PlayStation 2

Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick

Now I know a lot of you out there remembers the first Evil Dead game for the Playstation, Dreamcast and PC. Now I will admit, I was a bit disappointed in the game, but hell, it was a Evil Dead game. Just the fact that Sam Raimi’s horror classic was finally getting some props, I was in total bloody joy! The game could have been a smash hit, but it fell short in many sections, leaving a lot of fans pissed off! I was rather forgiving though, and decided to give the guys at THQ a second chance to get it right. From what I have played in the last few days, All I have to say is Bravo to THQ and VIS, and also bring on more Evil Dead games like this! So let me stop drooling and babbling on and get to my review of Evil Dead: Fistful of Boomstick.

Listen up, you primitive screwheads! This is my review of Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick. For fans of the Evil Dead movies this review will only consist of four words: Buy. This. Game. Now. For everyone that's never seen the movies, shame on you.

At this point I have to bring up the subject of Evil Dead: Hail to the King. This game too had the trilogy license but was essentially, err, rubbish. It was fiddly, annoying and quite frankly I threw my pad down in disgust after minutes. The developers made the crucial mistake that has ruined so many movie tie-ins over the years by simply not capturing the spirit of the films. The Evil Dead movies are violent, graphic and gory, but they are simultaneously shamelessly hilarious. They are all cheap, but all the same timelessly watchable. Thankfully, the developers made no where near as many mistakes this time around and Boomstick captures the Evil Dead essence beautifully.

Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick is a fun little romp with plenty of gratuitous violence, witty one-liners, and hilarious cutscenes. Thanks to the collaboration with the film’s creators and leading man this is perhaps – and oddly enough – one of the better movie translations to release on the PS2. $20 could buy you the latest Evil Dead DVD (just in case you don’t have the rubbery face special edition version yet), or you could go get this game and live the movie.

For a 20-year-old movie franchise, Evil Dead has had a decent showing on contemporary consoles. Released on the PlayStation, Dreamcast, and PC, Evil Dead: Hail to the King served as a mildly entertaining diversion for fans of the series when it was released in 2000, sparking VIS Entertainment to take the reigns from Heavy Iron Studios, and develop a new Evil Dead for both the PS2 and Xbox. While technologically more advanced than its predecessor, Evil Dead: Fistful of Boomstick proves to be no deeper or innovative than Hail to the King.

I can remember when spending twenty dollars was a huge deal. I'd save my money for weeks, hoping to amass enough to buy a new spaceship for my action figures or a cheap-o skateboard at K-Mart. Putting that twenty dollars down on the counter represented accomplishment, sacrifice and discipline. Therefore, I can remember a lot of my hard-earned purchases from my childhood until this day.

It seems unlikely that Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell could have known just what they were starting back in 1981 when they shot a tiny independent horror film called Evil Dead on a shoestring budget. Yet, here we are, 22 years later, with a hyperstylized indie sequel/remake, a bizarre high-fantasy sequel, a video game, and a massive cult following. Now, THQ and VIS Entertainment are trotting out Bruce Campbell's Ash character and the twisted deadites once again for Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick. The gameplay is a mix of sloppy third-person action and even sloppier puzzles, putting the weight of the game squarely on Ash's tongue-in-cheek macho colloquialisms.

Encore un raté pour Evil Dead avec un titre d'une fadeur à faire peur. Si l'esprit du film aurait pu parvenir à combler un gameplay sans saveur, son absence ne fait qu'enfoncer le clou. Seuls les fans les plus accrocs trouveront un intérêt dans ce soft, histoire de retrouver leur héros favori à un prix relativement bas pour un jeu (mais relativement élevé pour la qualité).

In the end, this is a fans only game. It will not win any new fans over to the series. Those who love Evil Dead will enjoy the game and the one-liners. The ending alone is worth playing through the game for. It retails for under $20, so there is no excuse not to pick it up and enjoy Ash’s latest exploits.

Ever seen Evil Dead 2? Well you should have. It's great. It's a fantastic argument for never reading archaic texts aloud, particularly those bound in flesh and called "The Book of the Dead". It's an even better argument for never going out to a cabin deep in the woods, particularly a cabin belonging to an erstwhile occult-obsessed doctor. Other tips: never play his tapes, never go into his basement, and, oh yes, blood works surprisingly well as part of a boomstick/chainsaw ensemble.

Evil Dead and its craptacular control is nothing that helps the game at all. It doesn't help that the camera angles can be extremely frustrating. There is an original story that kind of helps the game out a little bit, but nothing many people will take interest in. With no multiplayer and gameplay that won't horrify you because it is simply horrifying, but because it just looks so damn bad. Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick doesn't even deserve to be even looked at nor thought about. It may be one of the worst games available in the next-generation market today.