The XY review

Wait, it is I, the hero they once called the finest pig fizzler in the western inland estuary, the mighty, sprightly, thrice nightly DEATHSPANK.

From the mind of Ron “Monkey Island” Gilbert comes Sir DeathSpank - a cartoon drifter who roams from forest to swamp with the charm, wit and neighbourly assistance of the finest knight ever – Don Quixote mixed with brawn, voice and swagger of Jonny Bravo.

Fetch and Quest It’s a RPG adventure game where you solve miniature problems (some being incredibly random – I’ve never been asked by a tree before for a “Keep On Truckin” poster) for the characters you find along the way who help you advance to the almighty, wig-tastic Lord Von Prong who has got his grubby paws on and claimed the mythical artifact which has untold mystical abilities.

It works as a repetitive, mind numbing, zone out kind of game and is equally at home if you just want to drop in for 30 minutes, complete a couple of quests before you head to work in the morning or if you want to zen out completely in a 7 hour marathon going back and forth all over this world and that helping your fellow man and beast.

Slash and Loot You’re going to hit a lot of buttons in this game as from time to time the screen is teeming with either blue plaid shirted ogres you have to try and disrobe or maniacal unicorns that don’t like you tampering with their food.

In games like this, Dante’s Inferno springs to mind, when you’ve boosted your justice meter to mete out an almighty blow to your foes, you’ve got no chance of accuracy and precision. You’re pulping the buttons in a string of combos and can easily get caught in a melee and bang, without knowing it you’ve used your super scimitar ability on a tiny gingerbread man. It can be a little frustrating.
The weapons are plentiful, as are the healing food/potions (who knew pizza could be so healthy?), but you tend to stick your biggest and baddest weapons which you trust in your hour of need.

Pop-Up and Laugh The artwork is sublime. Each world is alive with colour and its construction, as you scroll seamlessly from page to page and land-to-land, is reminiscent of a Robert Sabuda pop up book. You even get a little wizard friend, Sparkles (Sancho Panza?), to play co-op if you wanted. Tracey joined in but we felt his abilities were limited and he gets a trifle restricting – so I wouldn’t waste your time with this.
There’s also plenty of anarchic, slightly leftfield humour (just what you’d expect from Ron) with bonus silliness and stories that involve collecting orphans who won’t come with you unless you bribe them and getting a mushroom disguise for a leprechaun turned snitch.

All this as well as sharp dialogue, expertly delivered by DeathSpank aka Michael Dobson (who’s acted in anime roles including Deathnote) and in the context of this being a natty little X-Box Live Arcade Game, costing only 1200MP aka £9.99, that’s full of quirky quips, crazy clips and at least 15 hours of fun, there’s no reason not to buy it.

If you have a problem, if no one else can help and if you can find him, maybe you can hire... DeathSpank

The XX review

With classic designer Ron Gilbert’s influence, this RPG was always going to quirky but I still wasn’t prepared for tiny purple thongs and kangamoo’s!

Searching for a long lost artifact known as… (to be said following a dramatic pause and in your best booming Brian Blessed voice) the Artifact, our big shouldered little legged hero for hire DeathSpank combs the land collecting loot, loot and yet more loot as he boldly carries out more than 100 quests – yup, you get a lot of game for your money – I didn’t see Ian for a whole 15 hours as DeathSpank has to do a few important things and loads of unimportant things before he gets his hands on… the Artifact (I hope you used your Brian voice again there)! Why the unfortunately named DeathSpank is searching for the Artifact is not made completely clear, even to him but with a fortuneteller’s words stating that it was his destiny (or something like that) loudly ringing in his ears, he arrives in a fabulously vivid and imaginatively presented landscape. Whilst the ground and DeathSpank and all other characters/monsters are in 3D, the buildings, tree’s and items you accumulate along the way are 2D yet strangely the two forms work well together to create one bizarre style mix that is wacky yet doesn’t jar. New areas of the map effortlessly flow into each other whilst getting around the vast world is also easy thanks to a warp system of *ahem* outhouses. Look out for DeathSpank readjusting his skimpy underwear as he comes out of the loo!

