Whacked!

Last updated
Whacked!
WhackedXbox.jpg
Developer(s) Presto Studios
Publisher(s) Microsoft Game Studios
Designer(s) Phil Saunders (Lead)
Composer(s) Jamey Scott
Engine Sprint Engine
Platform(s) Xbox
Release
  • NA: October 15, 2002 [1]
  • EU: November 29, 2002
Genre(s) Party
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer

Whacked! is a party game developed by Presto Studios and released in 2002 by Microsoft Game Studios exclusively for the Xbox. It was one of the two original games to be made available for Xbox Live, and it received mixed reviews. Whacked! was the last game developed by Presto Studios before it went defunct.

Contents

Gameplay

Whacked! is played as a series of arena style mini-games. The player competes with three other players, human or artificial intelligence, to complete a specific objective, and players can use a variety of weapons and power-ups to affect the game. Possible objectives include collecting stars for points, deathmatch, king of the hill, holding a trophy to earn points, and elimination style dodgeball. Single player has the addition gamemode of chicken, in which many flesh-eating chickens pursue the player, and the player has to destroy them first.

Arenas include the site of a car crash, the ceiling of a bathroom, a plaza, the space underneath a Christmas Tree, an oil pipeline, a heavily fortified front yard, a space station, a toy pirate ship in an electrified bathtub, an arena with spiked walls, the tops of skyscrapers, the back of a pickup truck during a police chase, and a kitchen sink. Hell is unlocked after completing the game.

Game show mode is the main single-player story mode, in which the player chooses one of three doors to determine the gamemode and arena. Each set of three doors makes up one stage, and each of the four stages becomes successively more difficult and the matches become longer. Battle mode allows players to play against one another and choose all of the settings the mini-game. As of the game's release, battle mode could be played through split screen, system link, or Xbox Live. While Xbox Live for the original Xbox was discontinued in 2010, Whacked! is now playable online using the replacement Xbox online servers called Insignia. [2] [3]

Story

Whacked! takes place on the set of a game show in which seven contestants compete for The Prize, which will be anything in the world that the contestant desires. To win The Prize, the contestants compete across four stages of violent battles and competitions. While the contestants compete, Van Tastic speaks to his boss over the phone, reassuring him that it's impossible to win and that there is no prize. After the player's character wins the game, Van Tastic's boss calls him again and cancels the show. Van Tastic challenges the winner to a final competition for an even better grand prize. After the contestant agrees, Van Tastic destroys the set, revealing it to be Hell. He burns the other contestants to death, and reveals himself to be a demon. After the winner defeats Van Tastic, his boss calls him to renew the show.

Characters

There are seven playable contestants, each based on one of the seven deadly sins, as well as a host that becomes playable after completing the game. [4]

Development

The concept for Whacked! was first conceived in the mid-1990s as a casual multiplayer game to compete against Mario Kart 64 , with a similar low barrier to entry and mechanisms to rubber band players between first and last place. During development, testers would regularly test different variations of each in-game element individually before allowing the art team to give it a design. It was also tested without artificial intelligence to prioritize the multiplayer experience and players to adjust to changes in real time without updates to AI. Development was held to a strict schedule, allowing the game to ship three weeks early. Whacked! was originally designed as a PC game, but the game was eventually ported to the Xbox. Development was complicated by two of the three creative designers leaving half way through the project. [4]

Whacked! was one of the two games distributed to beta testers for the initial rollout of Xbox Live on the Xbox. The same Live enabled demos were originally given out for one year with the purchase of the Xbox Live starter kit. [5]

Whacked! was the final project released by Presto Studios before it went out of business in 2002. [6] Whacked! is backward compatible on the Xbox 360, albeit with some glitches, including graphics not loading properly or loading screens not displaying.[ citation needed ]

