Derrick the Deathfin (PS3)
Derrick the Deathfin made me realize how odd it is more games don’t try and embrace the digitized papercraft angle. It’s easier to produce than claymation assets, it lends itself to a distinct aesthetic, and if your game doesn’t require many heavily animated models, it doesn’t come with the same compromises other methods of adapting game graphics from real life reference materials often have.
The cute and colorful world created from paper for this PS3 title looks great, and even though Derrick the Deathfin is a game that takes place mostly underwater, the development team managed to constantly provide new visual styles. It helps that many of the areas Derrick explores have areas that were clearly above water at some point, the player coming across things like a flooded New York City and a Canadian forest that’s now mostly underwater, but there are areas that focus on more traditional aquatic environments as well. The use of color is especially exceptional, polluted waters having a harsh industrial feel to them, certain areas of the planet having appropriately warm or cold colors to match, and even your most basic levels usually have fairly pronounced colors or interesting designs that lean into the paper style like having cardboard covered in appropriate patterns. While Derrick the Deathfin won’t be wowing you with something gorgeous, the creativity on show couples well with the papercraft style, blocky cartoon characters inhabiting places with bright and often silly backdrops giving it a clear art direction that doesn’t feel like it was hindered at all by the choice to make the game out of real world crafts.
As for what our paper shark is up to in his self-titled adventure, Derrick is spurred to action when his parents are scooped up and turned to soup by the over the top pollution-loving M.E.A.N. corporation. Tearing down such a megalithic company turns out to be quite the task, the tiny shark having to go on a global tour to exact his revenge by destroying their many oceanic enterprises. The game is almost cynically goofy, from the fish on the loading screens with their sometimes bitter, sometimes silly quotes to the fact that M.E.A.N. just has a giant aerosol can sitting in the arctic to try and melt it faster, the game never gets outright grim but a lot of the imagery is more lighthearted satire than anything actually dour. Derrick is facing off with an adversary on the level of a Captain Planet villain in a world that seems to be both submerged under rising water levels but not exactly in dire straits for it, plenty of people swimming around without a care and the wildlife making due. You’re certainly not meant to think too deeply about it, most of the experience meant to be a goofy game about eating everything in your shark’s path to get to the goal.
In most levels of Derrick the Deathfin there is a fairly interesting approach to health. Derrick is limited by a meter that is one part health bar and one part timer. If he goes too long without snacking on some sea life, his meter will drain down to dangerous levels, the player dying if they can’t grab a snack quickly enough to keep his hunger at bay. The gradual decline is accounted for in the level design, many small patches of edible aquatic life existing between the moments of more involved action and navigation, but if you encounter some of the undersea life that can fight back like the piranhas and gators, they can reduce your hunger bar with their attacks. While this is definitely an interesting approach to life and time limits, it also has a small negative impact on the pace of the game. Most of the levels with this meter have a few goals that go towards unlocking new stages. Leaping through the burning tires is the most important one, but since these are hovering above the water and the sidescrolling camera is locked pretty close to Derrick’s position, it can take a few tries to fly through them or angle the jump right. Anything that takes a few tries or a good degree of time will inevitably mean you have to break away and find food to continue, the stop and start of completing objectives and keeping yourself well fed not really a good fit for levels that are often focused on forward progression. Luckily, another one of the goals is not hampered by this aspect, Derrick’s consumption of special pink gems actually filling his life bar while they’re being gathered. The last and most optional objective is scoring high in a stage, medals awarded if you take the time to pretty much chomp down any consumable creature you can find in the stage.
Most of the game’s levels focus on the collection aspects, but needing to baby your hunger meter keeps you from fully enjoying some of the more creative moments like a stage that begins with a long drop from the sky, taking loop de loops after eating a chili pepper, or working your way through an underwater labyrinth. On the other hand, when you find an area flush with things to eat, going on a little rampage can certainly be satisfying, especially when the area has consumable items that will make your shark move around the screen at incredible speeds. There is definitely some interesting stage design even if you sometimes can’t appreciate it to its fullest due to the time pressure, but the game also knows that it needs to place plenty of fish near its hardest moments. The game has a few boss fights, and while these mostly take the form of giant creatures like a stingray, orca, or swordfish that you need to ram in their weak spots a few times as they perform looping patrols, they do pose a danger that asks you to manage the food refills in the immediate area.
There are some interesting deviations to be found though where the game drops the health gimmick for a few levels in a different style. Some levels are simply speed challenges, the goal being to get Derrick to the finish line as fast as you can. While you can continue so long as you successfully complete the stage, going for a gold medal requires excellent movement in stages where spaces are much tighter and speed boosts must be grabbed to make good time. While Derrick isn’t always the best at jumping out of the water due to camera positioning and the space provided for building up speed, that small issue with the collection levels is gone in stages where it’s almost entirely about moving forward with a degree of swimming control that is up to the task. The other design shake-up appears when you find one of M.E.A.N.’s work sites. Derrick no longer has any outside pressures in these stages, now unconcerned with feeding as he needs to figure out how to destroy the oil drill, gigantic aerosol can, and other polluting properties. These are basically puzzle levels, although some can feel a bit more like minigames such as the one that almost feels like curling with underwater mines. Both of these alternate level types aren’t too fleshed out, but they are a good break from the collection levels that help alleviate the constant pressure to keep well fed elsewhere.
THE VERDICT: The papercraft look of Derrick the Deathfin is a triumph of digitizing real world assets into interactive game elements, the game a perfect fit for it due to its underwater setting not requiring complex animation. The stages get to have distinct and varied looks thanks to this, but this silly and stylish underwater adventure can feel a bit rough to play at times. The hunger meter breaks the pace up too often with its demands and doesn’t gel well with some goals like leaping out of the water to pass through the flaming tires, and while boss battles, speed challenges, and the puzzle stages break things up enough for that to avoid being a constant overbearing pressure, the majority of levels do feel held back by the need to stop engaging with the level design for required snack breaks.
And so, I give Derrick the Deathfin for PlayStation 3…
An OKAY rating. Rather than getting to appreciate every part of the game, Derrick the Deathfin feels a bit like being yanked around the museum by a child always eager to see the next thing and willing to make things difficult for you if you don’t progress at their pace. To extend the simile further, the levels without the hunger meter management are like the areas the kid is willing to stop at and allow you to get your fill of the exhibit, and there are definitely things in this museum metaphor that you don’t need too much time to properly enjoy. Breaking away from it though, little things like the aggressive aquatic life and little quibbles with setting up your leaps out of the water end up a bit more frustrating because they are tied to a constantly depleting meter rather than something you could more effectively manage. A greater degree of leniency could help, something more like the oxygen meter in Ecco the Dolphin where you are able to appreciate an area before you have to dip out to avoid an untimely demise, and hazards could be made more dangerous to compensate if the worry is things would be too easy without the constant need to feed.
For the most part though, Derrick the Deathfin feels like it has a lot of fun being what it is. The papercraft art is great to look at, embracing your inner shark can be pretty satisfying, and some levels definitely embrace unique themes and concepts for a game that could have just been a lot of swimming around underwater. Some limitations make it a bit harder to get into what it’s doing well though, but even though you don’t have the time to stop and smell all the paper flowers, Derrick the Deathfin is still a fairly fun little title that doesn’t get frustrating despite its little failings.