Genre: Platform Shooter
Developer: Backbone Entertainment
Publisher: Konami

From an artistic standpoint, Death Jr. is excellent; it's filled with colorful, memorable characters and locations. From a technical standpoint, Death Jr.'s graphics engine has it's positives and negatives: there's lots of polygons on screen, detailed player models, and oodles of particle effects, but the game appears to only be running in 16-bit color, so it looks very grainy. There's also a distinct lack of any high-tech stencil buffer effects that we've seen from other PSP games.

Video game soundtracks have been emulating Hollywood's overblown orchestra scores for so long now that I almost couldn't believe what I was hearing from Death Jr.-- a real video game soundtrack! Stylistically, it reminds me a bit of the soundtrack from "Day of the Tentacle"; cheesy, catchy, and organ-laden. The sound effects are also well done, and Death Jr. is a pleasant sounding game on the whole.

Death Jr. is a 3d action platformer with a heavy emphasis on shooting. It uses a trigger key to snap the camera behind the protagonist, makes heavy use of the now-common Zelda style lock-on targetting system, and features some unique platforming elements that make use of your character's huge scythe and that are well worked into the levels. Unfortunately, this scheme entirely lacks polish, particularily with the camera, which is unwieldy to say the least. Frustrations can quickly mount on many levels.

Death Jr. is Chris Charla's (former chief editor of Next Generation magazine) first game, and it isn't a poor job really. It's a stylistically unique game with great art direction and a fantastic soundtrack. It is also a game with decent level design and some special platforming elements. Where it falls short however is in the controls category, as the camera effectively puts a damper on what, with some tweaking, could have become something excellent. As it is, Death Jr. seems to be lacking in quality and polish. With its short length, it might make for a better rental than a purchase.