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PlayStation 2 » Reviews » Review
Britney vs. the
Music! In the Zone
An
IGN Exclusive Preview of the new game that has everybody
chic-a-ta and preparing to take you on in only moments.
November 25th 2003- In pop culture, there's a fine line
between omnipresence and overexposure, and it can
turn in seconds. That's why we were shocked when THQ
announced the acquisition of the Britney Spears license
and subsequent game release at this year's E3. Fans were
upset that THQ had no wrestling game to offer at the
show, instead choosing to only show their new WWE game at
the H3 show this year, where it was promptly buried. The
skeptics were quickly hushed when THQ debuted a running
model of the Britney Spears game engine, which featured
one-hundred Britney Spears clones running in circles,
posing, and dancing. A few moments later the crowd
realized that someone had just turned the giant
television screen to MTV.
So what is all this hullabaloo half way to palooka about
the Britney Spears game? On paper, nothing much has
changed since the game was seen at E3 in May. In reality,
it's almost like an entirely different game. If you
remember our E3 coverage, players take on the role of Psi
hero Nick Scyer. Scyer, in essence, is a man who's
capable of using Psi powers to the fullest, and in his
role as a government agent his multiple strengths are
used for defeating criminal organizations as well as
infiltrating rogue governments from the inside out.
Britney Spears would appear pixelized on the menu screen
while a MIDI of Baby One More Time played. The game was
even covered on cable channel G4, to the masturbatory
delight of America. But gay viewers and many people on
Starcade fan listings noticed that the game had nothing
to do with Britney, and was closer to every other game
made in the last ten years. It followed behind a guy who
has a gun in a 3D environment where he must collect
something/kill something/find something. Is there no
middle ground between Doom and Monster Rancher? No safe
haven of sanity between Animal Crossing and
Splatterhouse?
THQ and Britney's spokespeople went back to the drawing
board and rebuilt the pop princess artificially from
scratch (ho ho). It took four animation teams of thirty
top artists five years to capture every nuance of the
singer. In fact, two young lovers lost their lives trying
to motion capture Britney sitting in a dressing room with
her fingers in her mouth talking about how long it's been
since the last time she kissed a boy. Their tombstones
are made out of sparkly beads, and light up whenever
anyone dances near them.
Britney's Box
Handcrafted to be the best
fighting game since "Capcom vs. Absolute
Entertainment," Britney vs. the Music! In the Zone
allows you to select the hyper-tanned hillbilless in an
attempt to destroy all semblance of decent music. In the
"Overprotected" Story Mode, Britney battles
musical instruments, a little boy dressed as a cello,
R&B word no-goodnik Musiq Soulchild, WWE champion
Brock Lesnar, and classic musical superstars like the
Liberty Bell.
Players who sampled the game at E3 said the gameplay and
hit detection were an improvement over Cvs.AE, but they
missed the ability to feed the Blob a popcorn jellybean
and turn him into a flaming ball of excrement. But the
song "Lucky" is included on the soundtrack,
which is close enough.
As you may know, Britney vs. the Music! In the Zone is the first video game single released in the United States, following up on the overseas success of Christina Aguilera's "Mi Reflejo vs. Battletoads." The game is also an unofficial sequel to the Atari 2600 classic "Madonna presents NBA Arch Rivals!"
Madonna presents NBA Arch Rivals!
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