Death, Jr. Preview

Death, Jr. was one of the first titles announced for the Sony PSP, but it didn't manage to show up for the PSP launch in March. It's almost done now though, and it's scheduled for release by Konami in August. We recently got our hands on a copy of Death, Jr. and spent some time exploring this oddball, Burton-esque adventure from Backbone Entertainment.

Death Jr., known to his friends as DJ, is the mischievous son of the Grim Reaper. DJ goes on a field trip to the museum one day and wanders off with a group of friends, including Pandora, a troublesome and impulsive girl; Seep, a rude boy who lives in a vat of some sort of liquid; Stigmartha, a brainy girl with stigmata that appear when she gets nervous; Smith and Weston, a set of brainy conjoined twins that like to work with gadgets; and Dead Guppy, who is… a dead guppy. In a cutscene that looks like something from The Nightmare Before Christmas, Pandora finds an ancient box that she wants to open. When she can't get it open, DJ helps out with his trusty scythe by slicing the lock off the box, which of course unleashes unspeakable evil upon the world. Specifically, the evil power is Moloch, a necromancer who creates warp portals throughout the museum. Hordes of demons travel through these portals and begin invading various locales throughout the world. Not only that, but Moloch also shatters the souls of all of DJ's friends and scatters the pieces in various locations, such as a school, suburbia, and a place called Meat World. It's up to DJ to defeat the demons and return his friends to normal before Death, Sr. finds out what his son has done this time.

Before heading off to collect the pieces of his friends' souls, DJ can practice some moves in beginner and advanced training areas in the museum. Here, you can get used to the controls and learn how to use DJ's scythe to climb walls, slide on cables, swing from rafters, activate switches, and hack enemies to bits with powerful combos. In addition to the scythe, DJ also comes equipped with a pair of pistols. DJ moves using the analog stick, jumps with the X button, uses his scythe with the square button, fires his ranged weapon with the circle button, and performs a quick dodge with the triangle button. You can strafe by holding down the R button, and the L button resets the camera behind DJ's back. The directional pad is used to change guns. Although the game requires you to use every button on the PSP, the controls still feel intuitive and easy to master. However, we did notice that it isn't very easy to switch guns on the fly, since you have to take your thumb off the analog stick to use the D pad, which means you can't move as you change guns. This can be frustrating, since you'll often run out of ammo or need to switch to more-powerful guns while fighting a big group of enemies, which is a bad time to stand still and fumble with the D pad.

As you run around, the camera usually stays close behind DJ, but if you suddenly change direction, the camera won't follow. You can tap the L button to snap the camera back behind DJ's back, which works pretty well for the most part, but in confined areas it's sometimes difficult to see what's going on around you. Luckily, you can lock on to enemies by holding the R button, which also lets you strafe around them. However, once you are locked on one target, you can't quickly switch to another target, which can make it difficult, as sometimes you'll auto-lock on an inanimate object while a huge beast chucks fireballs at you.

Speaking of beasts, there are plenty of them in Death, Jr. You'll often be fighting five or six enemies at a time. Some will rush you and attack head-on, while others will shoot at you from afar. Every time you kill an enemy you automatically collect its soul, which you have to use to open up doors that Moloch has placed throughout each level to impede your progress. Since the enemies spawn often, souls are never in short supply--as long as you're able kill the enemies to reap those souls.

Instruments of Death

There are several ways to take out enemies in Death, Jr. You can use the scythe to perform various close-range combos, you can use guns, or you can use a special move known as a "Pandora assist." The Pandora assist is a special attack that you can use once you fill up the combo meter in the top-right corner of the screen. The gauge features a silhouette of Pandora's head, which fills up as you score hits on enemies or destructible objects. Once her head is full, another meter begins to fill up as you continue to hit things. Once that meter is full, you'll earn one Pandora assist. By pressing circle and triangle simultaneously, you can use a Pandora assist, which instantly kills nearby enemies.

In addition to the scythe and special moves, there are plenty of guns for DJ to use. Each time you complete a level, DJ's friends, Smith and Weston, will give you a new weapon, such as a shotgun, a freeze gun, a flamethrower, a chaingun, and C4 hamsters. The guns are the only way to kill out-of-reach enemies, so you'll be using them often. You can also perform combos using both a gun and the scythe. All of the weapons except the pistols have a limited supply of ammo though, so you have to break open crates to find more.

Crates aren't the only thing you can break, however, as every stage is full of all kinds of destructible objects, such as benches, tables, cars, explosive barrels, and even cows. By destroying everything in sight, you'll earn bonus points, which are factored into the rating you receive at the end of each stage.

When you aren't killing enemies or destroying random objects, you'll be working your way through plenty of platforming challenges. You'll need to jump between floating platforms, swing from hooks and rafters, and perform tricky wall jumps--all of which will be instantly familiar if you've played any other 3D platformers like Rayman or Mario.

The graphics aren't particularly detailed, but they look nice enough and they go well with the strangeness of the subject matter. As mentioned before, the cinematic sequences look like something from a Tim Burton film, and the environments follow pretty much the same style. You'll see giant pork chops, waterfalls of toxic sludge, pits of lava, and more. Even with all this going on around you, and even when fighting a half-dozen enemies, the frame rate holds up pretty well.

The enemies that we saw in Death, Jr. ranged from strange beasts that fire blue bursts from their backs, to fluttering bats, and humanoid demons that charge you and quickly send you flying if you get in their way. We also fought an early boss that looked like a huge cow, and it tossed fireballs and used its udder like a machine gun. The enemies animate well, and when you defeat them they fall apart in bloody chunks, which is nice. DJ also animates well, and it looks especially funny to see his massive head bob from side to side as he runs around.

The music sounds like something you'd find in a campy, low-budget horror film from the '50s, which fits the theme of the game. The sound effects are about what you'd expect from an action game, with plenty of slashing noises, gunfire, explosions, and grunting monsters. The voices in the cutscenes are silly, but they seem appropriate for the characters.

With its dark sense of humor, interesting characters, and solid play mechanics, Death, Jr. looks like it will be a welcome addition to the PSP library of games. Be sure to check back for our full review to see how the game turns out when it's released in August.