No one talks about Death Jr. You know, Death Jr., the PSP launch window action platformer? The one with the Tim Burton-esque art style and Invader Zim-esque sense of humor? The one who’s sequel had a trailer that was set to the instrumental for Eminem’s Bitch Please II? Well, if you’ve read my writing or heard me talk about games before, it might not surprise you that Death Jr. is one of the first games I ever beat. It’s a bizarre one, but I always loved how strange it was while still having solid melee combat and gunplay. It was almost endearing, with these horrific monsters still being young enough to maintain their childhood innocence. Sure, I was literally gibbing enemies into bloody chunks, but the voice acting and character design was to cute to ignore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Serious Sam is…well the opposite of that vibe. As a shooter fan, I’ve tried the series multiple times, but, with exception of Serious Sam 2, it just lacks sauce to me. The environments all aim for photo-realism, and while the enemies are fantastical, they are both designed in ways that I’ve seen often before and are being shot at from so far away that I rarely get intimate with their looks. And to be honest, even the shooting itself lacks substantial feedback, and the arsenal is classic to a fault. Every few months, I try booting up The First Encounter again and I drop it again soon after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\t