''Death Jr.'' is a 2005

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

for the

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 200 ...

. The PSP iteration was the first PSP game shown publicly and advertised as a

killer-app In marketing terminology, a killer application (commonly shortened to killer app) is any computer program or software that is so necessary or desirable that it proves the core value of some larger technology, such as computer hardware, a video game ...

. It was released to a mixed reception and noted for numerous problems about the camera, gameplay and uninspiring graphics, but was praised for its

Tim Burton Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as ''Beetlejuice'' (1988), ''Edward Scissorhands'' (1990), ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993), ...

-esque themes and quirky characters. Slightly better received was the

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. ...

adaptation by

Gary Whitta Gary Leslie Whitta (born 21 July 1972) is an English screenwriter, author, game designer, and video game journalist. He was editor-in-chief of both the UK and US editions of ''PC Gamer'' magazine and contributor to gaming magazine '' ACE''. Wh ...

and

Ted Naifeh Edward "Ted" Naifeh is an American comic book writer and artist known for his illustrations in the goth romance comic ''Gloomcookie''. Naifeh has since become most known as the creator of the Eisner-Award-nominated series '' Courtney Crumrin'', ...

, which includes two three-issue miniseries. The game was followed by '' Death Jr. II: Root of Evil'' in 2006 and ''

Death Jr. and the Science Fair of Doom ''Death Jr. and the Science Fair of Doom'' is a Nintendo DS platform game developed by Backbone Entertainment, and is one of the sequels to the PlayStation Portable game '' Death Jr.'' released in 2005. The other is '' Death Jr. II: Root of Evi ...

'' in 2007. ''Death Jr.'' was conceived during experiments with the engine of the cancelled game ''Prime 8'', a planned

spin-off Spin-off may refer to: *Spin-off (media), a media work derived from an existing work *Corporate spin-off, a type of corporate action that forms a new company or entity * Government spin-off, civilian goods which are the result of military or gove ...

to the ''

Spyro The Dragon ''Spyro the Dragon'' is a platform game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation on September 9, 1998. The first game in the ''Spyro'' series, it stars the title character, a young purple d ...

'' series.

Plot

The game and comic book are about the teenage son of the

Grim Reaper Death is frequently imagined as a personified force. In some mythologies, a character known as the Grim Reaper (usually depicted as a berobed skeleton wielding a scythe) causes the victim's death by coming to collect that person's soul. Other b ...

, named Death Jr. (DJ for short). His father tried many times (all of them failed) to stop his son from creating chaos at every school he has been in. Now is DJ's last chance. If he creates chaos one more time, he'll be sent to

military school A military academy or service academy is an educational institution which prepares candidates for service in the officer corps. It normally provides education in a military environment, the exact definition depending on the country concerned. ...

. He meets new friends at this school:

Pandora In Greek mythology, Pandora (Greek: , derived from , ''pān'', i.e. "all" and , ''dōron'', i.e. "gift", thus "the all-endowed", "all-gifted" or "all-giving") was the first human woman created by Hephaestus on the instructions of Zeus. As Hes ...

, a girl with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and a thing for locked boxes; Stigmartha, a girl who has holes in her hands and bleeds from them whenever she's nervous; Smith and Weston,

conjoined twins Conjoined twins – sometimes popularly referred to as Siamese twins – are twins joined '' in utero''. A very rare phenomenon, the occurrence is estimated to range from 1 in 49,000 births to 1 in 189,000 births, with a somewhat higher incidence ...

who are very smart and conjoined at the head; the Seep, an armless, legless, foul-mouthed kid in a vat; and the Dead Guppy, a character who speaks for himself. The friends go on a field trip to a museum, where they find a locked box that Pandora wants opened, so DJ opens it to impress her. Unfortunately, all hell breaks loose and demons run amok. It's up to DJ to stop them and revert the town back to normal, all the while making sure Dad doesn't find out.

Gameplay

In the game, the player has a variety of guns ranging from pistols to a rocket launcher. The controls are simple. The player moves around with the analog nub and attacks people with the square and circle buttons. There is a lot of emphasis in the game on the combos which can be achieved by linking attacks to each other in rapid succession.

Reception

The game received average or mixed reviews, as

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

gave it a score of 63.30% while

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

gave it a score of 61 out of 100.

References

External links

* * {{Konami franchises 2005 video games Action video games Hack and slash games Konami franchises Konami games PlayStation Portable games PlayStation Portable-only games Video games about death Video games developed in Canada

Plot

Gameplay

Reception

See also

References

External links