High school reunions are always risky. You wanna have a good time and relive the glory days but often things go horribly wrong in one way or another. You know, the star quarterback got fat, the prom queen became a strung out meth addict/hooker, the geek the girls rejected is now the best looking guy at the party and owns his own company; stuff like that. Stuff like that makes for the good parties – every once in a while your small hometown just happens to get overrun by monsters that night and all you wanna do is live to see another sunrise. Suddenly you remember exactly why you left this place.
Formerly known as Obscure, Final Exam is a 2.5-D beat ‘em up with looks similar to titles like ‘Splosion Man and similar in style to arcade classics like The Simpsons and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. You pick from four characters, each with their own strengths:
- Brutal Joe – the group behemoth, no unlike Final Fight’s Haggar
- Cassy – the balanced character, she is good at hand to hand and long range attacks
- Nathan – can take a lot of damage and is an explosions specialist
- Sean – firearms specialist, best at long range attacks but can mix it up close if needed
Final Exam’s characters will make many references to old high school movies from the 80s and old arcade games. You can also see from the screenshots that the game borrows from others in terms of play styles. Hub defense, shooting into the background, special attacks and item collection are just a few of the things you will be doing in the game. With two-player local, four-player online co-op, this is looking like another must have for PSN and XBLA fans although PC fans will probably make the most of it with mods. As of yet, there is no announced release date, but Final Exam is set to be available this year. Stay tuned.
