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Thursday 6 March, 2008
GAMEPLAY
For this gamelog I attempted the multiplayer mode of this game with a friend. I hoped it would provide us with a humorous golfing adventure, but what I hoped would be the redeeming feature of the game completely disappoints. At the beggining of multiplayer you get to choose between three characters to golf as: Frylock, Carl, and Master Shake, each comes with three costumes. This is all very exciting at first, especially because Frylock and Master Shake aren't available in single player. After your players are selected you get to make a map playlist from the 12 available golf courses. Things are still looking hopeful, but then the game actually starts.
Multiplayer is simply a game of golf. No longer do you run from shot beating up enemies, now you simply play golf, magically teleporting to your ball after each shot. The other thing that is sorely missing is the only thing that makes the game fun: the music and the amusing dialogue. All that remains is a dead silent game of golf between two usually amusing cartoon characters. They very least I would expect from an Aqua Teen Hunger Force video game is constant humorous insults and annoying dialogue, which the single player provides, but multiplayer completely lacks. The game quickly gets tedious, and any element of competition will very rapidly dissipates.
By now I've unlocked pretty much everything and I've found another cool feature, the disk for the game is packed full of extras. Not only is there a full single player game, and a pretty crappy multiplayer mode, there are 4 full episodes of the Aqua Teen tv show, and a ton of extra clips from both the game and the show. So even if gameplay is frustrating you, you can find something else to do for a while before you trade in the game for something new.
DESIGN
Here's what I have to say to the developers: Good Try, but you guys fell short. Maybe, you couldn't meet a tough deadline, didn't have enough time for playtesting, or ran into other issues. This game could have been made far better than it is if the developers spent more time with it, but a game in this state shouldn't be released to the public.
If gameplay was flawlessly executed, and they used the resources they had to the fullest extent this would be a much better game. Sadly the single player game is full of glitches and bugs. Sometimes bad guys won't die, they often respawn inside of objects. I've had issues where boss battles don't work; there is some puzzle you need to solve to win but it just won't activate. The races are stilted and boring, and I feel like if they spent more time tweaking gameplay they could have been fun.
Then there is multiplayer.... If they had simply scripted in the same dialogue that they used in single player multiplayer would have been so much better. Then if they really felt ambitious they could have brought the whole action mechanic into multiplayer, but I would have forgiven them if only they gave us something to listen to!
Now onto the good things: honestly, I can't really think of anything good about gameplay. The way the three modes of play are strung together in a somewhat original way, and thanks to the familiar characters and voices, I was willing to endure boring unoriginal gameplay, but no-one other than a highly devoted Aqua Teen Hunger Force Fan should ever play this game.
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