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Common Sense Note

Parents need to know that this is a creative platform game with a morbid sense of humor. The game is dark in the same vein as Tim Burton's Beetlejuice or Corpse Bride. Creepy compatriots and ghoulish enemies share the screen with playfully macabre music, silly settings and a protagonist that is the awkward, love-struck offspring of the Grim Reaper. There's a lot of fighting; players shoot and use a scythe to slice demons, causing them to explode in a fountain of blood and chunks.

You may want to talk to your kids about the way some media mix dark themes with a playful spirit. Why is this kind of story appealing? Are gore and violence more acceptable if mixed with a good-humored presentation?

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Common Sense Review

Reviewed By: Aaron Lazenby

DEATH JR. follows the exploits of the Grim Reaper's son, affectionately known to friends as DJ. On a field trip to a museum, DJ helps his school crush, Pandora, open a locked box in the basement. And all hell breaks loose, literally. Demons pour from the opened package, ensnaring his friends (studious but bleeding Stigmartha, surly exchange-student-in-a-jar Seep and appropriately named Dead Guppy) in otherworldly tentacles.

Players control DJ as he travels through different levels in search of the items that will release his friends from their creepy captivity. Employing a flamethrower, shotgun, and freeze gun and other firearms, DJ battles a bevy of beasties that stands between he and his quest. His scythe (borrowed from his father, perhaps?) is also a weapon, but can be used to swing across chasms, momentarily fly or jump higher than his bony legs could usually carry him.

With this combination of force and skills, DJ must navigate creative and detailed levels such as Meat World (outfitted with barbeque-themed hazards and gigantic cows) School (with exploding vending machines, a smoky teacher's lounge), and Suburbia (complete with white picket fences and exploding sewers).

Gameplay is varied, combining combat with standard platform game elements, such as jumping or swinging across lava pits. DJ's demon battles can get fairly messy, with scores of enemies exploding in a fountain of gore and blood. But the speedy pace and marginal graphics keeps players from dwelling on the carnage. The overall tone of the game is lightheartedly macabre -- clearly inspired by director Tim Burton's films -- and veers more into the realm of ooky-spooky than truly horrific.

Add to that a sense of humor (everyone treats Dead Guppy as though he's chatty and active, even though he's an inert fish out of water) and you have a pretty good foil to the violence and ghoulishness here.

But ultimately the story and aesthetic of Death Jr. loses out to the haphazard gameplay. DJ earns a few new scythe attacks as the game progresses, but not enough to keep pace with the difficulty of his opponents, which moves very quickly from too easy to nearly impossible. Pair that with a squirrelly camera and occasionally unresponsive controls and the game loses its charm fairly quickly.

Too bad, because someone put a lot of thought into the characters and the world they inhabit. The macabre but endearing protagonist isn't given enough screen time to flesh out his story and his friends -- while promising -- are equally marginalized. What that leaves is a pretty average shooter/platformer and an underdeveloped idea.

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