- Disc plus hard plastic protective replacement case only. Disc condition ranges from flawless to scratched but is guaranteed to work..
From the Manufacturer
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The sinister Dr. Knarf has plans for world domination. And he's
created an army of nasty mutant vegetables to carry out his
doomsday plot. That is until he encounters the fiendish charms of
Jersey Devil.... hmmm - if he only knew what he was getting into!
Review
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Every so often a title comes along that, for whatever reason,
you really want to like. A game that you think could've been
something special. But there are things that keep it from being
just that. Little nagging things, big itches that just refuse to
be scratched. Eventually the title that held such promise leaves
you feeling exasperated, not because it was so far from its goal,
but because it was so close. Jersey Devil is one of those games.
In Jersey Devil you're waging war against Dr. Knarf and his
legion of mutant vegetables as they attempt to take over Jersey
City. It's your job, naturally, to put a stop to the Doctor's
plans and return the city to its former glory.
Originally previewed at 1997's E3, Jersey Devil was a game that
held a great deal of potential for the action-platforming genre.
The main character looks something like a rabbit in a Batman
suit, with a little Green Hornet thrown in for good measure. He
wears a purple and suit, complete with double-ed
jacket, cravat, and elbow-high black gloves. The Jersey Devil is
not only stylin', but is less contrived a mascot than Sony's main
man C Bandicoot. In fact, there was a sufficient buzz
surrounding the character to prompt a small-scale bidding war
over the publishing rights to Jersey Devil. Eventually Sony
itself picked up the contract and delayed the release so that it
wouldn't compete with C 2. Not that it would have mattered,
because in the end, while certainly a substantial effort, Jersey
Devil pales in direct contrast to C's superior graphics and
playability. While it seems almost unfair to continually refer to
the mighty marsupial's track record for comparison, the
similarities between the two games practically necessitate it.
Here's why.
Over the course of six large levels you must collect five tokens
that spell out the letters K-N-A-R-F. These letters are strewn
about the levels, sometimes requiring you to perform certain
objectives in order to reach letters seemingly out of range. Once
collected, you receive a golden "K" that lets you access secret
areas. Along the way you're also required to smash green nitro
boxes, illogically marked "K," in order to increase your nitro
power. Fortunately for you, Jersey Devil is a scrappy kind of
guy. Practically an amalgamation of console mascots everywhere,
JD can punch (Mario 64), do a tail-spin (C), jump (everyone),
duck (Yoshi), and glide (umm...). Surprisingly, there is no
butt-bounce. As is a ste of platform games everywhere, there
are lots of boxes lying around just waiting to be smashed open.
Inside these boxes are pumpkins; if you collect 100 pumpkins you
get an extra (surprise!) Jersey Devil. Also scattered around the
game are Devil's tails that award you with an extra try should
you happen to find one.
During the game, JD is required to perform all sorts of feats,
such as climbing up poles, pushing boxes, throwing switches,
and swinging from ropes. While you're attempting to do your
chores, there are dozens of Knarf's minions attempting to put a
dent in your day. Maniacal mutated pumpkins chase you around
throwing bombs in your direction. Irradiated carrots,
ill-tempered cavemen, and bad-mannered pterodactyls, among
others, populate the stages with the single intent of putting you
out of business. Additionally, each of the six huge levels has
three subsections that must be completed, with bosses to meet
along the way. While some of the bosses are nothing more than a
nuisance, others can be extremely difficult, with unpredictable
patterns and a fairly crafty AI.
This wouldn't be so bad if the controls were up to snuff, but
they're not. This makes performing even the most rudimentary
tasks a tiresome exercise in frustration. Digital control is way
too touchy to navigate some of the precarious environments you'll
find yourself in, while analog control (think Gex: Enter the
Gecko) is often too loose for those very same situations.
Granted, analog has a much better feel, especially when coupled
with dual-shock vibrations, but it still doesn't help too much
considering the collision-detection is just plain bad. Enemies
will come from all over, and you'd be lucky to land a solid punch
while they have no problems landing theirs. Timing the spinning
tail-whip is no easy feat either, since you must first jump in
order to execute it. Maybe the developers did it to differentiate
it from C.
Another problem that seems to plague just about every 3D
platformer is the camera. While the camera is, for the most part,
adjusted by the gamer, it can only be done on a horizontal axis.
You cannot look up or down, and the problem with this is that the
fixed perspective is situated at a slightly overhead angle, which
limits how far ahead you can see. It also makes it difficult to
see any items that may be above ground level (and there are
many). Also, whenever Jersey Devil gets too close to a wall, the
camera moves to a complete overhead position, which, at the wrong
times (like in a fight) makes for some severely disorienting
moments.
Other problems include a complete disregard for Z-buffering. What
this means is that things pop up from behind closed doors, solid
objects disappear even if JD is standing behind them, walls pop
out, etc. Even little things that shouldn't happen, happen. For
example, there are fountains everywhere in Jersey City, if JD
runs into the fountain it will shoot him up so that he can reach
the objects usually "hidden" at the top of the stream. The
interesting thing to watch is his shadow floating right along
with him; even when he jumps the shadow floats right in the
middle of the streamPolygon draw-in is apparent but not horrible.
In fact the environments are fairly well designed, which serves
to disguise some of that pop-up. Which leads us to Jersey Devil's
strong points.
Jersey City and all of its dungeons, cityscapes, and palatial
vistas are surprisingly well designed. It seems as if the
designers were inspired by the old Tex Avery cartoons. It's
actually a shame that the camera and control don't do the rest of
the game justice, because otherwise it might have been an
enjoyable platform experience. The environments really require
you to do a fair a of exploring, and, often, you will return
to previously explored areas to find secret paths that weren't
available before. The frame rate never drops from a respectable
25-30fps, which is fairly impressive considering the size of the
environments. Most of the characters, JD included, are nicely
animated and make you feel like you're watching some ,
twisted cartoon. Speaking of cartoons, the opening movie is a
poorly animated introduction depicting the origin of the Jersey
Devil. Once you've seen it you'll never need to watch it again.
The last thing worth mentioning is the music. While the sound
effects are all perfectly suited to a Looney Tunes game of this
kind, the music is almost too good for the game. It's a dramatic
score that wouldn't be out of place in an Indiana Jones movie.
It's so good it could almost pass for a John Barry soundtrack.
Unfortunately, that isn't enough to save the game.
While Jersey Devil had all the right elements in place, it didn't
have the proper tuning to make the whole thing work. What remains
is a game with an irrefutable charm that at the same time is just
plain exasperating to play. With a few minor adjustments, despite
its derivative nature, Jersey Devil could have carved a
respectable place for itself in the hearts of gamers everywhere.
Instead, it's just a glimpse of what could have been. It's not as
if the developers didn't have the time. Hopefully the Devil will
be back, though, because for all the Bubsys and Blastos, this
time we had a mascot worth latching on to. Too bad we didn't have
the game. --James Mielke
--Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction
in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written
permission of GameSpot is prohibited. GameSpot and the GameSpot
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