Whacked! (Xbox)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 2.5 stars OK
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 5.6 (2.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Jeff Gerstmann
• Reviewed on: 10/18/2002
• Released on: 10/08/2002
• Originally published on GameSpot: Whacked! (Xbox) Review

Over the years, numerous games have tried to use a fictional game show as the premise for their gameplay and story line. Some worked well, some didn't. On one end of the spectrum is the fantastic futuristic shooter Smash TV. On the other, the weak attempts at humor found in Twisted! for the old 3DO system. Whacked! is an action game that bills itself as a "game show gone wrong." Yet aside from its occasionally successful sense of humor and the fact that it's one of the first action games compatible with Microsoft's Xbox Live service, Whacked! has very little to offer.

Putting aside all the game-show trappings and other plot points, Whacked! is a four-player action game that gives you a collection of maps and game types to choose from. You view all the mayhem from a third-person perspective, and it all goes down in fairly small environments designed to keep things focused. The different game types all involve picking up weapons and wiping out the competition, but your reasons for wanting everyone else dead change from game to game. In king of the hill, you must stand in a specific part of the level and prevent other players from doing the same. Another game type has you collecting stars, and the first player to grab a set number of stars wins. A third type simply counts kills until a preset time limit is reached. In the single-player mode, you'll play in these modes against computer-controlled contestants, though you'll also occasionally face what seems like a billion drone chickens, who run at you in hopes of pecking you to death.

Whacked! is extremely simple, though instead of merely being easy to pick up and play, it's also very shallow. You have few moves at your disposal. You can jump, attack, and execute a butt-stomp-like jumping attack. The game contains a wide array of weapons and outcome-deciding power-ups. Weapons include the standard collection of plunger guns, rockets, and other cartoon-violence weapons, like the staple gun, baseball bat, rubber ducky grenades, and egg blasters. You'll also find a basic assortment of homing missiles, standard projectile weapons, explosives, mines, and melee weapons for close attacks. While Whacked! does feature a lot of different kinds of weaponry, many of the weapons do roughly the same thing. The power-ups have bit more variety. One gives every player a rack of homing missiles, another turns the display upside-down for a few seconds, yet another lets you automatically vacuum up nearby stars, and so on.

The characters in Whacked! are a crazy batch of cartoony oddballs, such as Lucky, a crazed rabbit who's missing all four of his paws, or Lucy, a naked woman with black bars covering her naughty bits. Each character has his or her own set of sayings, and lines are triggered when you pick up weapons or are killed. But in practice, all the characters are identical.

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