Reception

The game received "mixed" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. [7] Critic Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot praised the game's style and voice acting, but criticized the gameplay and soundtrack, saying that "The single-player mode is plain and simple, and the multiplayer mode, once you get over the novelty of shooting people over the Internet, really lacks depth." [13] Hilary Goldstein of IGN criticized the drawn-out gameplay and the inconsistency of the gameshow dynamic. [16] In Japan, where the game was ported for release under the name Whacked! Giliaba! Rantō Party Televee! (ワックド！ギリヤバ！乱闘パーティーテレビ！, Wakkudo! Giriyaba! Rantō Pātī Terebi!) on January 16, 2003, [20] Famitsu gave it a score of one six, one seven, and two sixes for a total of 25 out of 40. [11]

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References

  1. ↑ Calvert, Justin (October 15, 2002). "Microsoft ships Whacked!". GameSpot . Fandom. Archived from the original on March 13, 2023. Retrieved October 27, 2024.
  2. ↑ "Insignia - Whacked!". insignia.live. Retrieved 2025-01-15.
  3. ↑ Xbox, Pure (2022-12-21). "Xbox Live 1.0 Replacement Adds More Supported Titles, 40 Games Now Playable". Pure Xbox. Retrieved 2025-01-15.
  4. 1 2 Saladino, Michael (November 14, 2002). "Postmortem: Presto's Whacked!". Game Developer . Informa. Archived from the original on March 3, 2024. Retrieved October 27, 2024.
  5. ↑ Parker, Sam (September 25, 2002). "Xbox Live starter kit games confirmed". GameSpot. Fandom. Archived from the original on February 15, 2005. Retrieved October 27, 2024.
  6. ↑ Cohen, Peter (September 2, 2002). "Game maker Presto Studios closes doors". Macworld . IDG Communications. Archived from the original on March 25, 2023. Retrieved October 27, 2024.
  7. 1 2 "Whacked!". Metacritic . Fandom. Archived from the original on November 4, 2024. Retrieved November 4, 2024.
  8. ↑ Marriott, Scott Alan. "Whacked! - Review". AllGame . All Media Network. Archived from the original on November 15, 2014. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
  9. ↑ MacIsaac, Jason (October 24, 2002). "Whacked!". The Electric Playground . Greedy Productions Ltd. Archived from the original on February 28, 2003. Retrieved October 27, 2024.
  10. ↑ Bramwell, Tom (January 22, 2003). "Whacked!". Eurogamer . Gamer Network. Archived from the original on July 7, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2024.
  11. 1 2 "January 10, 2003". The Magic Box. January 10, 2003. Archived from the original on February 10, 2003. Retrieved October 27, 2024.
  12. ↑ McNamara, Andy (December 2002). "Whacked!". Game Informer . No. 116. GameStop. p. 144. Archived from the original on April 29, 2004. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
  13. 1 2 Gerstmann, Jeff (October 18, 2002). "Whacked! Review". GameSpot. Fandom. Archived from the original on March 29, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2024.
  14. ↑ Williams, Bryn (October 19, 2002). "GameSpy: Whacked!". GameSpy . Archived from the original on December 18, 2005. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
  15. ↑ Zacarias, Eduardo (October 19, 2002). "Whacked! - XB - Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on January 17, 2008. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
  16. 1 2 Goldstein, Hilary (October 17, 2002). "Whacked! Review". IGN . Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on March 29, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2024.
  17. ↑ "Whacked!". Official Xbox Magazine . Future US. January 2003. p. 90.
  18. ↑ Semsey, Rob (October 30, 2002). "Whacked! Review (Xbox)". TeamXbox . IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on September 28, 2011. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
  19. ↑ Bub, Andrew (December 9, 2002). "'Whacked' (Xbox) Review". X-Play . TechTV. Archived from the original on December 19, 2002. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
  20. ↑ "ワックド！ギリヤバ！乱闘パーティーテレビ！". Famitsu (in Japanese). Kadokawa Game Linkage. Archived from the original on October 27, 2024. Retrieved October 27, 2024.
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