Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am (PS2) Review
Posted by Damian Sarcuni on 11.27.2007
Cause we are the Aqua Teens, make the homies say ho and the girlies wanna scream.
The animated series Aqua Teen Hunger Force is, if nothing else, designed for a specific type of humor. The show follows little set pattern or plot, and has garnered fame through vulgar, random humor that seems all the funnier for those late night drunken/blazed benders. The same can be said for the recent Aqua Teen movie as well as this video game. These other titles cater to fans of the TV show and not much anyone else. In other words, if you aren’t already a fan of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, don’t bother picking up this game. If you are a parent and your child asks for it, you’ll probably want to think twice too.
Just like the Aqua Teen TV show, Zombie Ninja Pro-Am is packed full of adulterated situations and humor. The game combines three genres of gameplay, those being standard hack and slash action, racing, and golf. Yes, this is primarily a golf game, which is easily the least liked genre of video game by most Aqua Teen fans. Yet Midway and the writers over at the Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim” division have plowed forward anyway in the hopes that fans would pick up the game based on their love of the characters alone.
The story fits in with a standard Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode plotline, or lack thereof. Frylock has been admitted into Jersey Pines, South Jersey’s most exclusive public golf course. Looking to take advantage of this and show Frylock up, Master Shake grabs the nearest clubs he can find and starts whacking away with the intention of proving how great of a golf master he is. Dragging Meatwad and Frylock along for the ride, your job is to guide Shake through the most whacky golf courses ever conceived while dealing with all Aqua Teen guest characters you can think of.
Graphics
The weird thing about the graphics in Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro Am is that the animated series the game is based on is usually drawn using 2-D renditions of the characters. For some reason, the developers decided to show this version of the Aqua Teens in 3-D, and this gives the animation a different feel than that of the TV show. It does look good however, particularly in the cut scenes where characters are animated up close. The voice to animation sync is spot on too, so watching the cut scenes throughout the game looks almost as good as watching a new episode of the show.
During the actual gameplay however, the graphics take a slightly different turn. Although the characters hold their 3-D forms and still look pretty good, the stages are bland and unfinished. Mountainous areas and objects like bushes and high grass are heavily pixilated even from afar. The animation is equally as dismal, as the game is often prone to slow down even when there are only a few enemies on the screen. Battles also become quite frantic and it’s often hard to tell if you are actually making any progress in damaging some enemies.
Gameplay
I have to question the decision to make an Aqua Teen Hunger Force game that is primarily based on the sport of golf. It’s as if the developers wanted to purposely insult the fans of the series by giving them the least fun genre available for their license. But that’s neither here nor there, as I could easily handle Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro Am as a golf game if it was at least a good golf game. The trouble is it isn’t. So many shots in the game depend on random science-fiction factors like enemies and obstacles, which would be fine if we were playing miniature golf. On a fully fledged golf course though, the game doesn’t work. There are only a few clubs to actually swing with, and it’s almost impossible to get through each hole on skill alone.
The action sequences are more of a chore than fun. The idea here is that rather than just moving from tee to tee, the Aqua Teens have to battle their way to the ball each time they hit it. Since the enemies pop up at random and you have to explore the courses thoroughly to unlock bonuses and power ups, this can often take quite awhile. Again, this would be fine if the action was fun, but with only 2 or 3 weapons and a useless blocking ability, this area of the game comes up short as well.
The last genre packed into Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro Am is the golf cart races, which are more about picking up items than actual racing skill. You drive the exact same unbalanced cart that your opponents do except theirs is slightly faster when it needs to be. There simply isn’t enough of a refined challenge in the entire game, and each genre it covers feels like a shadow or emulation of what other games have done in the past.
Sound
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro Am features all the original voices from the cast of the animated series, and they sound great especially in the cut scenes. As far as the music, the game also features songs directly from the Aqua Teen movie as well. This would be great but it’s utterly flawed. The music is often turned down way too low regardless of how high you set it. This flaw pales in comparison to the voice detection though. Characters are programmed to make whacky comments whenever there is any action whatsoever, and since there is always action on the screen you will pretty much hear the same character say the same line nine times in a row without any pause. Characters double talk and chat over each other, and the whole thing becomes an audible mess. It’s a real shame too because the recording quality of all the sound isn’t all that bad, it’s the programming of the game itself that ruined it.
Lasting Appeal
You’ll probably have to play through the Aqua Teen Hunger Force game more than once to have anything resembling a good time with it. A lot of it is a chore, as players must collect special items on every single golf course in the game in order to unlock certain clips and bonuses. However, the up side to this is that the game includes four complete episodes of the TV show, including one never before seen episode focusing on Carl. These episodes, as well as clips of other episodes, are well recorded and entertaining to watch. One might even say that having four episodes packed onto the game is about the same as picking up an Aqua Teen Hunger Force series DVD, or at least a reasonable facsimile of it. The bonus content in Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro Am really saves what would have otherwise been a pretty poor piece of work.
Fun Factor
While it is entertaining to hear all your favorite Aqua Teen characters and personalities playing around with each other on your PS2, a lot of the jokes and references used are either too obscure to understand or too toned down in nature to be funny. The ever popular Mooninites, for example, are surprisingly much nicer in this game than they are on the TV show. You’ll get a chuckle here and there I guess, but overall the gameplay butchers even that experience.
The 411
I just can’t shake the feeling that this game was written more out of spite than marketing value. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro Am is a combination of three game genres glazed over with Cartoon Network licensing and Adult Swim humor. It tries to be too much at once and just doesn’t work at all. The bonus content saves the game from being a total loss, but even four episodes of the show get tiresome after awhile.
Graphics
6.0
Cut scenes are good, characters too, stages look awful.
Gameplay
5.0
Three games, none of them good.
Sound
6.5
Great, except that you have to hear it a thousand times.
