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> Results: Death Jr. and the Science Fair of Doom
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The ESRB Says
Animated Blood: GamerDad saw cartoon-ish blood spray from monsters we battled. Cartoon Violence: Progressing involves killing plenty of monsters who disappear after they fall. Crude Humor: With a character named 'StigMartha' whose hands bleed when nervous, this is not a surprise. Mild Language: We hear things like 'hell' and 'damn' ... and not just when talking about DJ's dad. Someday there will be a good Death Jr. game - but today isn't that day. As I mentioned in my reviews of the two PSP games, Death Jr. and Death Jr. 2, these are games that sound great on paper but just don't seem to work out in terms of actual gameplay. Death Jr. and the Science Fair of Doom falls in line with those - with a grand setup about joined-at-the-brain brothers Smith & Weston working on science projects which when combined create a huge mutant beast and rip through the fabric of the school to unleash a demonic horde and also relieve DJ's (that is the grim reaper's son's nickname) girlfriend Pandora (guess what, she creates unbreakable locks to prevent people opening boxes) of her body, it seems like this might finally be the one. It isn't. In fact, this is the worst one of the series. The problem is ... well, everything. The controls and settings and overall gameplay are adequate, but none of it works very well. You are forced to switch control schemes in very inconvenient ways at various times, and none of the control schemes are particularly effective. You can expect to fall to your death entirely too many times over the course of the game, and the use of Pandora is a almost completely missed opportunity. After I spent entirely too long getting the first switch to trigger with her 'soul tossing' move I knew it was bad - and it never recovered. The Death Jr. games are as much about these missed opportunities as they are about anything else, and that is a real shame. I still hope someday a game will come our based on the series with the trademark great opening and then sustain it for the entire time. But for now we just have to wait, because Death Jr. and the Science Fair of Doom stinks like yesterday's corpse.  
The Death Jr. series can easily be compared to the edgy cartoons slightly older (pre-tween) kids love on Cartoon Network and Nick. The PSP games pushed the edginess in terms of things like skewering enemies and getting 'gory kill' bonuses. The DS version is much more tame in those regards and perfectly rated E-10+ and is fine for kids over 10. None of the stuff you'll find is problematic - in fact the names and backstories of the characters are harsher than the standard platform action with monster-killing action.
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