The Evil Dead films are some of my favorites of all time. They are literally what made me want to get into filmmaking when I was a kid. Watching Ash carve up deadites during Army of Darkness on the big screen is one of my fondest childhood memories.

Also being a child of video games, I wished they would somehow convert these films into a playable form on my consoles.

Eventually, I got my wish, in the form of Dreamcast’s Evil Dead: Hail to the King. And it was…OK. More Resident Evil rip-off than anything else, it kind of continued the story from the film, but wonky controls and terrible camera angles made it flop. If we’re going to call a spade a spade, the game sucked. But, being a huge fan of the films, I didn’t care. I paid my hard earned cash to get a chance to kick some Deadite ass as my favorite chainsaw welding anti-hero. Disappointed? Sure. But, it satisfied a need, and I thought that would be the end of it.

Thankfully, a few years later, it was announced that Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick would soon be gracing our X-Boxes. And I couldn’t have been happier.

Hail to the King, baby.

THQ learned their lesson the first time around, and was ready to show the world that Ash can still kick ass. And show they did. The game was a HUGE improvement over the last installment, and it shines in every way. Frankly, it still does.

The story picks up where the last game left off…sort of. In the true Evil Dead tradition, the story is changed juuuust slightly to make the sequel feasible. At the beginning of this game, a local TV show hostess, and her guest, unknowingly play the infamous Professor Knowby recording, reading passages from the Book of the Dead over the airwaves.

Of course, this opens a portal to another world, as it often does, and Deadites spill our world. They begin to run amok in the town, taking it over in a matter of minutes. And the only person who can save the world, again, is Ash.

I have to admit, I was a little hesitant revisiting this game, as I had not played it since it first came out in 2003. I beat it within a few days, and then a second time a year later…before shelving it indefinitely. That is, until just recently, when I re-discovered the disc while moving to a new place. I decided to pop it into the ol’ X-Box, and see how it held up.

Surprisingly…it still did. For me, anyway.

First off, for a value title on the first generation X-Box, the graphics are great. No longer are you restrained to Resident Evil-like, pre-rendered backgrounds, with massive load times between each screen. The town of Dearborn is a living, breathing environment.

In each level, you are allowed to wander the town at will, giving the game a sort of “sandbox” feel that is oh-so popular these days. The game is based on the State of Emergency (a Grand Theft Auto clone) engine, but with a little bit of overhaul.

Who wants some?

Unfortunately, Ash still doesn’t look like Bruce Campbell in this game…but he looks damn close. That said, the Deadites are nicely portrayed. Human Deadites are shown as zombie-like creatures, with rotting flesh and their clothes barely hanging on to them. The more advanced Deadites, such as the Slavelords and the Warriors, look pretty damned evil as well.

True to its film roots, the game takes place across multiple time periods. Ash will be traveling to a few different eras, and then an alternate “present-day” Dearborn, given the game a sort of Back to the Future feel as well. Each time period is really conveyed nicely. The basic layout of Dearborn is the same each time around, but the designers really paid attention to details, giving each level its own look and feel. Some research went on here, and I applaud them on their work.

The sound still holds up pretty nicely, as well. The music is your basic ambient stuff, but it set a certain mood for the game that fit quite nicely. Of course, why listen to the music when you have Ash to keep you company? Bruce Campbell does a fantastic job again voicing Ash. His one liners are STILL as witty as ever. Every time he opens his mouth, I’d pretty much laugh. I also commend the other voice actors on a job well done.

The writers deserve a special shout out as well, but everything is written with the target audience in mind. The dialogue in the cut scenes are very funny, and kept the game refreshing. It felt like watching another Evil Dead film, which to me, is the perfect way to go about it.

On top of that, the fact that they assigned one of the controller’s buttons whose entire function was to taunt with enemies with is a genius idea. Since Ash is known for his razor sharp wit, being able to hear him say something anytime you want is a great addition to the overall feel of the game.

The gameplay is much better then Hail to the King, as well. You can control two weapons at once; the right hand is for your chainsaw (with various upgrades, such as the Gatling gun or flamethrower you pick up along the way), and your left hand is pretty much for anything else you can imagine. Boomsticks, dynamite, shovels…you name it, Ash probably uses it. Weapons are selected easily using the controller’s top buttons for each hand.

The targeting system makes it easier to get a Deadite in your sights, and focus on taking him out. This comes in handy when you’re fighting just a few Deadites. However, if they begin to swarm you (which they will, TRUST me…you can have up to 30 Deadites at once attack you), targeting doesn’t work as well. That’s one of the few downfalls of the game, though.

As I mentioned before, there is a taunt button, which can be used to attack your foes with clever lines of dialogue. A block button is also included, but unfortunately for me, I didn’t realize this until halfway through the game. And thinking about it, I’m pretty sure I didn’t use it the FIRST time I played the game, either. Once I DID remember what it was for, it came in handy when Deadites overwhelmed me.

The spell casting system was a new, but welcome, addition to the game, as well. Along his journey, Ash finds certain magic spells which can be used to aid him in his quest. Using the spells is easy: just a quick combination of buttons in the right order, and voila! The thing I enjoyed the most about spell casting is possession. You know the “force” that chases Ash in the films, but we never get to see exactly what it is? Well, now you can BE the force to possess certain Deadites, and use them however you please. Just make sure you have enough manna to cast the spell you wish to use!

The left analog stick controls your movement, whilst the right analog stick controls the camera. Very useful when you want to see around a corner without exposing yourself to attack.

The only thing that I was a bit disappointed about was the boss battles. Most of the time, if you know what you’re doing, you can walk away from them without even losing any health. Especially compared to today’s games, these were a snooze. Though they looked cool, the bosses didn’t put up much of a challenge. I thought some bosses were easier than some of the Deadites in the game!

Also included on the disc is an arcade mode, where you can test your skills in certain challenges from the levels you have already beaten. Also, there is a “making of” featurtette video with the game designers and Bruce Campbell himself, which is pretty neat to see what “ground-breaking video game design” was at the time.

In all, I’m still impressed with A Fistful of Boomstick. THQ redeemed itself, and the Evil Dead license, with this title. You don’t have to be a fan of the movies to enjoy the game (though that obviously helps). My 12 year old son, who has only seen Army of Darkness, liked it enough to want to play the NEXT game in this series (but that’s an article for another day).

It’s still a bad ass action adventure, no matter how you look at it, nor how old it is. Considering this was originally sold for $20, it was a damn good deal for a kick ass game. If you still have an X-Box or PS2 lying around, try getting a hold of a copy. You won’t be disappointed!