The Last Kids on Earth and the Staff of Doom (PS4)

Note: This review contains spoilers for The Last Kids on Earth.

Over the last year or so, I’ve become a big fan of The Last Kids on Earth (TLKOE), a Middle Grade series by Max Brallier that provides a lighthearted take on the zombie apocalypse and elements of cosmic horror. Thanks to my local library, I got hooked on the book series, which gave me a greater interest in watching the animated Netflix adaptation (through the DVDs, since I don’t have a Netflix account). During my journey through TLKOE, I also learned that the animated series, which Netflix sadly canceled after three seasons and a special, received a tie-in video game, The Last Kids on Earth and the Staff of Doom (Staff of Doom), developed by Stage Clear Studios and published by Outright Games in 2021.

While I would love to give more meta information about the game here, I unfortunately cannot. There are no articles about it apart from press releases, a handful of reviews or whatever is available on the publisher’s website. All I know for sure is that the developer’s games have received positive reviews on Steam, though I can’t personally vouch for the quality, that Outright Games has a track record of publishing at least somewhat decent licensed games and that Staff of Doom has a rather mixed reception from what few user reviews I saw before diving in. The only other thing I can say for sure is that I sure am glad I only paid $9 for a used copy instead of the full $30 for a new one.

Jack Sullivan, Quint Baker, June Del Toro and Dirk Savage, the titular “Last Kids on Earth”, have learned that Bardle has found an amulet within their town of Wakefield, Massachusetts. As he shows it to them, Malondre, a servant of Ŗeżżőcħ the Ancient, Destructor of Worlds, attempts to steal it, but breaks it instead. The kids must now retrieve the four pieces of the amulet before Malondre, Queen of the Slime Monsters, can reconstruct the eponymous Staff of Doom, which would have the power to bring Ŗeżżőcħ into their dimension.

It’s worth noting that Staff of Doom isn’t adapting any particular TLKOE story and instead goes for something original. This by itself isn’t a bad thing, as licensed games can certainly try their hand at original material, so long as it’s within the same spirit as the source material. In this case, it’s a decent entry, introducing the new villain Malondre the only way it conceivably could, by making her a servant of Ŗeżżőcħ, without contradicting the books or the show from which this clearly takes more inspiration. Fans of the show may enjoy the return of not only their favorite lead, but also certain monsters, including those original to the adaptation, or that the game confirms certain names. The writing also has the same humor that fans have come to expect form the series.

Speaking as someone who has fully caught up with the series in both forms, however, I can’t help finding myself a little confused and even disappointed. The story as-is is rather barebones and largely told through either barely animated motion comic style cutscenes, which often go out of sync, or silent in-engine dialogue exchanges. Players only get the absolute bare minimum information about Malondre compared to the other villains in the series, which makes her come off rather one-dimensional (we don’t even get a voice unless you count Jack’s narration). Then there’s the timeline, as the kids act like they already fought the monster Meathook, who they wouldn’t actually fight until the fourth book, The Last Kids on Earth and the Cosmic Beyond, which suggests it would have taken place after the canceled fourth season of the show, but before a hypothetical fifth season, which would have adapted The Last Kids on Earth and the Midnight Blade, potentially confusing show-only fans. Worse, right after properly fighting Meathook, the game plops the player in the last part of the game, which takes place in Funland (though they can still return to the Town Square (more on that later)) and leads to a rather rushed conclusion where Malondre herself isn’t even fought directly, rather the game puts the player through a mini boss rush that ends with Malondre getting defeated indirectly.

While I didn’t have the highest expectations for a licensed game aimed at an audience younger than myself, I did still wish we had gotten a more substantial story, or at least something more than just a motivator. This criticism may not matter for many players, particularly those of the target demographic, but I thought it fell short compared with the source material. It would have helped though if the ending didn’t feel rather anticlimactic (not even a Credits roll).

As advertised, players can go through the campaign and explore Wakefield as any of the four kids, Jack, Quint, June or Dirk, when starting a new game or loading a save (Jack is selected by default). If you decide you want to play as someone else, however, you can easily change characters at a conveniently-placed Character Swapper.

Fighting through the infestations of zombies and monsters is rather easy thanks to a simple control scheme. Light attacks are only a button press away, as are heavy attacks, though players can hold the light attack button for a continuous attack while heavy attacks, as well as dodge rolls, drain stamina with each use. You can also lock onto enemies to more easily target one with a specific attack or get around them and every kid can throw grenades for extra damage, though they can only hold five at a time (the kids otherwise have infinite ammo). Choosing a certain kid also has an effect on gameplay, as they not only give their weapons and grenades unique properties, but can summon a different ally for special attacks and effects (though you must refill the Summoning gauge afterwards by defeating enemies). Depending on the combat zone you’re in, you can also harm enemies with environmental obstacles and hazards.

