PlayStation 2

Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Zombie Ninja Pro-Am

As a golf game/kart racer/button masher action game each individual portion falls flat on its own, but as an extension of an already established show and universe of characters, it gets the job done nicely and then some.

If you are a fan of the show, and I mean a very large fan, then you owe it to yourself to check out this amazingly funny diversion. If you have always found the show to be a ridiculous waste of time then the joke is on you already for reading this entire review. It must be obvious day at camp stupid…Aqua Teen Hunger Force, number one in the hood G!

Essentially, Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Zombie Ninja Pro-Am will put you through four hours of gameplay, and the end result is a few amusing moments, but a whole lot more frustrating ones. Honestly, the material here would have made a better episode rather than game. There are some moments where the dialogue is funny, and you may even find yourself chuckling at a fart joke. But all the fart jokes in the world could not save this game from being a title that is better off not played.

For $30, there's plenty of ATHF goodness to satiate fans looking for more of a good thing (that makes the most of its M rating, no less), but if you have no interest in the show or haven't seen it, educate yourself before even considering Pro-Am. It's not a good game, but it's still a fun way to expand the ATHF world.

For the giant kick in the nuts that the game offers in actual gameplay, there are times when the writing pokes through and makes the title entertaining enough to keep going - provided you're a big fan of the series. If not, there's zero reason to play this game. Zero.

Fans might be able to eke some pleasure from this game despite the overwhelming flaws. Anyone else likely won’t be able to see past the repetitive, irritating gameplay, frustrating camera, and broken controls.

This pile-on of additional content, combined with a $30 price, makes Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Zombie Ninja Pro-Am a surprisingly good value if, and only if, you enjoy the show. The four included episodes and series of clips are great for introducing buddies to it, the gameplay's so bad that it almost becomes good in a sense, and the number of references to show episodes and elements will impress even some of the more hardcore fans. If you enjoyed the movie, you'll enjoy the brief game, and you may even play it a few times. If you didn't enjoy the movie, you won't like the game, so don't bother. If you've never even heard of Aqua Teen Hunger Force before, then your enjoyment of this game is in a state of quantum superposition, sitting comfortably next to Schrödinger's cat. Perhaps give it a rental and find out for yourself.

This is going to be a simple review (to write; harder to read), because there is only one point that needs to be made about this game. Normally, I state such points right after I make statements like that, and then bring them up again at the end, to tie things together. Either that, or I just make my big point at the end, in a sort of grand finale. Tonight (you shouldn’t be reading this during the day, trust me. Trust me.), I will not be following either of those precedents. I plan to just throw the point in, right in the middle of This game (told you it would be harder to read than write) is just a bad game. It was quite obviously just thrown together to cash in on the Aqua Teen thing, and it does not stand up when compared to pretty much any given videogame for any system.

I don't love the TV show, but I do watch it now and then and I do laugh often. I had really hoped this game would follow that line. Instead I feel nothing but dissapointment and disgust. The glaring use of 8-bit menus and what seems to be very low effort produce a game with any depth or redeeming qualities.

Do NOT buy this game if you aren't a BIG fan of the show. There is absolutely nothing here for you. If you do enjoy the show, still don't buy it - rent it only for the few hours it takes to experience the game and watch the included episodes.

$30 is too much to pay for Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Zombie Ninja Pro-Am, unless you're a die-hard fan that adores the show. The gameplay isn't enough to hold your attention, leaving the ridiculous dialogue and bonus content as its only redeeming features. Your best bet is to rent it, have a couple of fun nights with it (involving alcohol if you can), and then go back to watching the shows on Adult Swim.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am is not a good game. If you are not a fan of the show, spend your money elsewhere. If you love ATHF and own a PS2, buy this game because you will not regret it. One of the extras makes it almost worth it. Not to mention the loading screens are pretty neat. The fanboy in me is yelling at me to give this one a good rating, but as a game, it really only deserves a 3.5 out of 10. If I didn't actually have to play it and only enjoyed the extras and cutscenes, I'm sure that rating would have jumped significantly.

Zombie Ninja Pro-Am is aggressive in its awfulness, practically daring you to suffer through it if you want to get the joke. Too bad the joke isn't that funny.

The only redeeming quality I can think of is that the game comes with a few episodes of the show on the disk, including one original episode. And yet this game still manages to mess this up. The original episode is not only pretty poor by ATHF standards, the Aqua Teens are nowhere to be seen. All you get is Carl and he's not even in his best form here. You're better off just buying an ATHF DVD if you want to watch episodes at home. At least they don't come with a game.

But the comedy exists only outside the playable elements of the game - everything interactive is solely defined by tragedy. Is it meant as some elaborate in-joke on the state of the games industry? Perhaps. But if so, we struggled to find the punch line in this abomination of half-assed execution and complete disregard for modern gameplay innovations.

I'll make this easy for you: The controls are crummy, the graphics are terrible, the humor mostly falls flat, there aren't very many levels, the mini-games get in the way of the outdated golf mechanics and it's absolutely no fun to play. Outside of that Aqua Team Hunger Force: Zombie Ninja Pro-Am is a blast to play!

Unfortunately for Aqua Teen Hunger Force, there is no audience for kitsch gaming. Other media have cult fans who fetishize badness in its full glory, basking in the warm, multi-hued glow of castoff clothing, never-run films, and untalented artistry. If this game is a sign of games to come, then the PS2 stands poised as the console of choice for the swap meet junkies and garage sale fiends of the gaming world.