Of course, a big feature of any RPG is the variety of armor and weapons you have at your disposal and DeathSpank had so many on offer, your inventory comes with a handy grinder gadget to instantly turn unwanted weapons into lovely cash which you can of course use to buy more weapons – beats shoving it in an envelope and sending it to Cash4Gold. You can hold up to 4 weapons at once, each assigned to a coloured button which means you can customize your fighting preferences with ease and unleash almighty justice on the vast array of madcap monsters (chicken-lizard hybrids and hairy eyeballs as well as your standard ogres and ghosts) all standing in your way. Well… almost. You see where this game giveth with one hand, with the other it taketh away. Though things start off on a pretty even level playing field (take that stoopid chicken), you level up and the monsters get a wee bit harder but it’s not long before the realisation kicks in that only way you’re gonna see more of the world and progress past the first real challenge - a giant red horned devil nanny monster is to seriously level up above and beyond and yes, this was only realised after fighting off armies of lesser demons during which my well stocked inventory was pathetically depleted and left me facing a losing battle. Though I was using the handy blocking technique to it’s full capability – dealing out uber cool moves as my justice meter overflowed, one swipe from the ugly red one and I was out for the count. This made me mad! If there’s one thing I hate about battling demons it’s when it’s not fair *spits out dummy and rolls on the floor* You use up items (potions, hamburgers etc) in battle that aren’t replenished if you die, yet the health of the boss is totally restored each time meaning you’re back to square one or rather square none, minus one even. I ran out of everything which meant there was no way in hell I was getting past so had to retreat which I couldn’t do because I was in a cave, a very deep cave with no serviceable outhouses and that was full of monsters which I had spent ages destroying on my way in and which had now returned. Left with nothing to fight them with meant it took forever to get back out – which luckily I only managed to do because I’m so good at fighting and wasn’t at all because I ran past them like a stoopid chicken.

Ranting aside, actually, leveling up is welcome but can be equally tiresome. You get credit for killing lots of monsters and by completing lots of the side quests (which can range from ‘please Mr. Hero go and fight lots of big monsters that are bothering me’, ‘find my missing brother/wallet’ or ‘get me a taco and some unicorn poop’ etc) and it’s very rewarding when you do reach the next level as things are unlocked and you get to try out different suits of armor (you can select to always equip the best armor in your inventory – which is great and saves so much time though I did quite enjoy the trying on element, spiky helmet or onyx design?) or are finally allowed to wield for example, the Hammer of Fire which you’ve had sat waiting in your catalogue for ages but as the world is so vast and there are so many quests, it can feel like you’re always sidetracked from your main goal and are trekking around before you make any real progress. Within the first 5 minutes of playing, you are told exactly where… the Artifact is and what you need to do to get it but it will take you an age to be in a position to get anywhere near it. I almost gave up about 3 hours in but found that I couldn’t and this is due to the fact that the quests are just varied enough to keep it interesting and are cleverly interweaved so will inevitably lead you to your goal. Mainly I kept at it because it’s just so hilarious!

The dialogue is brilliantly witty and you’ll learn strange things about the world you never knew you wanted to know about including the history of felt and chicken lips amongst other things. The in-jokes about other RPG’s, pop-culture references and good ole all round zany humour lifts the whole game and it’s worth pursuing the unimportant quests if only to hear what the next outlandish or comical thing DeathSpank will come out with next.

Though I found some of the fighting elements to be frustrating in places (rant over I promise), overall, the tongue-in-cheek humour made me very forgiving and the story of DeathSpank is one I would recommend to RPG fans, plus I got to practice my Brian voice which is always a good thing.

DeathSpank
Developed by Hothead Games
Published by Electronic Arts Inc.
Available on XBLA 1200 Microsoft Points

Review by Ian and Tracey.