Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Zombie Ninja Pro Amis none of the following things:
– Funny
– Even remotely worth your time and/or money
Itis, however, veryinteresting. Not interesting in its badness, likeThe Graveyard, or interesting for a few fantastic design flaws amidst a flood of horrendous ones, likeMirror’s Edge. It is interesting because it is so unabashedly, unashamedlyawful, despite being an almost direct ripoff ofNinja Golf, one of the coolest Atari games ever.
I’m not 100% sure where I’m going with this, but feel free to hit the jump for more of it.
Frylock gets an invite to a New Jersey golf course.
That’s it.
It’s basically just a setup for wacky cameos and fun, non sequiturAqua Teen Hunger Forcejokes, which would be awesome if the game were even remotely funny. I’m a hugeAqua Teenfan, but even I was only a few inches away from snapping the disc in half after the fiftieth time Frylock says, “Wipe that blood off your clubs, boys — it’s time to golf.” He says that line literallyevery single timeyou tee up. In agolf game. That would be like hearing Andy Dick scream at the top of his lungs everytime you reload inGears of War.
Though it’s kind of cute to meet Carl and the Mooninites on the green, there are surprisingly few laughs to be found for a game based on one of the most surreally hilarious cartoons ever.
Gameplay:
So,Ninja Golf. I can’t say anything about it that the folks at I-Mockery haven’t already said, save for the fact thatAqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro Amis an almost exact 3D remake/ripoff of it. With the exception of some almost-interesting golf puzzles (once you make it to the green, that level’s enemy will put up obstacles you’ll have to putt around) and some horrendous racing levels,Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro Amis an almost mechanic-for-mechanic remake ofNinja Golf.
You hit the ball and, in lieu of a golf cart, are forced to trek across the course to get it. On your way there, you’ll be attacked by any number ofAqua Teenenemies: trees, brownie monsters, Carl’s crabs, and the like. Once you get to the next ball, you hit it again, and the process repeats itself. WhereNinja Golfis concerned, this is a really great, really unusual game structure; who would have thought that golf and fighting would make for such an unusually satisfying combination?
Zombie Ninja Pro Ammanages to screw up the formula with repetitive, button-mashing combat, too-large levels, and no real boss fights to speak of (at least in the third of the game I played — after the third course, maybe it turns intoIkarugaor something). In this respect, theAqua Teengame is interesting in two ways: firstly, that it would choose to directly rip off such an obscure, unusual Atari game, and secondly, that it would be unquestionably worse than its twenty year old predecessor.
If anything,Zombie Ninja Pro Am(which includes neither zombies nor ninjas) just makes me want to playNinja Golfagain, and see a 3D version of the game doneright. Incidentally,Zombie Ninja Pro Amwouldn’t be all that bad if it were a free, downloadable game, but the idea of paying money for it is pretty ludicrous.
