Full Mojo Rampage

For all the magical spells and supernatural powers we're given in video games, voodoo has never been a popular theme. With the exception of Shadow Man and Voodoo Vince, this type of spirituality has been mostly absent in gaming over the last few decades. Now there's Full Mojo Rampage, a brand new dungeon-crawling roguelike that uses voodoo as its central conceit. And while this action-packed dual-stick shooter probably won't kick start a new voodoo gaming revolution, it does have some fun with the killer concept.

Coming off like a mix between Gauntlet and The Binding of Isaac, Full Mojo Rampage sees us take control of an undead corpse who uses voodoo magic to get the better of his foes. You play through a series of quests in a search for knowledge and experience. You do this by taking on a bunch of short quests in stages full of nasty enemies and loot to collect. Completing these missions takes you to a challenging boss fight, where you'll finally have a chance to gain the favor and trust you've been seeking.

This is, by all accounts, a fairly straight-forward roguelike adventure game. The little voodoo apprentice only has one life to live, so dying in battle means starting over from the very beginning. The good news is that you'll keep your money and medals, giving us a chance to improve stats between rounds. What's more, you'll be able to spend your experience points on leveling up your character, making our hero a little more capable with each play.

You can't make a game about voodoo dolls and not poke them with sharp pins. As you might imagine, Full Mojo Rampage has a lot of pins to collect, each improving the stats or helping our hero in one way or another. You'll find pins that make you stronger, maximize critical hits, speed the character up, make enemies drop more coins and a wide assortment of other perks. And once you've leveled up a few times, you'll be able to carry several pins at once, turning the voodoo apprentice into a fighting force.

Apart from the pin collecting, the action plays out like a typical dual-stick shooter. We're stuck in a large arena filled with bad guys, so it's up to you to run around killing everybody and picking up the loot they drop. You'll find a lot of equipment and potions that will give our hero a fighting chance. But even with the copious amount of items and perks, chances are you're going to die a bunch of times before the tide begins to turn.

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At first it will seem like going through these scenarios is impossible. The enemies take too much damage and it's easy to get cornered and die. But with each stab at the randomly generated stages, you'll get a little stronger and better equipped for the skirmishes. And then eventually you'll be nearly unstoppable, plowing through the enemies with reckless abandon. It's a satisfying feeling that is short-lived, as you'll quickly move on to a much tougher scenario full of even nastier ghouls and ghosts.

There are four lengthy quests in all, most with six stages to complete and a bunch of side stuff to discover. You'll also find a daily quest, where you'll compete against the world in a random dungeon that is generated every 24 hours. For those looking for an even bigger challenge, the survival unlimited mode has you going until you can't go anymore. And if that's not enough, Full Mojo Rampage also includes a number of interesting online modes, including everything from death match to capture the flag to very basic co-op fun.

While these modes are enjoyable, they can't erase the thought that I've seen all this before. The voodoo gimmick may offer a lot of untapped potential, but it can't overshadow the otherwise bland dual-stick shooting. I enjoyed playing with the different power-ups, but was disappointed it didn't go further with the concept. Most of the power-ups would have fit perfectly in all kinds of other shooters, and I couldn't help but get sick of seeing the same few backgrounds repeated time and time again.

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Fully Mojo Rampage is one of those games that starts better than it ends. There's a sweet spot in quest 3 where everything clicks and everything seems to be going your way. Enjoy that brief moment, because it's all downhill from there. Instead of sticking with the gradual increase in difficulty, there's a huge spike at the very end that doesn't feel especially fair. The game changes the rules a bit, creating a wholly frustrating experience that ends things on a sour note.

Despite a few stumbles along the way, Full Mojo Rampage is an enjoyable adventure roguelike with a fun gimmick. It's not especially original and more than a little frustrating at times, but it also gets the basics right and offers a wide variety of online multiplayer modes. Now what is it going to take to get somebody to make Voodoo Vince 2?