Whacked!

"Worth the price if you get it used."

I picked this game up used and, honestly, for $12.99, this is more than worth the play. The cartoon-ish style of gameplay and animation is a fresh break away from the realism you're probably used to with Counter Strike and other FPS.

Gameplay 8/10 - The controls are actually fairly fluid in game play. There aren't any complex combos, and with only 4 buttons and the one joystick to deal with, this game is an instant pick up and go.

However, there are some problems with targeting another character. Typically, facing in the general direction is good enough, but the game seems to randomly choose if your shot will connect or not. Also, there are environmental factors like wind that, though they are working properly, will make the controller feel flimsy on some levels.

Story 5/10 - It's a game show based FPS. The characters are generally hilarious (from a psychotic Canadian duck to a couch as playable characters), but the storyline is pretty blah and predictable. Honestly, I can't be to hard on it because, let's face it, I can count on one hand the number of FPSes with decent story-lines. The story does it's job by keeping you amused while you are playing. Don't expect anything more than that.

There is also the cute little commercials that you get between levels to consider. When you see them the first, maybe even second time, you'll probably get a laugh out of them. Don't worry, though, you're going to get sick of all of them before you finish the game with one character on game show mode. They apparently fired the animator half-way though and all of the commercials get recycled from stage 3 through 4 levels. What a gyp.

Graphics 8/10 - Most of the graphics were good, but they obviously didn't want to push the systems limits with them. This works out well because when you have hundreds of chickens running after you, the game play doesn't experience a slow down. Overall, the 3-D animation is fairly slick and I personally enjoyed the 2-D cartoon style.

Sound 2/10 - Oh. My. God. The sound is TERRIBLE in this game. I have to crank up my volume to near max just to hear what the characters are saying, and I still can't understand some of them (Eugene is awful). The background music ranges from ok to down right annoying. Also, the "Announcer" in the background seems to like machine-gun style comments, especially about how you can't seem to win when you're 2 stars from goal. I almost want to turn it off all together, but some levels have audio-only ques.

Play Time/Replayability 6/10 - If you are playing this game multiplayer, which it was mostly intended for, then it's great for replay since you have the choice between dodge ball, frag fest, so on so forth, and you don't need to keep playing a "kill to win" type of game every time. On single player, though, this game is a bit weak and makes unlocking all of the movies a chore.

Final Recommendation 7/10 - I've given this game an extra point since you CAN pick it up cheap from a video game store used. If you can find it, I would probably just end up renting it since you can get almost all of your kicks out on it in a weekend, and this is a title that will more than likely collect dust after that - unless you have someone fun to play with.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/05/05