The story begins with Death standing in line at the local burger shop waiting his turn to get a burger and fries when a very nasty customer appears and wraps him up in vines. We then pan to the recent past where DJ and his buddies are out trying to complete a science project that requires them to each collect a cocoon or get an F. Well, poor DJ and Pandora each have not completed their assignments and are desperately searching for a cocoon.Death Jr II: Root of Evil, the sequel to Death Jr. takes you on the further adventures of Death Jr., son of Death, the guy in the scary black cape and big nasty looking scythe, you know him, he probably owes you money.
Root of Evil plays very much like Death Jr., so if you have played the first game, you're already an expert at this one. If not, well then maybe its time to go get it and practice up on your scythe maneuvers before trying out Root of Evil. There are a few differences, for instance now you get a choice of who you will be in the game, either Death Jr. or Pandora. Each of them plays about the same, though Death Jr. has a scythe and Pandora uses a whip for melee. For ranged attacks, Death Jr. starts out with his trusty 6 shooters (let's not mention the fact that they hold more than 6 bullets though) and Pandora has her Tommy gun.
Once you decide who you want to be you're off and running through the wacked out underworld. Root of Evil is a linear adventure game where you will work your way through a level and once you complete it there is a portal that will lead you to the next level. If you recall in Death Jr., the game was centralized in the museum and you could choose which adventure area you wanted to enter.
The other main difference between the two games is the way in which your weapon development works. In Death Jr., you acquired the weapons from Smith and Weston, here in Root of Evil you pick up weapon parts in the various levels. When you have all the parts and enough energy you can then go to an upgrade lab which are located in various points along your route and purchase the new weapon.
The game offers you new opponents like the laser chickens and mind reading rats to defeat and you will have lots of opportunities to get your butt kicked while figuring out what weapon works best against each of these new beasties. There are also many new obstacles and landscapes to adventure through.
As in Death Jr., Root of Evil is a puzzle game of sorts in that you have to figure out the route to take to get to the end of the level, this may include things like leaping over lava pits, sliding down ropes, swinging from hook to hook and many other exciting death defying feats. Hmmm Death Jr. performing death defying feats, kinda makes you wonder if he gets put in a time out by his dad for defying him.
As with the first game, Root of Evil is a campy and purely entertaining game with a bit of slapstick thrown in for good measure. The beasties that you will encounter are weird and unique and some of them will most likely give you a good giggle. Others may leave you scratching your head and wondering what sort of warped mind could possibly conceive of such a thing.
Root of Evil is very suited for play on the Sony PSP and once you get used to the controls you should have no trouble playing the game. One of the nice things is that you can adjust the game's difficulty while playing, even in the middle of a level. So if you encounter a tough spot you can tone down the game a bit and work your way through it.
Younger kids will most likely not get the humor of the game or be able to solve some of the mazes that you will have to work your way through. As it stands the T rating seems appropriate. Root of Evil is a good one for whiling away the hours especially if you have homework to do
I've been gaming since the days of the original TSR D&D and have grown up playing just about every PnP RPG created. Eventually with the age of computers, I started getting into RTS and military strategy games. And then came the MMORPG Asherons Call which changed my computer gaming forever. These days when i'm not gaming I'm working with the Los Padre's Council BSA and my son's Cub Pack - when not conquering the virtual world.
