VIDEO GAME REVIEWS
'BIG MUTHA TRUCKERS 2'
Platforms: Xbox, PlayStation 2.
Genre: Driving.
Publisher: THQ.
ESRB Rating: M, for Mature.
Grade: ss
Those who toil away for days on end across our nation's highways and byways in semis and big-rig trailers just don't get no respect.
The original "Big Mutha Truckers" game didn't raise many eyebrows, mainly because it lacked depth and a gameplay technique that didn't go the distance. Not much has been changed or improved upon since that first release; "Big Mutha Truckers 2" just feels like the same old show with a new title.
The basic premise is that, as a foulmouthed, red-necked trucker, your job is to haul cargo from one town to another, buying and selling goods in order to make the best profit. The "fun" is to be provided in the transportation of those goods; you fend off "smokeys" and even the odd assortment of UFOs that apparently don't want you to reach your destination.
The graphics presentation actually is pretty decent. There are some heavy slowdown times when the frame rate gets choppy, but that's more often when the screen is cluttered with lots of action on it. The dialogue tries too hard to be funny and instead comes off as immature.
-- Chris Campbell, Scripps Howard News Service
'DEATH JR.'
Platform: Sony PSP.
Genre: Action.
Publisher: Konami.
ESRB Rating: T, for Teen.
Grade: s 1/2 (out of 5).
It is quite a shame that such a well-designed character, along with a strong concept, is not fully realized onto a game. It's even more upsetting to dream of what could have been. But that's pretty much the case with "Death Jr.," where the title character is the Grim Reaper's son and, instead of taking this character into campy fun or dark thrills, the game shows up DOA.
This is disappointing for many reasons, mostly because of the character himself. Death Jr. (called "DJ" throughout the game) is a young sapling of a killer, just a happy-go-lucky kinda kid who attends school with other demonic-like kids such as Pandora, the goth child, or Stigmartha, who is inflicted with, chuckle-chuckle, the stigmata. These and other characters have their life forces stolen from them while on a museum field trip and it's your job to collect these life forces and save your friends.
While celebrating death and its many faces is not a comical thing to discuss in real life, this is a videogame and there is a wasted opportunity for hapless fun here. In collecting your friends' life forces, you never get the ability to wield any sort of special power, which is just begging to happen in this game.
Besides your gigantic scythe, your weaponry against enemies is a large array of guns -- guns??? -- that you use to blow away the opposition. This game quickly turns into what plays like a standard military-ops third-person shooter and is devolved completely of any connection to its source. You'd just as quickly imagine Care Bears gunning people down as you would Death Jr.; he's death, for crying out loud -- he shouldn't need guns, don't you think?
The rest of the game is just a mix of platformer action and a mauling down of enemies with your arsenal that would make Tom Clancy giddy. Some otherwise lukewarm graphics and a total lack of dialogue just continue the bad luck that plagues this game throughout.
This game could have had fun with exactly what Death Jr. avoids, and it kills you to watch it happen. This character is too inventive to be left in the dredges; let us hope for a re-invention of the entire storyline in a possible sequel.
-- Chris Campbell, Scripps Howard News Service