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Futurama Review
Chris Leyton
05/08/2003
Whilst Futurama certainly has its problems, its thankfully miles better then The Simpsons games...
Despite offering some of the funniest moments in TV history, videogame adaptations of Matt Groeningās creations havenāt fared too well in the past. The likes of āThe Simpsons Wrestlingā, āThe Simpsons: Road Rageā and the forthcoming GTA rip-off āThe Simpsons: Hit and Runā have left us questioning why developers have found it so hard to translate The Simpsons into a videogame, whilst bemoaning the publishers who are simply content to stick the most famous dysfunctional family into whatever popular genre there is at the time simply to make a quick buck.
So it was with some fear that we booted up SCiās āFuturamaā; being keen fans of the TV series we were certainly hoping that the translation would fare better then recent Simpsons adaptations.
Futurama starts off well, having taken control of Fry and quickly given the task to find a Hammer in the Planet Express HQ, players find themselves hastily presented with the Game Over screen. In a brilliant touch of writing, players learn that this was a devious plot of the Professor to try out his new āReanimatorā invention, which allows characters to come back to life after dying and neatly sidesteps the traditional videogame concept of dying and restarting.
This level of thought is evident throughout the entire game and is certainly a welcome relief after the disastrous Simpsons titles, here you can clearly tell that the shows writers have thought about it being a videogame then simply a tie-in. Thankfully the shows writers have been enlisted to provide the story for the game, as such it holds up as well as an episode although itās nowhere near to being a classic.
The game is split into three distinct chapters, which each allow you to take control of a different character ā“Fry, Bender and Leela ā“ usually complete with some witty dialogue about being āplayableā.
Beginning with Fry, players have to explore Old New York and find the Pawn Shop to get back the Planet Express Dark Matter backup engine. Unfortunately the games origins soon become painfully apparent. Fry has access to a range of different weapons that players collect through the mission, but unfortunately Futurama plays like any generic platformer. Players can collect money to gain extra lives, collect Niblers on each stage to unlock goodies and well thatās about it.
Having completed the first section, players move to a nearby Asteroid and take control of Bender. This was something we were looking forward to, however our high hopes were soon dashed. This section swaps money for gems, and changes the scope from shooting to melee combat. Bender has a limited repertoire of punches, dashes and bottom bounces; however the scope of the game doesnāt change and youāll soon find yourself becoming tired of the repetition.
If youāve got the perseverance to trawl through these sections, then youāll find yourself in control of Leela. Once again Leela relies on hand-to-hand combat, however more emphasis is placed on simple puzzles within these sections. Unfortunately these sections feels even more drawn out then those before, even die-hard Futurama fans will begin to tire of the repetition ā“ punch crates to collect items, kill baddies, move on and repeat.
To be fair there are some mini-game sections that provide some much needed relief, however we canāt help but feel the overall game would have benefited if the tempo of the main game was quicker and featured more mini-games to break up the tedium. The action just needed to be a little quicker and perhaps swapped characters over sooner, as such the game looses the sharpness of the TV episodes from which the game is inspired. Itās likely youāll enjoy the first few hours of the title, in particular the sections in Old New York are both memorable and enjoyable, but it just all begins to get too samey once Fry has moved out of the way.
Itās a shame that the generic nature of the game lets it down, because the writers have nailed the feel of the TV series perfectly; cut-scenes are wonderfully created, looking and sounding just like an episode of the real thing, whilst the fact that theyāve thought about a storyline which ties to a videogame is commendable. As a platformer itās certainly not the worst weāve seen, in general the camera does a good job although it is prone to get stuck behind walls on a number of occasions, whilst the controls are responsive if a little shallow in terms of depth to the combat system. Thankfully the game does a good job of including checkpoints that help to keep the frustration low as the levels are considerably large and would involve a lot of backtracking.
Visually itās all a little hit-and-miss; certainly character models have been faithfully replicated using a distinct cell-shaded effect, although itās fair to say they look a little weird. The environments that youāll travel through vary dramatically; we enjoyed traipsing through Old New York and keeping an eye out for the clever adverts and other such touches, however the later stages on an Asteroid and the Sun lacked charm and do little to impress. On a technical level the games not exactly going to blow you away and there is a worrying amount of slowdown, which chugs the game right down.
In the sound department there can be very few criticisms, the game uses the real voices from all of the characters within the TV series, whilst thereās a wide selection of one-liners that help to alleviate some of the frustration. The music remains faithful to the show and includes a number of tracks that fit the game perfectly.
The game isnāt particularly long, however players can replay to ensure they collect all items and open up all of the goodies, which include all of the cut-scenes within the game that when watched make up an episode of the TV series ā“ however itās unlikely anyone will play through this on multiple occasions.
