n horror tales, school field trips always seem to go wrong somehow. Case in point, the son of the grim reaper (Death has kids, and in school even—who knew?) takes a class outing to the local town museum and inadvertently lets all Hades loose in Konami's newest release for the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP).
Death Jr. is a first-person shooter with platform elements. It's also a story about what not to do to impress your grade-school crush. When Death Jr., aka "DJ," releases Moloch the Necromancer from a mysterious box in the museum (to wow his would-be love, the ironically named Pandora), Moloch steals the souls of DJ's friends and sends his demon army out through warp points to wreak no small amount of demony havoc. DJ must stop Moloch's army, piece his friends' souls back together and free his dear Pandora from Moloch's grip before big bad Daddy-o finds out DJ's been unleashing chaos again without permission.
DJ is controlled using the PSP's analog stick, while his primary weapon—a long and lanky scythe—is triggered with the square button. DJ can run, jump, strafe and dodge, and the handheld's D-pad allows weapon cycling among the scythe and a variety of ranged weapons, such as twin pistols, a freeze thrower and a rocket launcher. DJ can also perform wall jumps and use the scythe to swing from hooks, slide on wires and boost himself up to high ledges. There is no multiplayer mode.
Stylish and cute, but dull
Death Jr. is a great marketing job in search of a game. With props to Tim Burton in terms of visual design, and a slew of magazine and online advertising, this is the definition of a good idea that still hasn't happened. In terms of art design, Death Jr. is a charming hit with quirky, eye-catching characters and a winning neo-gothic style. But once the game's mechanics kick in, things go south, smashing hopes for sassy macabre action by instead churning out mediocre first-person gameplay with negligible platforming elements.
For starters, the story setup is thin and confusing, and spends too little time developing DJ himself. We're treated to colorful characters like "Stigmartha," who bleeds from her hands when nervous; "Smith and Weston," two bodies sharing one brain; and "Seep," an armless, legless foreign exchange student in a jar. These characters have real personalities, where DJ—when he finally appears—has the personality of a pet rock, and the remainder of the game does maddeningly little to change that. When the game's called Death Jr. it's a safe bet to assume players want to know more about the game's namesake than that he swings a mean scythe.
As DJ rescues the pieces of his friends' souls, something that players of average skill should be able to complete in a few hours, very little actually happens to drive the story. A handful of text boxes lead the way; otherwise it's run and reap from start to finish, with no time made for panache and wit. This is a game where the marketing literature is actually more enjoyable and humorous to read than playing the game itself.
As a first-person shooter, Death Jr. is OK at best. Much of the game involves running through playing arenas with limited vertical options, so platforming (gameplay in which players jump from platform to platform) as a requirement is almost nonexistent. Players will spend most of this very short game mowing down demonic minions that exhibit limited behavioral variety, using the game's few weapons, though as they go the C4 Hamsters are an amusing touch.
And that just about sums up what's wrong with Death Jr.—a few clever ideas paddling in a sea of vanilla. It's disappointing, because this is a smartly named character with boundless untapped comedic opportunities. Maybe next time, if there is one.
This isn't the first time a promising concept has failed on its maiden voyage because someone let the hype run away with the game itself.
—Matt
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