A sample of combat.

While Staff of Doom has pretty standard Action RPG elements at its core, including leveling up to Level 15 by gaining XP from defeated enemies, I appreciated the amount of flavor included for the license. Eating pizza restores health. Destroying objects and opening chests grants Scrap or other resources, since Quint is a tinkerer and inventor. Dungeons are various abandoned buildings and defeating enemies adds them to a Bestiary based on Quint’s from Book Two of the show (based on The Last Kids on Earth and the Zombie Parade). Due to Wakefield’s size, you can also Fast Travel between locations with the help of Wormungulous, or even return to the Town Square (more on that later) at any time by holding Down. Destroying white seeds on certain “vine-thingies” will also open up shortcuts that make exploration much easier on a return trip. Though not particularly flavorful, you may also need to follow wires so you can find levers that open doors.

Exploring Wakefield on foot can take a long time due to the kids’ movement speeds, so it’s fortunate that in most outdoor areas, you can call for their trusty truck Big Mama at any Big Mama Station (provided there are no obstacles in the way). Big Mama has some utility outside of a quick travel option, as you can still mow down zombies or destroy objects and still get Scrap for doing so. While driving, your health meter is replaced with a similar-looking one for Big Mama, which will deplete as it takes damage until it explodes, though you don’t die if it does and you can always summon Big Mama again afterwards. You can still extend Big Mama’s life, however, and repair it by driving through Wrenches. There’s also an extra use for Scrap, as you can upgrade Big Mama’s Turrets for extra attack power. Plus, if that wasn’t enough, each area has a Big Mama Challenge that you can complete, which involves collecting all of the red bolts that spawn in a path before time runs out.

In the center of Wakefield is the Town Square, which you’ll become very familiar with, as it’s where you’ll get to talk to NPCs for the purpose of either furthering the story or taking on Quests. You upgrade Big Mama through a shopkeeper, though the process feels a bit anticlimactic. Of course, you’ll likely return to the Town Square often to interact with the Treehouse, where you can spend Scrap on constructing objects with the Blueprints you’ve obtained, either from Quests or out in the wild, or upgrading your stockpile of weapons, armor and turrets. Upgrading the Treehouse itself will also let you upgrade everything to a higher level (I actually prioritized spending Scrap on the Treehouse for this reason).

At certain parts in the story, while in the Town Square, you’ll also engage in a Zombie Assault mode. Zombie Assault plays out like a light Tower Defense sequence (or perhaps like a Horde Mode if the store pages are anything to go by) where zombies will come towards the treehouse down three lanes in three waves (the game doesn’t indicate which wave you’re currently on). You defend the Treehouse by placing up to three turrets in front of it, which you can mix and match and will all automatically attack incoming zombies, but you can also attack the zombies yourself. Each turret also has their own strengths and weaknesses, though it didn’t take long for me to land on a formation I used for every subsequent Zombie Assault. As far as I could tell, there is no way to initiate Zombie Assault outside of the pre-determined points in the game (though I could be wrong and just didn't figure it out).

Is this the "Horde Mode" they meant?

One major feature of Staff of Doom, of course, is its co-op functionality. Up to four players, each playing as one of the four kids, can explore Wakefield and complete Quests together. While this can make the game more fun, the game does a poor job of explaining how it works. First of all, players are restricted by an invisible tether and can’t go off in different directions to do their own thing. As such, it takes some coordination for players to stay on the same page. Second, while Big Mama has its own Turrets, the game neglects to mention that this feature only works in a co-op session. Since the game doesn’t explain any of the controls, and there are no text guides for this game to speak of (at least not any I’m aware of) I worked it out on my own based on what little info the game itself provides (controls based on PS4 version):

1) Players can take different positions in Big Mama between the Driver and the Gunner. No matter which of the four doors the first player enters from, they will automatically be the Driver. After that, each other player becomes a Gunner operating the turret of whichever door they entered from.

2) If you’re in the Gunner position, you aim the Turret with the left stick and have two available attacks, each with their own gauge. The top gauge is your regular Attack and will drain as you hold down Square. The bottom gauge is your Special Attack (going off what the Field Manual says) and drains as you hold L2.

This page in particular isn't very helpful.

 

The last thing prospective co-op players need to know is that for whatever reason, all progression is tied to Player 1. If Player 1 has leveled up, all characters will level up as well (dramatically reducing potential grinding) and Player 2-4 will also have access to any Blueprint obtained by Player 1 on any previous session. I say Blueprint and not weapon because, unfortunately, weapon progress does not persist between sessions for Player 2-4, only Player 1. This means that if you start another co-op session, Player 2-4 will once again have to spend Scrap on unlocking a weapon from the Blueprint and then upgrade their weapon(s) of choice all over again. Such a system is sure to lead to a lot of heartbreak if playing with younger children who get invested in their favorite character.

