Quick Review: Daria's Inferno

My apologies if this ends up being a duplicate posting, I did the first one from work and still haven't seen it.

I know some of you were wondering if you should buy this game, so I figured I'd give a quick review after getting it, playing it, and beating it in about an hour Monday night.

Spoiler space ahead, in case it applies to people who don't want to hear about games before they buy 'em... :)

Daria's Inferno, much like Star Trek: Borg before it, lives up to Simon and Shuster Interactive's apparent credo of: "Give them an easy, interactive episode to entertain them once or twice". If you missed Borg, it involved about 2 hours of playing time that could be watched as a ~40 minute "movie" when you were finished. Here, this is compressed for the MTV generation as about 1 hour of playing time for ~20 minutes of actual material. Guess they didn't want to worry about the second CD.

Graphics in the game are about what you'd expect from a 2D animation heroine - although the backgrounds in the "cut scenes" noticeably lack detail, and the repetitive reuse of Trent for level transitions gets annoying. There's only about 20 minutes of material on this CD, couldn't they at least put a change in there?

Gameplay is, well.... insulting to Daria fans. This CD is marked as rated for teenagers 13+. Most Daria fans I've seen on the net are between 15 and 45 (I'm almost 30). The mind set needed for this game to be an actual puzzle would be about 5, however. Every object in the game has a use, but there are only about 30 total objects, almost all of which you literally CAN NOT miss. If their use weren't extremely obvious already (what would you try to do first with a garage door opener with a garage nearby, for example?) - the Sick Sad World segments spell it completely out for you. Kevin Thompson could beat this game in a day.

I must admit that there is one challenge however -- not getting so irritated at the interface that you use the CD as a frisbee. Movement of Daria is controlled with either the keyboard arrow keys (with _no_ use of diagonals on the keypad) or the mouse. Unfortunately, application of items on "irritants" aka enemies is _also_ with the same mouse button. Miss by a pixel and you walk straight into what you were trying to negate. I guess this was needed for the Mac port (I know 2+ button mice for Macs _exist_ but they are an option, after all...).

Setting aside the above -- is it worth it? Well, if you have a child of 5 or 6, sure. It's a fun little game. Otherwise, you _must_ be a fan of the show to enjoy this game. A rabid fan, possibly. There are gems for the fans, including an extended version of the show's theme "You're Standing on my Neck" by Splendora in the credits. Daria's comments throughout the game are also amusing, as is the story line. As dream sequence episodes go, I'd rather have seen this plot than "Depth Takes a Holiday".

<< As dream sequence episodes go, I'd rather have seen this plot than "Depth Takes a Holiday >>

I'm the only person who likes this episode.

~Aabi happy belated guy fawkes day... "I'm not here for your amusement, you're here for mine. And stop throwing things at me!" ~Johnny Rotten

Evil waiter will recieve an unholy tip!

On 10 Nov 2000, Suzie Q. Doe wrote:

No you're not. I happen to like it, too! :)

-medea42

"Suzie Q. Doe" wrote in message news:[email]... [of "Depth Takes a Holiday"]

No, you're not! I enjoyed it, even though I wouldn't rank it in the top five episodes.

Not everybody knows this, number 45: DTAH was extensively cut for its transmission on Channel Five in the UK.

Martin.

On Fri, 10 Nov 2000 10:07:39 -0000, "Martin Sylvester" wrote:

I don't actually *hate* this episode, but that said, it's still at the bottom of my list when it comes to ranking "Daria" episodes. Because let's face it: as has been said time and time again, even the worst episode of "Daria" is better than just about everything else on television nowadays. (Personally, I'd exclude a handful of series, such as "Frasier", from that comparison, but not many.)

[email] (Martin Sylvester) wrote in :

Yes and what irritated me is they cut some 'swear' words and not others, there doesn't seem to be any patten to it. Though DTAH was a picnic conpared to the butchery that they subjected "College Bored" to.

All IMHO of course.

Phill.

Suzie said:

I liked _Depth Takes a Holiday_ too :)

I also enjoyed this episode.

~Tony~

"...I don't have low self-esteem...I have low esteem for everyone else."-Daria ~ep. #101

Daria-Do you think contacts reveal the you-ness inside? Jane-I don't know. Who's Eunice and why doesn't she get her own body? ~ep. #301

Actually that episode wasn't that bad..."Lost Girls" on the other hand is unwatchable!

Val is......BLECH!!!!

Samyaza

<< Actually that episode wasn't that bad..."Lost Girls" on the other hand is unwatchable! >>

The only Daria episode that pisses me off is "Too Cute." I've seen it too much. I have to turn it off. It's the only episode I do that to.

I liked Jane in "Lost Girls."

