Futurama review (PS2)

Fry invites a nameless bad guy to eat hot laser death.

If only Simpsons video games were as good as the TV show they’d be the greatest series of titles around. But they’re not and they seem to be getting worse, as anyone that’s played drivel like Simpsons Wrestling and Road Rage can attest. Bearing that in mind you’d have to be a particularly optimistic soul to expect too much from a game based on Futurama - Matt Groening’s other cartoon comedy show.

Although it isn’t as widely popular as its stable mate the Futurama TV series is, at its best, just as funny as The Simpsons. The show follows the misadventures of Philip J. Fry who was, by accident, cryogenically frozen in 1999 only to be thawed out in the year 3000. Taken in by a distant relative he gains employment at parcel delivery firm Planet Express, where he works with the misanthrope robot Bender and the beautiful cyclopean Leela. The game allows you to control all three of these main characters, as well as getting a short go on Dr Zoidberg, and features cameos of just about every other character that’s ever appeared in the show.

The power of mental thinking

One of Zapp Brannigan's many cameos.

As anyone who’s ever played a licensed video game will be able to guess Futurama is a third-person platformer. Things start off rather promisingly as an extended intro sequence shows evil businesswoman Mom buying out Planet Express so that she can then own enough of the planet Earth to become its ruler, enslave humanity and take over the universe. The cel-shaded graphics used to illustrate this unlikely sounding narrative are a passably competent attempt to ape the style of the cartoon and although they are rather angular and un-detailed the do their job well enough.

What really impress though is not the graphics, but the audio. All of the original voice actors have been used and, more importantly, so too have some of the original writers. Which results in a typically ludicrous storyline and pin sharp dialogue.

When the intro is finally finished you find yourself in control of Fry and given the simple task of finding a bunch of missing tools that are dotted around the Planet Express building. After the excellent intro the chance to explore the sets from the show is just about enough to get the average Futurama lactating with joy. Even the fact that Fry is so awkward to control doesn’t annoy too much initially, although the imprecise controls, in particular the weird angle and speed at which he jumps, are certainly a problem from the off.

You gotta do what you gotta do

Bender looks angry all the time. Perhaps he's already played the game.

It’s only when the proper first level begins that any hopes that this will actually transcend the cynical world of licensed video games abruptly disappears. Set in a sewer this and the next few levels see Fry shooting one of two very similar looking monsters with a weedy laser gun and traversing dull platform sections filled with every mistake any sub-standard platform game has ever made, including instant deaths, leaps of faith and not enough restart points. Only the fact that 3D camera isn’t too obtuse saves the platform heavy sections from being totally unplayable, although the aforementioned dodgy jumping mechanic does its best to make up for things.

The more action orientated sections of the game are only marginally more entertaining since many of the weapons levelled against you can kill you with one shot, which combined with the fact that enemies have virtually no A.I. to speak of makes the whole process seem very cheap and unfair. Things don’t get any better when you get to control Bender and Leela since they are control in essentially the same way, albeit it with a the addition of a few hand-to-hand combat moves.

The only way to defeat a female adversary is to seduce her

In contrast to the rest of the game the chicken walker mini-game is a bit too easy.

In fact once you get to play as Leela and take part in a few of the stealth levels any remaining hope that the game might have a few original ideas of its own are finally dashed. True, a few of the mini-games are mildly diverting, such as the one where Fry gets to control a Star Wars-esque “chicken walker” or the Dr Zoidberg level that plays like a sort of Crash Bandicoot pastiche but they’re ungenerously dispersed amongst the rest of the game.

What serves as a much greater incentive to reach the next level though is simply the chance to see another cut scene and enjoy a bit more of the game’s dialogue (allegedly if you were to splice all the cut scenes together they’d actually be longer than a standard TV episode). If it’s just Fry wandering around picking up ammo packs and referring to them as “gun food” or Bender openly weeping with joy when he realises he’s gained the chance to become a playable character the game is consistently funny and pleasingly knowing about the conventions and traditions of the video game world. If you’re a fan of the show there are also plenty of amusing Easter eggs and references to individual episodes, which adds even more to the proceedings. From posters on the wall advertising everything from Popplers to Lightspeed briefs, to the use of Destructor from the episode “Raging Bender” as an end-of-level bad guy.

And really that is the sole saving grace of the game. If you don’t find the TV show funny there’s absolutely nothing to divert your attention away from the fact that is as generic and banal a 3D platformer as you could ever hope to avoid. But even if you were willing to put up with predictable gameplay in order to enjoy what is essentially a brand new exclusive Futurama episode there’s yet another problem: the difficulty level.

Kiss my shiny metal ass

Bender sits out the first few missions in the game.

The one-shot deaths and leaps of faith all conspire to make this an unnecessarily difficult game. Bad guys are constantly jumping out of nowhere to attack you and difficult jumps are almost always fatal if you don’t get them right the first time. Of course there’s nothing wrong with a difficult game if the controls are responsive enough for you to feel that your constant failure is entirely your fault and not the game’s. But that’s absolutely not the case here as you constantly find yourself cursing the screen and throwing down the joypad in disgust.

The high difficultly level of the game seems all the more unwarranted when you consider that the majority of Futurama fans would’ve perfectly happy with a much easier game if it allowed them to more easily navigate the levels and just get on with the business of laughing at the jokes and cut scenes. But alas this is not the case and it’s pretty difficult to recommend Futurama to anyone but hyper talented platform gamers that also happen to be fans of the TV series.