Futurama - Review

Added March 6th, 2004 by Matthew Scandrett

Introduction:

After the recent cancelling of Futurama by fox the obvious final step to take would be to make a movie… ok so they didn’t do that but went one better, they made a game! I am a huge fan of Futurama and of course I just had to get it one it was on the shelves, and the 20 minutes of unseen Futurama footage just sealed the deal. The story so far is that the Professor has sold the Planet Express Delivery Company to, of all people, the evil entrepreneur MOM (maybe taking a who spaceship for one package, and never asking for money wasn’t a good idea). This means MOM now owns over 50% of the world and therefor owns the world. With her hoard of hoverbot death troopers and unlimited money supply MOM quickly puts the world into misery so the Planet Express crew try to escape. Now they’re on a race to save earth. This game is hot… just wait till they land on the sun.

Gameplay:

The story I feel is a stroke of genius, a way to possibly end what Futurama started. Starting as Fry and playing through many levels as Bender, Leela and even Zoidberg. Many may prejudge the game to be of “The Simpson’s Wrestling” variety but they would be wrong. The screen display is pretty simple, Lives in the corner, health in the other along with the little profile of the character which occasionally throws very Futurama quotes straight at you while playing. The quotes do get monotonous after a while but its still funny to here your favourite characters interacting with what you’re doing on screen, which the occasional scream of pain, and laughter at your foes down falls.

Futurama slowly eases you into the game with some extremely simple first levels but eventually when you arrive at other planets like the sun (no not the newspaper planet, the big bright thing you don’t see much of in England) then things begin to get a little bit more complicated. Intelligent enemies with a range of weapons to try to thwart you with and a load of mind-bending puzzles will our hero’s triumph over the evil MOM?

With only a single player and one real story option there’s not much of a chance to wander off and find new things, but getting all the Nibblers does open something special like music and special advert type pictures. A two player probably wouldn’t be possible without straying too far from the reality of Futurama with some kind of wrestling theme with may have just ruined it for many fans.

Graphics:

Ok maybe Futurama wasn’t the best drawn TV series and the graphics aren’t up to much either. The characters sometimes have lines on them and sometimes don’t, that’s just one thing of a few, like camera angles so you can’t even see your character but aside from that all the characters have reasonable graphics. The scenery is incredibly detailed with many places to explore include the amazing Suicide Booth, just some of the amazing extras. The parts you can interact with are nothing particularly special graphics wise, good but nothing to write home about really.

Audio:

The sound is excellent, an abundance of songs performed by the cast add that little extra something that a cartoon based game needs. The small profiles in the corner of the screen add a bit of exciting and witty banter throughout the level which may have you laughing your little socks off.

Controls:

D-pad or left thumbstick when up or down; select the menu option.
A-button: confirm the menu option and fire weapon.
B-button: cancel the selection, return to game and jump.
Start-button: pause.
Left thumbstick: walk and run.
Right thumbstick: rotate camera and look up or down.
X-button: charge fire.
Y-button: interact; right trigger: lock on target and toggle target.
Left trigger: centre camera.
White-button: previous weapon.
Black-button: next weapon.
Right thumbstick-button: toggle first person mode.

The controls are pretty simple once you get the hang of it, even the least experienced gamers will find the controls easy to manage.

Replay:

Since there’s only one story line with set levels there’s not much you can do after completing the game once, unless you didn’t get all the Nibblers and want to get that wonderful 100%.

Summary:

The Futurama game is full of Witty remarks and an amusing story line which had me gripped to the seat and hands glued to the controller. Maybe its because I’m a fan that it really appealed to me but it can make fans out of those who never even saw the show before the game, its an upstanding show of what Futurama was and could be. Those who are fans of the show will enjoy the story line and jokes, and those who aren’t… WHY AREN’T YOU?!