Death Tales

One of the knocks you often hear used against the beat 'em up genre is that they are nothing more than button mashing simulators. You just tap, tap, tap, tap, tap until everybody is either knocked out or in a body bag. In reality, unless you're talking about some of the earliest games in the genre, most brawlers are deeper and more involved than that. I say "most" because every so often a game like Death Tales comes along that embodies the bad stereotypes so thoroughly that you might mistake it for parody. But the newest game from Desert Ashes developer Luc Bernard is definitely not parody. It's also not very fun, and that's a real problem.

This is the story of a young Reaper who goes rogue after a young woman from his former life awakens a newfound sense of right and wrong. He, along with his lanky traveling companion, Spaurd, uncover Death's sinister plot and gets fired from his job of collecting souls. It's now up to our fearless duo to travel through eight different levels while battling Death's brainwashed minions to prove once and for all that everybody has at least a little humanity left in them, even a Grim Reaper.

Our hero is basically a cross between Death Jr. and Sir Arthur from the Ghosts 'N Goblins series, only with more of an emphasis on the hacking and slashing. Don't let the platforming elements fool you, because this is primarily an old school beat 'em up. It's the kind of game where you tap out multi-hit combos, smack enemies into the air and dash around to avoid damage. Death Tales is basically a simplified version of Devil May Cry, only without the wide variety of satisfying attacks. It has all the ingredients to be a stylish side-scrolling brawler full of great action, but the end result is about as tasty as chewing on a rubber boot.

The problems start the moment you realize that every level is going to play out exactly the same way. You'll do a little platforming and then get stuck in a walled off section filled with bad guys. Once you clear out that section, you'll move on to the next part of the stage, which will once again get walled off until you overpower the demonic enemies. This will happen four or five times before you complete the level, which will be followed by another stage where the formula starts all over again. No matter if you're in the forest, mountains or the Soulless Realm, every level plays out exactly like this.

And it's not just the stage designs that are repetitive, but also the monsters you hack and slash. To the developer's credit, the enemy designs are good throughout the game, thanks in large part to Death Tales' unique art design. That said, this is one of those throwback brawlers where they keep throwing the same enemies at you level after level. Sometimes they'll make the bad guys bigger or change their color to show you that they are tougher, but it ultimately feels like you're slaughtering dozens (if not hundreds) of the same enemies everywhere we go.

That would be fine if the gameplay was deeper, but Death Tales is no Devil May Cry. That was a game full of new abilities and satisfying combos, neither of which show up in this beat 'em up. We're taught four or five quick moves at the start, most of which involve tapping the same attack button or holding it down to perform a harder hit. There's no way to chain these moves and combos together, so the gameplay feels more like button mashing than precision strikes. There's no learning curve to the combat, just flailing around until our hero is the last ghoul standing.

Click For the Full Picture Archive

I don't think I can emphasize enough how boring the gameplay is. Yes, they teach us how to dodge enemy hits at the very start, but there's no reason to listen. Every enemy is full of extra health when they're defeated, so as long as you keep hammering the attack button and killing bad guys, you'll never die. And even when they start piling up tougher enemies towards the end, all you need to do is mash that button. There's no skill or strategy to it, so every fight plays out exactly the same way. And since you get healing magic at the start of the game that you can use at pretty much any time, you really need to go out of your way to die in battle. As a result, Death Tales is aggressively easy.

Even if you want to take a less button mashy approach, the general design works against you every step of the way. You see it with Reaper's floaty controls, which makes it hard to perform precision strikes, as well as the enemies who take more than a dozen smacks to get rid of. It also doesn't help that we aren't given new moves or abilities throughout the adventure, all but forcing us to rely on the same simple combos we're introduced to at the start. There's really no incentive to play the game differently, since smashing that attack button is always the most effective plan.

The repetition and shallow gameplay is especially frustrating because it's easy to see the potential in Death Tales. I like that you can track down, unlock and even buy new helmets, armor and weapons. Everything in this game has some sort of secondary advantage, such as making our hero jump higher, defend better or counter-attack. There are even bounty challenges to take on, which will have you hunting down specific types of enemies in order to earn a cash reward. These are nice touches that help improve the game, but they can't overcome the structural problems keeping this game down.

And then there's the art design, which is bright, colorful and definitely eye-catching. It's arguably the game's most confident attribute and helps to make Death Tales stand out. Unfortunately, I'm a huge fan of this style of graphics. It definitely looks like the type of thing that I would fall in love with, but there's something about the design that doesn't work for me. That said, I'm okay with that, because I like that the game has a specific look, even if it's not my thing. I would much rather see games try for a unique look and fail than play it safe and look like everything else on the market.

And that brings me to my final point about Death Tales. According to developer Arcade Distillery, the PS Vita version of the game will only be available as a limited-edition physical release. That means that there won't be a digital version of the game to download, forcing Vita owners to either snatch one of the few copies right when they go on sale, or pay what I'm sure will be a comically inflated price on eBay. If you're one of those people debating spending hundreds of dollars on a rare physical version, I'm here to give you this advice: Don't do it. Don't be tricked by this cynical attempt by a developer to turn their game into a heavily sought-after cult classic. Spend your money elsewhere, because even at the far more reasonable ten dollar asking price, Death Tales remains a disappointing action game that fails as both a 2D platformer and an old school brawler.