Fresh Fish Served Daily

Well, Lisa's comment on the previous entry made me realize I haven't done a game review in a while, so here you go.

We picked this up on a whim during our game-buying orgy of madness this weekend. The cover looked cute and it had a two-player option. Now, I don't generally buy full-price new games on a whim. The fact that it's two-player gave it some appeal. Plus I'm really just a goth at heart, and anything involving skulls, death, or adorable demon cats tends to catch my attention. The GS guy mentioned that it was a moderately successful PSP franchise, and that the Wii title was a port of the second PSP game. Hmm. My own experience with Wii ports so far is all over the map, but I figured it couldn't hurt to try.

Well, I'm glad we did, because I really, really like it. It feels a lot like
Psychonauts, with the pre-teen protagonists, colorful environments, and funny enemies. The one complaint I had with Psychonauts (other than the practically impossible final level) was that it was only one-player, so one of us was always relegated to watching the other play. In most cases this works out fine, as one of us is more interested in playing a particular game than the other, or we take turns at the helm. In rare cases, though,
we practically fight for the controller, so excellent two-player games are always in demand at our house.

Death Jr. also manages a feat in the fact that the Wii controls don't seem shoehorned in at the last second. For the most part you use the wiimote and nunchuck like a regular controller: control stick for navigation, A for jump, B for attack. You only use the wiimote as a pointer when shooting projectiles. It's a perfect setup for a platformer. I especially like it because I'm notoriously bad at aiming projectiles without the ability to lock on.

It's a good buy if you're looking for a two-player game with a quirky sense of humor.