Futurama

Overview

Vivendi Universal's Futurama the game tells the story of the crew of Planet Express Delivery Company. In the game the evil businesswoman Mom buys the Planet Express space ship, giving her majority control of the Earth, making her supreme ruler. The Crew must stop her from enslaving humanity by traveling back in time to stop the deal from take place. The culmination of the game bringing you back to the start of the game at which point you continue on the first level, providing a never-ending game experience.

The game also boasts original cast voice-overs and is written by the show's Emmy Award winning writer J. Stewart Burns. In addition long time Futurama composer Christpher Tyng provided much of the music in the game, including several remixes of the original theme. However voice actors Phil LaMarr (Hermes Conrad) and Lauren Tom (Amy Wong) were not included due to budgetary constraints.

It may be noted that the game was released following the cancellation of the series after season 3, after which time (after DVD sales and fan uproar) it was again picked up and is now enjoying new episodes classed as "season 6". The game production also began prior to series cancellation.

Gameplay

The game is divided up into three sections: In the first section, the player controls Fry and employs third-person shooter mechanics. Bender takes the lead in the second section which plays like a 3d platformer. And lastly, Leela's section is more akin to a brawler/character action game.

The health system is based on blocks of un-regenerating units that can be increased via pickups. For Philip J Fry this is Slurm (cans or six packs), Turanga Leela Vitamin packs (both big and small) and for Bender Bending Rodriguez this is Ol Fortran Liquor. As Fry has an advantage with having both ranged weaponry (pistol etc.) and CQB (hammer) he does not have a special attack as the other two main characters do. Bender and Leela can pick up charges to use their special moves, namely spin attacks and stomps.

The classic "men" style of lives applies also to this game; Futurama and it's staff being strongly influenced by gaming staples such as Mario and Pacman. Professor Farnsworth attempts to explain that although a person may die they may be reborn as long as a sample of their DNA (or RNA in Bender's case) is taken, and that person will know everything that the previous 'clone' knew, all of which is presented in a fairly tongue-in-cheek way, especially as the cloning machine is a giant toaster. The "men" or "lives" that a character has can be extended by picking up items, in bundles of 25s, of importance relative to that character - Fry collecting dollars, Zoidberg fishbones -- a further homage to games such as Mario and to a lesser extent Sonic.

Cameos

• In the first level, Scruffy can be found sleeping in the flooded Planet Express basement.
• Towards the end of the game, Zoidberg is playable for one, on-rails, level.
• Nibbler is a collectable. If all Nibblers are found in a level, the cutscene from that level will be unlocked to view at any time.

Levels

• Planet Express
• Sewers
• Subway
• Old New York
• Uptown
• New New York
• Weasel Canyon
• Run, Bender, Run
• The Mine Facility
• Red Rock Creek
• The Junkyard
• Rumble in the Junkyard
• Market Square
• Left Wing
• Right Wing
• Temple Courtyard
• Inner Temple
• Bogad Swamp Trail
• Bender's Breakout
• Leela's Last Laugh
• Fry Fights Back

Graphics & Dialogue

The design for this game is perhaps unsurprisingly cel shading, obviously the most notable difference from the cartoons is that this is a 3D interface provided by Unique Development Studios.

Factoids

Versions were intended for both Nintendo Gamecube and GBA in addition to PS2 and Xbox, however they were cancelled before release.

The additional cutscenes unlocked from collecting all nibblers in the game were designed and marketed as providing a complete full length episode, (whether or not this is actually the case is debatable) which was included in the 'season 5' mini film Beast With A Billion Backs' DVD extras as the "lost episode" or 73rd episode as David X Cohen dubbed it.