Fear Factor Unleashed

It could be argued that you can take any sort of license and turn it into a game.  But where the argument turns ugly is when you start taking TV shows and turning them into so much drivel.

Fear Factor Unleashed is a bad game.  Not bad in the sense that hey it's bad, but look at these redeeming qualities, but bad in the sense it should be ground up into your dog's food so it can be given a proper resting place. 

What makes the game so terrible isn't the premise; in fact I am a big fan of the actual show on NBC. However it feels like little thought was put into this release’s development; if it had, we may have been playing a good game. But that just wasn't the case and instead I am proud to review one of the worst games I have played in my 20 years of gaming.

Starting off, players select whether they want to play as a man or woman, limited skin tones are available to make your character look more to your liking.  Once your character is ready you are given a choice of 20 ability points that can be added to your character's four statistics: Nerve, steadiness, stomach and stamina.  Statistics designed to help you get through the game's challenges.  Now, the first really bad thing you will notice is that the game is limited to only 12 mini games that are likened after stunts seen on the show.  There's the gross -out stunts, the skill -type stunts and some action stunts.  Twelve stunts total simply are not enough for a game like this. Yes I realize that this is the GBA, but of the 12 stunts, a couple of them are eerily alike and as far as I was concerned a cop-out.  The game simply needs to have around 20-25 stunts. 

Next, the stunts that the game does have, yin-yang themselves between too easy and no way can I complete that.  And not in the way that the developers made a tough game, but rather, too many bugs that unfairly make the game difficult.  Most notably the gross-out buffet which it seems to me just cannot be beaten even when I would bulk up my "stomach" characteristic.  Tying in with this was the laughable graphics.  The game appears too drab and has none of the even-over-the-top pizzazz that the show has.  There were points when the games action would fail and I would find myself trapped in a bug, forcing me to restart and finally even when playing the single player, you must hit the "A" button a million times in order to not have to watch your competitors try and complete the stunt.  This is an example of poor game design.

I normally can say more things about a game regardless of how bad or good it is, but I beat this thing in about 90 minutes and that included the two times I had to start over because my character got frozen in mid-jump.  Simply stated this game is no fun at all.

Gameplay: 4.0
It's such an uneven controlling experience that I was forced to walk away from the game more then once.  The use of the two trigger buttons in order to keep an in-game gauge from plummeting off the edge was a good idea, but the execution was just awful.

Graphics: 3.5
Two words: Puce puke.

Sound: 5.0
The developers seemed to try to put some emphasis in the game's audio, and even though it fails miserably, this is the game's best feature.

Difficulty: Easy
Everything this game has to offer can be seen in the same amount of time it takes to watch an episode (well maybe a little longer, but not much) of the show.  The real difficulty will be to keep from ripping the cartridge out of your system and tossing it in a garbage disposal.

Concept: 4.9
It could have been a decent title but unfortunately it was not.

Multiplayer: 3.9
The only thing worse then playing a really bad game is playing a really bad game with a friend who punches you in the arm for having made them play said bad game.

Overall: 3.9
This is absolutely one of the worst games I have ever played and certainly the worst use of a commercial license.  Under no circumstances should you even consider spending any money on this title.