Death, Jr. Impressions - E3 2004

We were able to take an advance look at Death, Jr., one of the very first confirmed launch games for Sony's PSP handheld game platform. The game stars the titular, skull-headed Death, Jr., who essentially looks like a tiny version of the Grim Reaper, complete with an oversized skull for a head.

According to the game's story, Death, Jr. is actually a youngster who can't seem to catch a break, since he's gotten into some trouble or other at every single school he's previously attended. He is now at his fifth and final school (his parents have threatened to ship him off to military school if he screws this one up). On a school field trip, an ancient evil is accidentally unleashed at the town's museum, which corrupts the town and forces the young lad to fight back the demonic influences released on the town in the game's 15 levels...or face boot camp at 0600 hours.

To this end, Death, Jr. will have a variety of weapons, including a scythe that drips blood in its wake and an assortment of guns and other ranged weapons. According to developer Backbone Entertainment, Death, Jr. will not be a traditional "platformer" action game full of jumping puzzles (and in fact, the game will have absolutely no item collection whatsoever). Instead, the game will focus on combat and will be more of a third-person shooter than anything else. The one level we were able to see took place in the corrupted school, where squat, skull-headed, red-skinned demons and bizarre, tentacled demons roamed the hallways. Death, Jr. will feature a surprising set of visual effects, including volumetric shadows (thanks to the PSP's stencil buffer), a particle-effect system that includes blood that drips off of Death, Jr.'s scythe, and hardware-curved surfaces, which could be seen in the glowing arcs left in the wake of our hero's scythe.

Death, Jr. is planned as a PSP launch title.