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Platform: Xbox Genre: Party Game Publisher: Microsoft Developer: Presto Studios ESRB: T (Teen) Released: Q3 2002
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Whacked!
Score: 8.0 / 10 |
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Pros: -
Great graphics -
No lag and rare disconnects online with Xbox Live -
Large amount of weapons and game modes
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Cons: -
Music can get repetitively annoying -
Although it carries a Teen rating, game is a little double-entendre
laced and bleeped-out vulgarity filled, and blood-drenched for the
younger gaming set - Some levels have you worrying more about falling off precarious drops than focusing on playing against the competition
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"One of the best features of Whacked is the diversity of each level."
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Fuzion
Frenzy released last year was the first attempt by Microsoft at bringing
a “party” style game in the vein of the popular Nintendo 64/GameCube
series, Mario Party, to the Xbox. The game was mediocre at best and
committed the cardinal sin in the party genre: it wasn’t really much
fun, even with four players playing at one time. But with the Xbox Live
online gaming system ready to officially launch shortly, Microsoft again
is trying its hand with another party style title, Whacked, which fares
much better than Fuzion Frenzy. It’s the party game from hell,
literally. Designed as a game show with a demented and twisted lineup of
characters, Whacked succeeds where Fuzion Frenzy failed by giving Xbox
owners a good party title that adds an entirely new dimension to the
genre that not even Mario Party can boast yet, excellent online play.
While
the Mario Party series is set up as a living board game competition,
Whacked sort of follows the setup of Fusion Frenzy. Four cartoonish
characters square off in all kinds of arenas in different twisted types
of game modes. All this violent and zany battling in the hope of being
the mysterious “Big Prize” winner of a game show hosted by Van
Tastic, the “devilishly” charming, big-headed-all-shiny-teeth-
-and-enormous-perfectly-styled-hair moderator of the game show Whacked!
I don’t want to ruin it, but as you reach the final round of the game
show, you’ll find out how devilishly charming Van Tastic REALLY is.
As
you first start playing Whacked’s single-player game, there are four
characters unlocked for you to choose from. But if you complete the
entire game and win The Big Prize, three other main characters and
another hidden one are available in multi-player action. The game
features a lot of unlockable bonus movies and weapons, so there is
incentive to replay the single-player mode with each character. The six
other characters can be played in single-player mode, while the hidden
one can only be used in multiplayer mayhem. Let me tell you, you ain’t
see anything like this deranged crew of characters before. There’s the
foul-mouthed and short-tempered rabbit, Lucky, who happens to have all
his appendages missing; Charity, the seems-sweet-on-the-surface little
girly-girl (about as innocent as Angelica Pickles on the “Rugrats, but
with a vulgar vocabulary); Otto, the laziest of the bunch, who’s so
lethargic, he is only able to play with the aid of his living armchair;
and sure to be every male gamer’s favorite, Lucy.
Lucy is the voluptuous blue-haired beauty that prances around totally nude. But before you get your perverted hopes up, guys, since this is a Teen-rated title, little censor bars cover Lucy’s bare essentials.
For
a Teen-listed game, Whacked pushes that rating to its fullest limit. The
almost-present gratuitous nudity and the bleeped-out vulgar tirades of
the characters should make any gameplayers with a younger collection of
children think twice before allowing the little ones within viewing and
hearing range of this game.
The various contests take place over the course of 13 individual playing levels. One of the best features of Whacked is the diversity of each level. Each one has its own personality and playing style. But some are harder than others, and some like the Pirate Ship have you worrying more about plummeting off the edges of the level itself than actually playing and enjoying the game.
There
are six different play modes. The basic mode is Combat, which is where
the players must compete for stars to win. The first player to reach the
star goal is victorious. (Starts at 50 then progresses as you go to each
of the game’s four levels.)
Seems
easy right? But what makes it difficult and challenging is that you and
your opponents can use the various re-spawning weapons to both kill each
other and steal stars. No bones about it, this is a violent game. Blood,
albeit the cartoony kind (not red, but matching the color scheme of the
character (except in Lucky the red rabbit’s case) spurts all over the
screen when Cluster Duck bombs, the Stapler, Missile, the Shocker, the
Throwing Cleaver, Shish-ka-bob, Cannon, Pitchfork, Bee Hive, and many
other of the 30 bizarre pieces of weaponry are used in the melee.
There’s the standard Fragfest and King of the Hill modes too, but also
included are some creative modes such as Dodgeball, Grab ‘n’ Run and
my favorite, Chicken.
This
isn’t the game of Chicken that comes to mind first. In Whacked’s
version of chicken, you must kill the requisite amount of chickens to
release their star and collect the total needed to win. But beware
against these cluckers. They will gang up on you and peck you to death
if you aren’t careful. Three fowl play kills by the chickens, and you
lose.
But
enough about the single-player game. Multiplayer is where Whacked needs
to shine in its gameplay if it wants to contend with the successful
Mario Party series. When competing against three other players at home
the game is indeed a lot of fun to play, whacking each other until the
winner is declared. This is multiplayer on one system on one television
in one household. But Xbox gaming is about to change with the
introduction of Microsoft’s online gaming service, Xbox Live. Whacked
is one of the first titles to be Xbox Live-compatible, and this is where
the game becomes incredibly entertaining.
Instead
of squaring off against family and friends, Xbox Live allows you to hit
the Internet and fight it out against unknown competition. While you
might not dare taunt your spouse at home, the kid gloves come off when
it’s a fray against unseen online foes. With the voice communicator,
you’re free to taunt and cuss out your opponents at will. What makes
Whacked online even better is the lag-free and virtually disconnect-free
play provided by Xbox Live (at least in the beta test stage so far). And
moving around with the game’s control settings is made smooth and easy
in both single-player and multiplayer contests, even over Xbox Live.
Visually,
Whacked is sharp and uses a colorful palette to bring the twisted game
show world to vivid life. The characters purposely take advantage of a
singular color scheme to make it easy to differentiate between
contestants. For instance, Lucky is heavily hued red, Lucy is bright
blue, and Charity is mostly yellow. The levels are rendered nicely too,
with each having a demented personality all their own. Another graphical
touch is the simplistic commercials that play after each game is won.
These
commercials mask the auto-saving feature of the game. Instead of staring
at a save screen for 20 seconds, you get treated to some of the
strangest (as well as damn hilarious in a Monty Python-eque way)
“commercials” such as “how to walk with a rock” (from the how to
Walk with a Rock Foundation), “scrapple”, “Major Woody’s Spank
Tank”, and “Happy Smiley Filthies.” The sounds of the game are
okay, with the best-done aspects being the over-the-top voice-overs of
the characters and Van Tastic. The only annoying audio feature heard are
the repetitive tunes that play during the game. I could have settled for
less of the same in-game music over and over or better yet a couple of
different jingles.
When
your Whacked party’s over, this title stacks up but doesn’t quite
reach the “party animal” status of the Mario Party series in its
off-line gameplay. But when you jump online with Xbox Live, the Whacked
party really gets hearty. With good graphics, varied level designs,
uniquely bizarre characters, different modes, a lot of pain-inflicting
weapons, and decent control to go along with a lag-free and
player-taunting laced rock-and-rollicking online play, this game has
everything necessary to be a worthy addition to the party videogame
scene.
-
Lee Cieniawa (November 5, 2002)
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