Death Spank

When can somebody say that a game was fun because of both the game play and the story script written for it? Most games focus on one or the other but very seldom do they do both, resulting in less than stellar work.

From time to time XBLA and PSN games can be hit and miss but in certain cases they can be the perfect gel of arcade scale size with enough full-retail game play to make the purchase worth its weight in Money or Microsoft points (Depending on which system you own).

Creator of Monkey Island Ron Gilbert, Hothead Games and power house EA have taken the interactive story telling of Monkey Island and add another dimension to it with hilarious action RPG; Death Spank for the Xbox Live & Playstation Network.

Forget the time consuming style of most traditional RPG’s, Death Spank leaves players with a fresh fast pace hack and slash style RPG. Throw in puzzle solving, and a decent size map to discover, and you have a game that is non-stop action of levelling up, collecting items and acquiring new abilities.

Game Play

Playing as the brute over bronze character Death Spank, the player’s mission is to rid the world of evil by eventual battling your way through improbable scenarios, unexpected villains, and challenging bosses to obtain “The Artifact”. Not to mention hundreds of weapons, armor sets, and witty dialog, the player will have tons of room for pretty much everything they pick up or acquire on their journey for either more weapons and other items.

The addition of the Quest Log for keeping track of the players main and side objects makes knowing what needs to be done less of a hassle and in fact more fun. Sides include some of the most funniest and outrageous tasks to move forward in completing the mission. When the player don’t feel like going at the battle alone, Death Spank can call on his friend the mighty wizard Sparkles, letting the player play alongside them in two-player local co-op.

Aside from the occasional annoyance of the voice acting, which can get a little out of hand at some points, nothing else is a major hiccup in this department.

Graphics

Death Spank is full of great scenery, like forests and towns, complete with numerous characters on screen. The player will also love how the world scrolls on a cylinder, between 2D and 3D. The player might feel like its linear but then the player find can run around and interact with the environment.For a XBLA and PSN game, the graphics are enough to keep the player entertained and enjoying the game.

Controls

The controls for Death Spank are kept very simple and are customizable, so the player isn’t bogged down with them. Changing the controls is easily done from the inventory screen, and if the player doesn’t want to waste time comparing armor or spells, they can set the game to auto-equip the best of what the player has from there as well.

A hiccup though is aiming when attacking enemies. The player will need to be right in front of them to hit them. The game seems a bit overly-finicky about where the player will stand if the player want to interact with objects like chests, which will add up to maybe a minute of fiddling for the right spot over the course of the game play. It’s not a major issue, just a little annoying. Also, when firing a ranged weapon, the game seems to prioritize targeting of things like barrels over the enemies who are running towards the player’s way to kill them. Again, not a game-breaker, but players will liked the crossbows quite a bit, so this did cause players trouble from time to time.

Conclusion

Death Spank for the price is great fun and the hilarious story to go along with it. The minor hiccups won’t stop the player from enjoying this game. With all that it offers for just $15 dollars, this is actually better than some retail RPG-Action games that go for $50 dollars or more. Offering action is easily accessible for short bursts of unsupervised fun, but the story is revealed over ten to fifteen hours of game play. Go download Death Spank on either XBLA or PSN today.