Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden

Double Dribble

Two things about the battles elevate BSUJG above the games it seeks to satirise. First, there's absolutely no necessity to grind. That means no pointless trundling around beating up rubbish enemies in order to boost characters to a point where they can safely move on to new locations. This is a splendid decision on the part of the creators. Yes, it makes the game relatively easy (most will be whizzing through this in five or six hours) but it means players of every skill can progress with the story and, in conjunction, the comedy. Which is, after all, the strength of the title. The alternative would be like an excellent sitcom episode not allowing people past the first five minutes of jokes.

Perhaps more importantly, the battles actually demand some participation beyond the norm. It's not just a case of balancing attacks and healing while pressing the odd button here and there - several of the offensive moves also involve simple acts of timing to pull off correctly. This is almost certainly 'borrowed' from another game I'm not familiar with [sounds like Mario & Luigi - Ed], but it's well executed here.

Not all is perfection. It's perhaps a bit churlish to pick out odd bugs in a freeware release, but the standard set by the rest of the game is so high that it's only right and proper. When switching screens, rather than continuing to walk in the direction being held, Barkley and his friends tend to 'stick' in place until the same key is pressed again. Which is a bit annoying. Occasionally, the main screen was affected by some mysterious background flashes which only went away when a new set of enemies had been encountered and defeated. Also annoying. The pacing, too, is a little haphazard - speeding up rather rapidly towards the dramatic final confrontation. While this could be a further jab at RPG titles which also suffer from this fault, it seems a bit of a cop-out to defend it on those grounds.

A PhD In Anime

The bad, however, is overwhelmed by the amount of invention and number of special touches which have been crammed in. This isn't a sentence I'd have envisaged writing a few weeks ago, but...the remixed Space Jam theme which appears throughout is worryingly infectious. As is the cheese-rich faux-metal tune that pops up when battling bosses (blame the guy from Deep Purple for that one...but quietly, because they probably didn't get usage rights), and the portentous synth-loops which appear throughout. Depending upon your outlook, the game's graphics will either seem functional (the DirectX 10 claims are, surprisingly, a lie) or a loving 16-bit homage - complete with a number of 'spot the game they've lifted this sprite or tile-set from' opportunities. Err...but we'd best not dwell on that for too long either.

Even the save-game system is designed for laughs. Barkley can save at a number of floating truck pumps dotted around the place (no, I don't know why either), which spew out disturbingly serious critiques of Eastern vs Western gaming styles before they divulge the save-game screen. These ludicrous screeds are either a pastiche of Internet forum ramblings, or...well, the chance that they might be real doesn't really bear thinking about.

Were there more space, I'd speak of the excellent, lengthy reference to Chrono Trigger's boring factory section, or the superb set-piece portions of the Liberty Island level involving sugar, or even the joy of unlocking Victorian Steampunk mode - but those are all best left for the player to discover in full.

Like all the best satirical undertakings, BSUJG is motivated by anger and love. The wealth of knowledge contained within reveals a deep, underlying love of the games being sent up, but also anger at the kind of undue reverence they receive. In short, Tales of Game's (sic) has done the fledgling retro-sports-action-based-JRPG-comedy genre proud. Now, enough talk. See you on court.