Freak Out
The first 3D title by renowned cult 2D
studio Treasure, Freak Out (or Stretch Panic, its more descriptive
American title) was released on PS2 in 2001. I got it as part of an Ebay bundle
for 99p. Freak Out is what happens when you get the idea of making a game after
binging on an entire family size bag of skittles, but have I stumbled across a
hidden gem here?
Freak
Out tells the tale of Linda, a girl
who’s bossed around and treated as a slave by her 12 vain older sisters because
she isn’t as fixated on her appearance as they are. It starts off as a Japanese
take on Cinderella, but this is where
things get weird. One day, a mysterious package is delivered to the sisters,
and when they open it, 12 demons come out and transform the sisters into
monsters. Because of her kind heart, Linda isn’t transformed. Instead, the 13th
demon attaches itself to her scarf, bringing it to life. With her new scarf,
Linda sets off to save her older sisters.
The main, and indeed only, mechanic you’ll
be making use of in Freak Out is
Linda’s scarf. It has the ability to grab onto objects and stretch them before
letting go. This can be used either to inflict damage to enemies, or on the
environment to catapult Linda onto higher ledges, which you might need to do as
she can’t jump otherwise. It’s a good idea, although it takes a while to get
used to moving Linda’s scarf independently of her and telling where the scarf
is. The camera is also pretty bad, since the right stick is used to control the
scarf and the lest stick is used for Linda, meaning camera movement is limited
to tapping L2 to centre it behind Linda. Even then, it’s slow moving, meaning
that it can be tough at times knowing where Linda is in relation to enemies.
The progression is similarly unorthodox.
The bulk of the game is a series of boss battles against each of Linda’s
sisters, like a primary coloured Shadow
of the Colossus. The catch is you need to use points to pay a toll before
attempting each battle, and to get those you’ll need to enter the EX levels.
These levels involve Linda EXploring (See what they did there?) an environment to
find enemies and defeat them to gain points. The enemies are all women with
enormous breasts, and they’re defeated by grabbing them with your scarf, with
points only being awarded for grabbing them from behind.
Yes, groping cartoon women is a game
mechanic. Japan isn’t exactly known for enlightened gender attitudes.
Most of the boss battles are fairly
similar, and involve grabbing the bosses with your scarf and stretching them
repeatedly, although some have weak points you can exploit to inflict more
damage and render them vulnerable. On the plus side, some of the bosses are
more unique in how they’re battled, such as the bipolar 2nd sister, who
switches between a good and evil form, and her minions must be thrown away from
her while she’s good, or they’ll attack Linda while the boss is evil, and the 10th
sister’s battle, in which Linda must protect a team of astronauts until they
shoot the boss, enabling Linda to damage her. The most inventive, and also
difficult, battle is the 9th sister, who takes the form of an unseen
horror movie monster and is defeated by grabbing and slamming doors in her face
while she’s trying to break them down. The bosses all look very distinct with a
unique theme, (The 5th sister is a satellite, the 8th
sister attacks with a Chain Chomp, the 11th sister is a Yamask-resembling
mummy that can summon sandstorms, and so on) so it’s a shame that not all their
battles benefit from the same imagination, since they form the core of the
game.
You may think that there wouldn’t be
much to a game that’s 90% boss battles, and unfortunately you would be correct.
It quickly becomes clear that the EX levels and point collecting are only there
to pad out what would otherwise be a very short game. You can unlock new
battles by defeating each sister, but if you want to complete the game, you’ll
have to use the scarf bomb attack to exorcise the demons possessing the sisters.
This ability can be used while grabbing a boss to create two more scarf arms
that grab the boss and once all three arms are attached, shaking them around
frantically will deal massive damage to the boss, as well as cause an explosion
that removes the demon and turns the sister back to normal after the battle.
The catch is that this ability costs 5 points per use, which means more points
and thus more padding, which really should not be the case.
Freak
Out is a neat concept, but that’s all
it is. There’s no fleshing out of the mechanics or more creative uses of the
scarf. Why not have puzzles that involve carrying items around, or pushing and
pulling? Why not have more traversal mechanism, such as using the scarf to
climb up walls or hang from ledges safely? There’s a lot more that could have
been done with the idea, but it’s sadly wasted. At least the game was cheap.
Graphics: 6 Bright and colourful, if blocky. They do the job.
Sound: 5 A generic soundtrack with nothing standing out in either a
good or bad way.
Gameplay: 5 The skeleton of a good game is here, but there’s no meat on the
bones.
Lifespan: 3 Without grinding for points, you could beat it within an hour. Even
with grinding, it only lasts 2-3 hours.
Overall: A bizarre curiosity that will
almost certainly be one of the strangest games you come across. It’s definitely
original, but originality alone isn’t enough to carry it.
5/10
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