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Matt Hazard: Blood Bath & Beyond 360 Review - www.impulsegamer.com -

Gameplay 8.5
Graphics 9.0
Sound 8.0
Value 9.0
Distributor: Xbox Live/D3
Classification:
M
Review Date:
May 2010
Reviewer:
Mark Beresford

8.5


Matt Hazard: Blood Bath & Beyond

Side scrolling shooters are a lost art from, and back in the eighties there were a few key contenders battling it out for the dominate coin eater in the local milk bar, one of those contenders was Matt Hazard.

The plot to this title is pretty simple, you play Matt Hazard, a jive talkin bad ass who stomps on anything that gets in his was.........to.......do........anything...really. Though in this episode Hazards evil nemisis, General Neutronov, has reanimated all of Matt’s previously defeated enemies, to have a crack at destroying Hazard once again through various stages of Hazards past. So our hero does what any gun slinging camo clad muscle machine would do, he travels back through the past to beat them all again. So begins the fun.

With the story line firmly in place, you are now ‘allowed’ to recreate a classic title, using modern technology so to speak. Side scrolling your way around the now freshly rendered backdrops, you can take on all the classic enemies such as the red guys, the shirtless guys, and of course the samurai guys too, as well as the soon to be much loved killer penguins and mountie’s on robot mooses. Collecting weapons and body counts along the way, Matt will sass his way to the final stage and finally get a chance to save his former 8-bit self.

It’s a tough job trying to mess with something that so many people feel attached too, but D3 have done this job very carefully, and forgive me, but this is better than the original, yeah, I said it.

The levels are so greatly detailed with plush 3D building, sloping shadows with rich colours and textures and in your face enemies sprinting in from all directions, when you take out a soldier, their body goes in a ragdoll blast across the screen leaving a blood splatter on your plasmas pixels. The action is two dimensional at heart and three dimensional in body, it is truly great. As well as all that, you still have the attitude of Hazard that made him so popular back in the day, throwing one liners and wit to your speakers in between kills that actually propel you to take on as many enemies as you can find to see if you can get a fresh one liner for a giggle, and if MH’s smack talk doesn’t give you a laugh, the carefully placed references to various other videogames hidden throughout the game will always be good for one.

Again the game provides a great co-op experience that can be used both locally or online, though the online feature is nice, it doesn’t have the same impact as being able to enjoy the humour of this game with a mate on the couch.

Blood Bath & Beyond is a truly great addition to the Live Arcade and can be easily justified at only 1200 points. There is a great amount of replay ability in it and while there are still a few minor glitches the game will encounter, they take nothing away from the overall playing experience of this now revived classic. 






 
 



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