Death Jr.: Root of Evil (Wii)

The PSP original gets an upgrade for the Wii.

Oh, Death Jr., you little scamp--how you get yourself into so much trouble. This time, the son of the Grim Reaper and his friend Pandora find themselves in a heap of bad business by accidentally freeing the daughter of Mother Nature, named Furi, from a cocoon that was designed to make her even more evil than she already was. This makes Furi, er, furious and causes her to go on a rampage that eventually results in the confrontation and capture of Death Jr.’s dad. Thus, Pandora and DJ embark on a journey to save the universe.

At the beginning of the Root of Evil, you’ll have the choice to play as either Death Jr. or Pandora, but if there’s another player itching to participate, two players can play through the game in a split-screen cooperative mode. Even though there are two playable characters, DJ and Pandora really don’t differ from each other in terms of basic capabilities. Both characters have a weapon they can use for to execute melee attacks and interact with various objects in the environment, such as zip lines, and both characters also have access to a variety of projectile weapons.

Unfortunately, Pandora and DJ only have one of these weapons at the start of the game, a Tommy Gun and dual pistols respectively. But as you progress through the game, you’ll find parts that can be used to assemble other weapons that are more powerful. Naturally, not all of these parts are on the main path through a level, so it pays off to take the time to explore a little bit. Also of interest is that these weapons are really easy to control via the Wii remote and nunchuk--aiming is as simple as pressing a single button and using the Wii remote to aim on the screen.

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Generally, all of the controls seem like they’ve been adapted pretty well from the PSP version. You can execute a variety of combinations by pressing the B button, move the camera around by pressing the + or - buttons, jump using the A button, and control movement through the analog stick on the nunchuk. Surprisingly, none of the basic actions are controlled through actual Wii remote gestures, but there are some special attacks that you can unlock that require some basic movements.

But perhaps the biggest improvement over the PSP version is the visual enhancement. While Root of Evil won’t get any awards for being the best-looking Wii game, having a little more detail in the environments and enemies certainly doesn’t hurt. So, if you missed out on the PSP version, you can rest easy knowing that you will be getting the definitive version of the game.

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The Wii controls are straightforward and easy to use.

You can also play as Pandora.

Splitscreen lets two players defeat the forces of Furi.