Originally Published: August 30, 2011, on EGMNOW.COM

Publisher: 345 Games
Developer: Backbone Entertainment
Platforms: XBLA, PSN

Release: 08.30.11

Players: Single Player, 2-4-player local and online co-op

ESRB Rating: M – Mature

The Good: Fans of the show will be laughing from the opening cut scene to the end credits
The Bad: Camera angle makes aiming difficult, game play can be repetitive
The Ugly: Huge steaming piles of manbird droppings

Based on Comedy Central’s hit TV show, Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon is an original adventure featuring all your favorite characters from the cartoon. You choose to play as series protagonist Mark Lilly, his girlfriend Callie Maggotbone, bumbling wizard Leonard Powers, or the D.O.I.’s top cop, Frank Grimes. Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses, but the game features an RPG leveling-up system that can help balance them all out or really stress those advantages depending on your play style. After making your character decision, you’ll grab yourself a BSU 2000 (Blow Sh*t Up 2000, Frank’s newest toy that allows you to stick whatever isn’t bolted down into the chamber and fire it as a projectile) and start getting down to the bottom of all the trouble in New York City.

The first thing you’ll immediately notice is the game went with a less traditional side-scrolling view instead of the ceiling down view seen in most other dual joystick arcade style shooters. This was meant to try to give the gamer more of a sense as if they were watching an episode of the TV show, but it is a little difficult to get used to at first, especially in terms of aiming your BSU 2000 at the various manbirds, zombies, and demons you’ll come across. Some items have a spray effect where the aiming difficulty doesn’t seem as obvious, but with a lot of other projectiles, like the boomeranging hammer or arcing crystal ball, misjudging the aim can get tedious fast.

The game does do a lot of things right though, especially in the presentation. If you’re a fan of the show, you’ll love the fact that all the voice actors reprise their roles in the game and there is more than 20 minutes of original animation and dialogue in cut scenes, meaning that the game is just dripping with the humor that makes the show itself great and has enough animation for a stand alone episode by itself. The best part probably comes from being able to play the game with friends locally or online though as it helps to break up the redundancy that is typical of most arcade shooters.

All in all, the question you have to ask yourself is ‘are a fan of the show or not’. If so, the writing and animation will outshine the minor game play annoyances and is definitely worth your $10. If not, you may want to avoid this as knowing the show seems critical to your overall enjoyment of the game.

Score: 7.5