Evil Dead: Hail to the King

"Good, bad, it's the game with the chainsaw"

Boomstick! Yeaaah baaaby! I just wrapped up Evil Dead: HTTK in 3 words.

Graphics: 7/10
I give the graphics a 7 because the cut scenes were just juiced up versions of the sprites. Only the starting and ending cutscenes were proper FMVs, but they were still good.

Sound: 9/10
Greatest sound accomplishment in any game I've ever played! (Except for the fact that Pokemon Yellow on a puny GameBoy could make the Pikachu scream it's name)
The phrases in this game are usually intact from the movies, although sometimes Ash 'remixes' them, to make them more suitable for the situation.

Control: 6/10
Ugh, even the start screen had bad controls. Actually, the start screen was the only time in the game where I really noticed the laggy controls. Most of the time I'm mashing the attack button, so it didn't really matter to me. The only problem I had was with the 'Annie' boss. I kept trying to aim at her, but the controls were too jittery to do even that. But still, THQ should have fixed it. (I've seen better controls made with RPG Maker 2000 custom systems)

Replay Value: 3/10
A big failure in the game's lastability. Although an extremely enjoyable game, there are no features or special quests that make this game much better second or third time around. Only if you want to view some of the hilarious cut scenes again. In fact, THQ should have included a theatre option to watch the cut scenes as you came across them in the game. Oh well, we can't get everything we want.

Overall: 8/10
Sure, Ash is the greatest survival master ever, but THQ made him feel athritic. The controls sucked when I wanted to aim at a difficult enemy or two (including Annie), but it was a good romp while it lasted. The ending FMV was hilarious, living up to the comedy antics of the previous Evil Dead movies. Some of the boss battles were also very unique, like the Scout Leader dude and the final Kandarian Demon boss. The Ash sprite was also very Bruce Cambpell-ish. It looks like THQ put a lot into the graphics and sound, but totally forgot about the control. Maybe next time, fellas. (I'm hoping for another Evil Dead horror game, or maybe even a first-person shooter. Sierra or Capcom would do a good job of it, or maybe even Konami.)

Rent or Buy?
I rented it three times, and those were consecutively. That was like half a year ago. I haven't touched them since. I'm not exactly a hardcore Evil Dead fan, so maybe true-to-the-heart fans will buy it. (I've actually seen a special set with the game AND the original Evil Dead on VHS. I might buy that.)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/24/02, Updated 06/24/02