can see to replay the game would be to see how quickly you could go through it.

Final Score: 7/10

Rent/Buy: For most people, this is going to be an average game at best, as well as one that doesn't take long to beat, so they would be wise to rent it, just for a few laughs. However, if you are into collecting things from Futurama or Matt Groening, then you will more than likely want to go buy it. Really, though, I don't see the need to do anything but rent it, because after 5 days, you'll more than likely never look at it again.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/20/04