Only one player can play as any one kid at a time.

This isn’t the only disappointment, however, as there are multiple choices and issues that I ran into that mar the experience and hold the game back from greatness. Admittedly, some things are less game breaking than others, but I’ll still mention them anyway for the sake of being thorough.

Regarding Dungeons, entrances and exits don’t necessarily line up between the inside and the outside. Entering and exiting one can not only reset progress on part of a story Quest, but will also despawn Big Mama. That last point is more important, as this potentially means walking a long distance just to try and spawn Big Mama again.

Opening and closing the inventory, which operates in real time, will remove your current armor for whatever reason unless you hover over your desired armor first. Although you swap weapons and armor through the inventory, the game doesn’t tell you that you can also swap weapons with the d-pad (I also ran into a visual bug this way where the weapon shown and the weapon equipped are out of sync, which can cause you to scroll to a blank space to equip the weapon you want). Other things the game won’t tell you are that you can destroy objects by rolling into them and that you must switch to each character individually to unlock Blueprints and level up their associated weapons, as well as the fact that you can cancel the initial game start by pressing X or Circle in case you want to change characters first. The minimap is also rather small and while you can see a full map, it has no zoom function and all of the icons are pretty close together, plus you can only view four Quests at a time even though the game lets you take on more than four at once (in my experience, it didn’t register accepting a fifth). For whatever reason, dismissing screens with X will also activate the heavy attack and drain Stamina.

That’s not to mention the bugs I ran into. A couple of them are harmless like a specific fence in front of a specific house, as well as a specific chest, lacking collision. One Dungeon in District 4.2 – Funland even features a pointless switch, as its associated door was already open. Then there’s the fact that when you flip a switch, the pan to the associated door can show you blank parts of the map (you can still take damage during these pans, which caught me off guard). Not so harmless, however, are the crashes I witnessed. Throughout my entire playthrough, the game crashed on me six times. One of these occurred during a mission in District 4.1 – Funland Entrance where I had to flip switches. I worried that I would have to start the entire lengthy mission all over again, but once I got back in, the mission registered as mostly complete when I Continued my save. I did run into other bugs, like Jack gliding across the ground instead of walking and accessing a part of the map you clearly weren’t meant to, but these were the most notable to me.

And now, a glitch compilation.

What are those health bars attached to?

I don't even know what number it's trying to display.

These Big Mama screens here are more of a sign of a rush job.

Judging by the black space in the minimap, you're not even supposed to
be here (I have video, but it exceeded Blogger's limits).

One of these looks off.

Two small nitpicks are that any areas that advance when you “Defeat all enemies X/Y” usually spawn more enemies than required to advance, which means you could be left running from a larger enemy like a Dozer, and that fighting zombies as regular enemies, while thematically appropriate, felt odd considering the kids actively go out of their way to not harm the zombies in the books and show.

Not so small a matter is that the game feels very repetitive. Yes, you do face new types of enemies and hazards as the game progresses, including the eventual introduction of Slime monsters, but the core gameplay loop hardly changes from when you find the first piece of the Amulet. Even when the game changes up the environments or throws a new type of boss at you, you didn’t do much of anything different to get to that point. Progression almost always involves mowing down groups of enemies and getting past obstacles by flipping switches while completing other Quests usually involves some amount of backtracking and either retrieving an item or defeating a group of enemies. Although I did complete the game, I was mostly driven by my love for the license and that it had only just enough variety to not make me quit out of boredom. I don’t know how much of what I felt has to do with the fact I’m a thirty-one-year-old man talking about a game aimed at children, but it’s still something for parents or older fans to consider.

Since Staff of Doom is based more on the Netflix series, I appreciated that it translated the art style to 3D pretty well and that it had the same voice actors from the show. I also liked that the game included a Field Manual that helps explain the game, especially useful for younger players, even if it’s imperfect. That said, I ran into issues where the cutscene audio and video were noticeably out of sync and the Controller Disconnect popup was in Spanish even though I had selected the English language option. Then there’s the occasional water texture pop-in and the occasional invisible Quest marker, not to mention the very limited dialogue pools and the relative lack of variety in the soundtrack. The only reason I remembered certain tracks wasn’t necessarily because I liked them but because I heard them on a continuous loop for hours on end.

As a big fan of The Last Kids on Earth, it’s hard to recommend The Staff of Doom except to big fans of the Netflix series. Fans of the books may get a kick out of seeing certain weapons from future books make an appearance, as well as a glimpse as what could have happened if the show got a Book Four. Otherwise, there’s nothing here that would attract anyone outside of the core audience and what we did get is a neat, but glitchy and very repetitive mess. If you’re still interested in playing this game anyway, I would highly advise waiting for a sale.