It’s the game we’ve all been waiting for: Tales of Game’s Studios Presents Chef Boyardee’s Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa. It plays like Final Fantasy, but it’s written like a Monty Python sketch. Click that zany link for more info and the free download and/or read on for my review.

Here was my critique to the game’s author, originally posted on the Gaming World Forums (warning - spoilers):

I only registered here to give props to this game. I have to say, I saw the trailer on Dtoid and thought it looked interesting. I wasn’t really expecting much going in, but I ended the game wanting to play more.

Criticisms and comments:
The music was really good. The absurdity of the story is excellent. The save points were a bit annoying - I would’ve liked reading the long note once, but not upon subsequent visits. I thought the entranceways, especially for the church, should’ve been a bit more pronounced. The game play is easy enough, though it took me a while to figure out the [F4] function. The title screen is great. I initially skipped the lower section of the catacombs - I saw that it was there, but I wasn’t sure if it was necessary so I played through the demo and then came back to explore the lower catacombs. That says two things: 1) the game is worth playing in its entirety; 2) the lower catacombs need a big neon sign that says “go here first”. (Not really, but maybe that part should be redesigned?) When I played through the lower catacombs and retrieved the B-Ball Shard, it was nowhere to be found in my inventory. The boss B-Ball Monster is pretty damn tough - I was able to beat him on my first time through but, for a brief moment, he seemed indestructible. In fact, I thought that maybe I was supposed to die, so when I ran out of oh-so delicious Ecto Coolers I wasn’t even concerned about dying (which a game player should always be concerned about). I’m a fan of dramatic sequences in RPGs, but I didn’t like the empty pauses between talking; perhaps ellipses could be used for the same dramatic effect, while telling the player that there’s still a dialogue going on. I absolutely love the unnecessarily long titles, especially The Magical Realms of Tir na Nog: Escape from Necron 5 - The Revenge of Cuchulainn: the Official Game of the Movie. All told, I truly appreciate the time and effort put into the game and I look forward to playing the full version.

I have but one question - is this game’s Tyrone Jackson (aka B-Ball Monster) from the Arizona State Sun Devils or is he, in fact, the jazz musician? Either makes sense, since Charles is a ball player and a jazz fan. (Or, perhaps Tyrone Jackson is an amalgam of both…?)