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Konami’s PSP Launch Window line-up has certainly shown some
determination. Metal
Gear Ac!d
showed Konami’s variety of expertise and inherent coveting for
Nintendo’s genre-crossing franchises for key releases without
distancing their already well-established fanbase. Coded Arms
was  Konami’s first ever First-Person-Shooter and with it brought
some interesting and unique ideas, but failed to grab a market
hankering for a portable Halo. Death Jr. is due to
launch in the UK this month, and is one of Konami’s key titles for the PSP
Christmas rush.
Being the first title shown running on the PSP back in May
2004, a lot is expected of what appears a pretty generic Platform
title with a minor adult twist. Konami and the development team –
Backbone Entertainment – have had plenty of time to iron out all
the wrinkles and deliver a solid, if not groundbreaking, Platform
title capable of proving the PSP doesn’t fall short of the current
generation of home consoles – but will they have succeeded, or
have they succumb to the pressure of rivalling the three formulaic
Platformers already gracing the PSP’s rather wide-screen?
Death Jr. does exactly what it says on the box – a
Platform title with a splashing of adult humour. On some kind of
trip to a museum,  Death Jr. opens Pandora’s Box, only to have all
his friends held hostage and their souls separated into jigsaw
puzzle pieces, typical. So now he has the challenge of not only
rescuing his friends, but also sealing the evil he’s unlocked back
into the box.
In the perfect 3D Platform tradition – installed by Super
Mario64 - The Museum acts as the HUB from which you choose your
Level. There are a total of three characters to rescue at the start
– each with three Levels to complete before you may rescue them
– before the credible structure of the HUB begins to decay at an
astronomical rate, leaving you clueless as to where your next
challenge lay and, often, if there even is a next challenge.
Within the Levels, you get a distinctive split between
Platform action and Third-Person-Combat. Death Jr. is armed with his
trusty scythe, with attacks executed via the Square Button, and an
array of artillery from the Twin Pistols with infinite ammo to
Hamster Grenades and a Flamethrower, all controllable on the Circle
Button. In the earlier Levels, a small amount of demon slaughtering
followed by a small amount of floating-platform hopping, followed by
more demons is the general agenda, whereas later Level design proves
the developers are comfortable with the presentation on the PSP.
None of the Levels stand-out as particular achievements nor push
boundaries in the already die-cast Platform modus operandi, but
none-the-less offer a presentation worthy of Konami’s big-billed
release – complete and competent.
The title’s presentation is certainly a mixed bag; on the
one hand, there’s not a lot to complain about – all the
character models are animated well and all the lead characters have
distinctive personality regardless  as to whether they’re a
constant, or a five-minute part. However, the usual PSP pop-up is
evident, although not too abundant and the background design does
wear on you after the first five hours of wandering around dimly lit
grey/black/brown arenas with a small amount of red goo in every
corner. The Levels set in Death Jr.’s neighbourhood offer some
nice graphical touches and will most likely become a common haunt
– however, arriving so early in the game doesn’t help the Level
of challenge involved within these sections. The cut-scenes are
definitely fluid and anyone who tries to tell you that the
style hasn’t been ripped straight from Tim Burton’s film devices
clearly lacks any implicit knowledge of classics such as Edward
Scissorhands or Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas.
The occasional sound-byte is humorous, but on the whole it seems
that Backbone Entertainment have chosen to play it safe, and drop many
of the original comments made by Death Jr. himself in-game, with his
jovial quips now limited to occasional self-congratulatory comments.
As a “new-vision for Platform games, on a new
generation”, Death Jr. fails on practically every count,
should the press release state “a revisit to Nintendo64 Platform
games, with better graphics” Death Jr. would have hit the
nail right on the head. There’s nothing particularly obstructing  Death
Jr. from achieving greatness – except that we’ve seen it all
before. Konami have made the right decision to pick up the title and
Backbone Entertainment have proved they can at least provide an
intriguing Platform romp, if not a boundary-pushing escapade,
demonstrating much promise for the studio’s future PSP projects.
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