The aliens are coming in Capcom's mischievous PS2 game, Under The Skin. But don't worry, the aliens aren't going to kidnap you and perform terrible experiments on your body. Instead they're just going to annoy the hell out of you with shallow, monotonous gameplay, clunky controls and a camera system that could be used as a torture device. I cannot think of a more appropriate title for such an irritating game.
There's a planet out there in the vastness of the Milky Way called Mischief Planet. When the inhabitants of this world turn three years old, they are required to undergo "Mischief Training" on another planet. The hero of Under The Skin is Cosmi, a little blue alien with big black eyes and a floppy antenna thing on his head. Cosmi just can't seem to get the hang of mischief and he's failed his every attempt at training. Now his one last hope is to come here to Earth, a planet known among his people as the most challenging world of all to achieve mischief. After bumping his spaceship into a TV news satellite, Cosmi crash lands outside a city named Cocotown, somewhere in the USA and sets about proving himself a worthy prankster.
To do this, Cosmi must pull pranks on unsuspecting humans. Of course, if the humans see Cosmi in his alien form, they'll be anything but unsuspecting. Thankfully, Cosmi can 'scan' the DNA of any human he meets and then take on their appearance by stepping into a beam emitted by one of several small flying saucers that roam each location. If one were to wonder why these humans don't notice all the flying saucers, one would also have to wonder why those same humans seem to forget that what is now a police officer, surfer dude, business man, etc was a little blue alien only moments ago. It would be best to avoid such lines of thinking when playing this game.
Anyway, once Cosmi has taken on human form, he has access to several items which he can use for his nefarious purposes. Thumbtacks can be dropped on the sidewalk, a pie is dandy for hurling at faces, and a microphone is useful for getting a groove thang on. There are more than forty pranks in all, but each level has only a small subset of them available and Cosmi only gets five of them at a time. Each human has five random prank items and Cosmi can detect which items a human has by standing near them. This way, players can shop around for their favorite pranks.
A successful prank causes its victims to drop gold coins and these coins are the measure of Cosmi's prank-pulling prowess. Completion of each of the eight levels requires that a certain goal be met regarding coins. It might be earning a certain number of coins, or stealing all of the coins from a certain character. Sometimes Cosmi has competition in the form of another alien. This other alien can try to pull pranks on Cosmi and grab the coins that Cosmi drops as a result. Sometimes the challenge for a level is rooted in this competition.
Different prank items cause different amounts of coins to drop. All of the pranks, though, really get under people's skin. No sooner than Cosmi grabs the coins than his victims come after with murderous intent. If Cosmi is caught by this lynch mob, he'll take damage and his human form will, for some reason, lose all of its clothing and be reduced to its unmentionables. One more hit and Cosmi will revert to his alien form and will lose a bunch of the coins he's collected. He must then quickly get back to a human form so the lynch mob will lose interest in him and so that he can resume his prankstering.
The variety of pranks and the ability to see what pranks a human has before scanning them might provide some strategic element to the game if it weren't for the stingy time limit in each level. The clock really ticks down fast when the goal is six hundred coins and they're dropping half-a-dozen at a time. The timer gives gameplay a breakneck, frantic pace. It doesn't take long for gameplay to fall into a monotonous pattern of become a human, use up all the pranks, and run frantically from the mob, become another human, rinse, repeat.
The frantic pace also intensifies some of the game's technical failings. The camera is entirely manually operated by the right analog stick and it just doesn't move as quickly or as predictably as it should. In a game that moves this fast, the camera should not be an issue. It should automatically rotate and pan to show players where they are going and at the same time be smart enough to not be blocked by buildings or trees.
The controls also get in the way a bit when trying to use some of the pranks. Many of them require aiming or targeting and it's really difficult to use them effectively when running for dear life from a lynch mob of previous prank victims and racing to beat a dwindling clock.
Especially frustrating is that getting hit by an enemy can stun Cosmi, leaving him open to another attack. When Cosmi gets hit, he doesn't drop the measly five or six coins the humans drop. No, Cosmi drops them dozens at a time and the coins he drops, he can't even pick up again.
All in all, Under The Skin is a clever concept, but a poorly-executed game. The story and gameplay aren't particularly deep, but the game might have had value as a party game if not for the cumbersome game controls and unforgiving clock. The ESRB's Teen rating says it's inappropriate for small children due to the violent nature of its pranks, but frankly I can't imagine anyone over the age of 12 who wouldn't grow bored of and frustrated by the game within an hour or so of playing it.
My recommendation? Lock your doors, close your windows and pull down the shades. Do whatever it takes to keep these aliens out of your home.
I'm a thirty-something computer programmer. I live in Delaware, but I grew up in Arkansas in a tiny town of 2500. We didn't have video arcades. Heck, it was nearly an hour's drive to anything as sophisticated as a Wal*Mart. Needless to say, my exposure to video games as a child was somewhat limited.
In the mid 80's, I cut my teeth on a used Atari 2600 bought at a flea market and a handful of games like Space Invaders and Pac Man. I was hooked in a blink. In the decades since, I've become a big fan of many genres of games. From first-person shooters to role-playing to strategy and everything in between. The only games that categorically don't interest me are sports games.
The easiest way for a game to win me over is to have a gripping story. I'll forgive a lot in a game that grabs me and keeps me interested. The inverse is true, too. If a game does not have a killer story, its gameplay had better be pretty darn compelling to make up for it. That doesn't happen very often
