Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Wrath of the Darkhul King

"An Insult to the TV Show it is Based On"

I remember seeing this game in a shop a few years back and buying it; an incident I would rather forget, not solely because I had to wait for what seemed like an eternity in the queue, not only because when I got to the front I got queue jumped by a ten year old kid who evidently hadn't heard of the concept of queuing, but largely because this game is a disappointment. In all honesty, if you want a Buffy-based game, get Chaos Bleeds for the Gamecube.

Gameplay - 5/10

At first, it is infuriatingly annoying to get the hang of the controls; there is a tutorial level that goes through various moves and gives hints by having Buffy freeze in a frankly daft-looking pose at various points. However, the controls are inescapably annoying - you have to get the hang of using the R button (no, not the A button as is customary) to jump with; A is generally used to stake vampires. The controls for allowing you to run are somewhat dodgy too, as you have to press a few times on the direction pad in the direction you wish to run. Also, rather infuriatingly, if you do manage to die, you will be sent right to the beginning of this level where you will have everything explained to you once again.

Throughout the game, you will be staking the vampires and various other monsters that are found stalking about the level, usually pacing back and forth, after fighting them; you can also use various other weapons that appear when the vampires die; every four levels or so, you will face a boss of some sort. What really disappoints is that once you get the hang of the controls, the levels seem incredibly easy and can be beaten all too quickly. Also, the boss fights seem rather uninspiring; they often seem to consist of Buffy standing facing the monster, and having to run towards it and use standard combat moves, which suggests a rather noticeable lack of imagination. I realise there are limits to two dimensional gameplay, but most 2D games make the boss fights a bit - no, make that a LOT - more interesting than these.

Also, for some reason the makers of the game decided it was a neat idea to stick the WORST Buffy character of all time into some of the levels - I'm referring to Buffy's idiot boyfriend from Season 4, and some of Season 5, Riley Finn. He shows up to chuck items at you, but evidently whoever made this game didn't realise that most people actively HATE this guy. Next time he appears in a Buffy game, PLEASE let me stake him.

Story - 3/10

This story is pathetic - it's worse than some of the appallingly bad Buffy novelisations I happen to have on my bookshelf. Honestly, if this plot ever showed up on the series I would be saying to myself: "They finally jumped the shark; sad, isn't it?"

So, Buffy finds out about some Darthaul King, who has decided to terrorise Sunnydale, so she goes out to patrol, then goes back to hold a discussion with Giles, Willow, Xander and Anya, before going out to look for more things. Along the way, a few familiar characters from the show decide to pop up and cause trouble. For anyone who doesn't watch the show, this just makes for an interesting detail to distract from the main plot; for anyone who is a big fan of Buffy, it is just embarrassing, cringe-inducing and infuriating. One of the boss fights - and I use the term loosely - is against the Gentlemen from the episode "Hush", which for the record is one of my top 3 episodes of all time, but ... why? For one thing, Buffy killed these guys, no doubt about it, and secondly, they act nothing like they did in the show; here, they are simply woeful.

The "Scooby Gang" (as anyone with at least as much Buffy knowledge as I have will know is the name given to Buffy's friends) are oddly ineffective in the game, popping up solely to hold discussions with Buffy between levels, and the dialogue is far from the kind that I'm used to in the TV series, aside from a few amusing and tactless remarks from Anya and a couple of jokes from Xander. This entire plot seems as though four teenagers sat down at a table and started throwing ideas ("And the bad guy is called - THE DARTHAUL KING - yeah, that sounds cool, and THE GENTLEMEN RETURN; I loved them, they have to return!"); actually, it doesn't even sound as good as that - is seems like one person wrote the start then passed it on to their friend and told them "Write whatever you want; we don't need to create an overall structure for the story beforehand". Honestly, it makes that mediocre movie starring Kristy Swanson look like a masterpiece.

Sound - 3/10

Oh, the sound is far from impressive - the first level's music will make you want to turn the volume right down; in fact, I don't even know if it qualifies as music - just a bunch of sub-SEGA Gamegear, random sounds thrown together and the result is a sloppy mess.

Graphics - 5/10

Okay, I guess you can't expect much on the Gameboy Advance, but these look very cheap indeed. The character sprites in the levels are tiny and often look ridiculous; the vampires are more like zombies from Resident Evil, and they're not even that impressive. The level designs are drab, boring and repetitive, but the worst problem is the cutscenes - if you can call them cutscenes.

They actually consist of a bunch of still images of the performers from the show; I'm not entirely sure if they're ripped right out of various episodes or if Sarah Michelle Gellar et al kindly posed for them, but it isn't really as great as it sounds. Sure, these look a lot better than the dire graphics seen on some Gameboy Advance games, but they only bothered with one still image for each character, so whatever they are saying, they will be doing the exact same thing - this makes the game look even more embarrassingly cheap.

Lastability - 3/10

Don't make me laugh; you will breeze through this game all too fast once you get the hang of it, the level of challenge does not exactly increase. Amusingly enough, the game has three save slots, although I don't think anyone would want to even play through this game twice, let alone three times. Also, I am rather baffled by the decision to rate this as "12+", since the violence in this game isn't exactly hardcore; I've seen more brutal games than this with a "7+" rating.

Final Verdict

If you're a fan of the series, don't bother buying this; it's a total insult to Joss Whedon, Sarah Michelle Gellar et al; if you aren't a fan of the series, you won't really have any reason to buy this at all.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 04/28/06