Serious Sam Advance (Game Boy Advance) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

Serious Sam arrives at a point in the GBA's life cycle where we've already been dazzled by First Person Shooters, then become a little bored by them and then agreed to give them another chance. For a genre that was never deemed possible on Nintendo's humble platform they're now almost as common as 'Mode 7' racers and the recent release of the long delayed Ice Nine and Serious Sam is evidence enough that the powers that be think we're all ready for another round of mindless shooting. Serious Sam itself enjoyed success on the PC with some years ago catching gamers attention because of the its speed, frantic gameplay and the fact that there was little in the way of plot to get in the way of, well shooting things. There was also the all important price point and at the time of release Serious Sam was considerably cheaper than many of its rivals. You'd imagine that the leap to the GBA would be a seamless and relatively simple affair but was it?

Gameplay

As we've already mentioned Serious Sam is almost entirely devoid of plot, although to be fair so are most other first person shooters. Instead the action takes place in two areas (Egypt and Rome) over twelve increasingly difficult levels. The rest is all about the shooting and the ludicrous amount of firepower you can carry around with you at any given point. You name it, it's here; from chainsaws to shotguns, lasers to rocket launchers. The levels themselves are pretty straightforward and you'll only occasionally have to backtrack to flip a switch or find the 'real' exit. The enemies too start out mindlessly enough, always appearing in front of you but by half way through the game they'll be coming from all sides and most annoyingly from behind you. Most of them are generally easy to take care of but you are limited by ammunition so using your most powerful weapon on the more feeble enemies is not a good idea. Finally, complementing the budget nature of the game we have a password system. Fortunately though there's not a 16-digit code in sight and instead you get meaningful words (in FPS terms anyway) making what can be a painful process a little easier.

Controls

On the surface the layout is incredibly simple with the 'D-Pad' allowing you to move about whilst 'A' is for firing your current weapon and 'B' is used to select another. That is until you discover that serious problems with the frame rate make it very difficult to actually aim at a given target. The only way we found to get around this rather irritating aspect is to use the shoulder buttons to strafe and so line up with what ever you want to fire at. Clearly this slows down gameplay considerably and as this was originally Serious Sam's main selling point it does render the whole experience somewhat frustrating.

Graphics

Whilst the graphical engine is competent enough displaying some vibrant and varied textures the frame rate that lets the whole thing down. This isn't even a result of hordes of enemies charging towards you taxing the GBA's humble architecture, it?s just poor programming. Outside of the main gameplay there's little in the way of additional visuals with a simple stats screen linking the levels. It's to be expected in a title that prides itself on its lack of plot but its absence simply shifts more emphasis on the less than competent engine.

Sound

The audio is a bit of a mixed bag really. It starts out with a rather disappointing soundtrack, which would no doubt be high end GBC but which doesn't fare too well on the Advance, especially when you consider the type of music we've become accustomed to thanks to companies like Shin'en. The sound effects are much better with some reasonable samples ripped from the PC version complementing up the on screen action.

Final comments

The problems with Serious Sam are reasonably serious but the fact that it's incredibly difficult to play because of that pesky frame rate and even then it's a little on the short side should be more than enough to send alarm bells ringing when you're considering a FPS. On the plus side though there are some unquestionably cool items of firepower at your disposal and the thing that made the original such a hit (mindlessly mowing down everything that moves) is still very evident here. There's also the multiplayer, which is always a bonus although you will have to find another three friends with copies of the game. Overall though Serious Sam offers a mediocre gaming experience in a genre that's not only already saturated, but already contains some excellent FPSs. If you're a huge fan of Sam then you'll probably give this a look but with titles like Ballistic and the classic Doom already discounted in most stores you'll have to think hard before you actually invest.

Pro: Great Weapons.
Con: The Controls.
Final score: 3.5

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