Death Jr. and the Science Fair of DOOM review

The Death Jr. games have a ton of potential thanks to a compelling cast. Sure, the Siamese twins joined at the head or quadruple-amputee kid aren't the hottest ideas, but the idea of the Grim Reaper's son and his gothy little crush Pandora dealing with the same problems as normal Jr. High kids sounds fun. Unfortunately, the world, dialogue and gameplay elements these characters are surrounded by always seem to come out unpolished and half-baked, as if the funding got a visit from Junior's old man halfway through development.

The game starts off with the titular Science Fair, at which two students' projects - a half-demon bunny and a tiny nuclear power plant - combine to create a gigantic mess. The whole school is zapped into a warped, demon-ized version of itself, most of the students are trapped in everyday objects like crates and flower pots, monsters sprout everywhere, Pandora's dead, and Death Jr's science fair exhibit - his dad's soul-harvesting scythe - has gone missing. "DJ" and Pandora's spirit set out to plow in old-school, side-scrolling fashion through four randomly-themed worlds to fix everything.