~Aabi like a dead man walking...Earthling is wonderful... "I'm not here for your amusement, you're here for mine. And stop throwing things at me!" ~Johnny Rotten

Evil waiter will recieve an unholy tip!

I didn't mind most of the episodes in season 3 on their own but as a whole, they were weaker, which is why I think a lot of people don't like DTAH or "The Lost Girls." And I also think that many people misinterpret what people say about episodes, i.e. hate != dislike

Anyway, the only episode I find truly unwatchable is "A Tree Grows In Lawndale." It just seems they beat the whole Kevin and Brittney thing to death this season. They also lost some of their comedic appeal from "The Lab Brat."

Sara

I thought the Lab Brat was probably the duo's best appearance in the series and it's been downhill since then. I don't hate them. But I'd like to see something new done with them. Brittany's developing an art skill. Maybe that would make an interesting storyline.

Personally I thought The Lost Girls was ok and DTAH was unwatchable. I liked Too Cute, though. I thought for the first season the idea of teenage girls and plastic surgery was a nifty idea and they've not been as edgy with storylines since then. I can do without most of Peggy Nicoll's episodes. No offense, but they're mostly uneven. The only exceptions were The Lab Brat, Daria Dance Party, Gifted and Fire! (and personally I hope she writes a lot more stories in this particular vein.). But even the worst of Daria is better than a lot of what's on television.

Jeff M.

SM writes:

_The Lost Girls_ is easily my least favorite episode. I appreciate the point it's making, but that could have been taken care of in 5 minutes of a better ep. Plus, Daria is sarcastic and disrespectful to Val all show, and Val is oblivious to it, until suddenly it's time to wrap up the episode.

Just slightly higher on my list would be DTAH and the murdered Kevin episode. "Dream sequence" shows just almost always leave me cold.

Aaron

"Suzie Q. Doe" wrote in message news:[email]...

Hey, I liked it too. BOLLOCKS!!!

Chris Smith - Your next president of these United States

In article , The Outsider writes

Actually, since they've just proved that their democratic system doesn't work that makes Queen Elizabeth the new President and all former US citizens may now claim British passports.

I,JM Why can't all girls be like Daria?

<< Actually, since they've just proved that their democratic system doesn't work that makes Queen Elizabeth the new President and all former US citizens may now claim British passports. >>

Really? Can I?

~Aabi afraid of Americans "I'm not here for your amusement, you're here for mine. And stop throwing things at me!" ~Johnny Rotten

Evil waiter will recieve an unholy tip!

Well, okay, as long as we get to leave the U out of LABOR. :-)

Steve Cross

In article , Steve Cross writes

Well OK, but not colour :-)

And leverage isn't a verb either :-))

I,JM

"I,JM" writes:

Cool; can I get a 00 designation too?

Aaron

In article ,

You're not the only one, but definitely you're in a minority, maybe 10-20% of fans liked it, not I.

It is the only episode I can't sit through, completely not rewatchable in any way. "The Lost Girls" I can stomach, but still not high on my list at all.

A.J.

I have mostl the episodes on tape. And the last couple of times I sat down to watch those tapes from beginning to end, the only episode I simply HAD to skip on fast forward was "The Daria Hunter". I don't know why.

Pierce

Profile: Physically unremarkable

I liked "The Daria Hunter" because

S

P

O

I

L

E

R

Brittany shows that she has some tactical intelliegance (as in smarts).

Pierces888 wrote in message news:[email]...

any

all.

down to

skip

<< Brittany shows that she has some tactical intelliegance (as in smarts). >>

I personally liked the line: "Those paintball thingees hurt!"

~Aabi "I'm not here for your amusement, you're here for mine. And stop throwing things at me!" ~Johnny Rotten

Evil waiter will recieve an unholy tip!

In article , "Alex Case" wrote:

smarts).

I sort of had the idea for a short fanfic where in order to test that this wasn't a fluke, Daria subjected an unknowning Brittany to games of StarCraft and Command & Conquer to see if she could be a "Patton with Pom-poms."

<{[---Jason Montgomery---]}> http://www.bigfoot.com/~journ Yahoo! Messenger: journ "If life gives you lemons, you make some kind of fruity juice." - Conan O'Brien

You never know. He _did_ believe in reincarnation didn't he?

Yeah, but if the movie can be trusted, he always expected to come back as a soldier of some kind.

Steve Cross

Oh come on! The Platoon bit was ace!

wrote:

I thought the conflict between Quinn and Sandy was the best we've seen between the two, where they're literally trying to do each other in. And when Sandy gets left back at the end....... Of course Daria's inconsequential to this episode. I could have done without the Jaws ripoff, which kind of takes away from the episode.

Jeff M.