This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Brian Mohr.

Death Jr. was the first game shown by Sony for their new PlayStation Portable handheld. Even before the game released, it spawned a comic book and future movie release. The game itself is a cute little tale of Death Jr. (DJ) and his friends including Pandora, Stigmartha, Seep and Smith and Weston, all of whom go to a museum one day. On their trip, DJ opens a locked box which unleashes a demon, Moloch, who holds his friends captive and puts them into puzzle pieces that DJ must go out and acquire over 17 levels.



Graphically, Death Jr. is pretty good. The cutscenes are very well done and look very good, although DJ’s friends seem more appealing then he is. Despite that though, all the characters look impressive. The enemies and bosses also move and look pretty solid. More impressive though are the environments including the museum and various worlds you go through. DJ battles through suburban streets, lava-filled lands and even goes to a world devoted to cows which is a cute deviation as you’ll find yourself jumping over a grill across steaks and battling a boss cow who shoots at you from his utters. The various environments you battle through are interesting and give you a variety of game types including puzzles, platform gameplay, and more.

If graphics weren’t enough, weapons in a platform title are also important and thankfully DJ has a handful to throw at his enemies. They include pistols, a shotgun, lightning gun, C4 Hamsters, a flamethrower, freeze gun and more. This is one of the main reasons that keep you going throughout the game to see what weapons you’ll encounter. Beyond that though, you have your scythe to help battle your enemies and get you around the levels.

Finally, the gameplay itself is solid. The actual feel of what is going on on-screen is fun and either shooting your enemies in a hail of gunfire or swinging and spinning your scythe at them can make the battle sequences enjoyable. The fact that you can also use your scythe to swing across hooks and down wires is a nice touch too.



Sadly the controls and camera in DJ are a real drawback to an otherwise decent platformer. First, you can lock onto enemies, but you can’t move around very well and many times you’ll get hit in the back from monsters off-screen. Moving around doesn’t seem to allow players to go in the exact direction they wish to, either. This results in the fact that when you’re trying to make certain jumps, camera angles can be a real problem, forcing you to continuously try over and over again.

Another problem with the game is that there is very little voiceacting. During cutscenes the voicework is well done, but throughout the rest of the game there isn’t much of any voiceacting and instead the developers took the easy route with text at the top of the screen which sadly drags the game down.

The final problem with Death Jr. is that the enemies are pretty repetitive. The grunts in particular are only one of a few varieties and the developers decided not to change it up with different types. Over time this gets to be very boring and tedious. Besides that, destructible environments are a nice touch, but you don’t get any sort of reward for them so it’s all for naught.



Overall, Death Jr. is a solid start for the platforming genre on the PSP. It has memorable characters that certainly could have made it a standout hit for gamers, but it seems the developers didn’t put enough time into fixing all the faults that included problems with camera angles, controls and more. Instead Backbone obviously rushed to get Death Jr. out still later than expected and that resulted in a less than stellar performance. Death Jr. is a fun experience for the time and is worth a look, but probably isn’t worth the suggested retail price. Instead gamers may want to wait on checking out DJ until the price comes down later this fall.

The game is relatively difficult; takes time to beat. Controls are awkward and annoying.

Nice level variety. Characters and bosses look good; other enemies feature repetitive design.

Unremarkable in-game music. No voiceacting except during cutscenes.

Repetitive enemies. Some weapons to unlock. Fun while it lasts.

Once you beat the game you probably won’t go back, even with unlockable weapons.

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