Raze's Hell is the latest from Majesco and developer Artech Studios, and if you're low on cash and looking to get your video crack fix then this game comes highly recommended. An extremely violent game with a message, Raze's Hell asks that you join the battle against all cute and fuzzy things. Actually that's not entirely true. It's more like incredibly obnoxious cute and fuzzy things that are hell bent on ravaging your planet and forcing their peace-loving message onto you and your people. Thankfully, they're not immortal. Thus, if it bleeds, we can kill it.

They're known as the Kewletts, and they're coming to a world near you! These sickeningly sweet yet for some reason foul-mouthed happy clowns (that sort of look like a cross between a Teletubbie and a...a...something else annoying) have been ordered by their hot princess to leave their bright, cheery, and colorful world of Kewtopia to spread goodness across the land. Problem is, not all of the planet's creatures wanted to be converted, nor do they share the Kewlett's views, and so, the Kewletts returned with this insane weaponry and proceeded to slaughter thousands upon thousands of innocents except the most important one, that being Raze. When he first stumbles upon the carnage he flees into the woods, but after finding an ancient artifact that gives him the power to suck up these tiny creatures known as Squibs and use them as weapons, our hero embarks upon a quest to rid the universe of these annoying party crashers once and for all.

The various types of Squibs represent the conventional weapons found in all shooters. Ripper Squibs are your machine gun, Spikers your shotgun, Blasters your grenades, Drillers your sniper rifle, and so on and so forth. You acquire them from busting up these odd looking pods, and since they're in short supply you'll need to vary your attacks and conserve ammo that's the most important for completing missions. You'll certainly need it, because the Kewletts are a heavily-armed and vicious bunch that are capable of wasting your sorry @$$ in a matter of seconds. Despite how easy it looks, Raze's Hell packs quite a challenge. The only way to heal yourself is to bust up Kewletts and suck up and consume their gibs, but that involves getting close enough to perform a melee attack, which isn't a wise thing to do when an area is being patrolled by even two of these miniature monsters. Raze's health bar can be depleted quickly, so if at any point you decide that you're going to rush into a situation guns blazing you'll be staring at the continue screen. It's at times extremely frustrating, especially since the only ways you can save are by passing through check points or manually saving (though the game forces you to quit when you do that), so you may find yourself repeatedly playing the same section of a mission. It's bound to annoy some of you, especially since Raze often times finds himself in situations where he's being attacked by at least 10 Kewletts and grenades and gun turrets and all sorts of nastiness. The game becomes more of a long-ranged affair where you need to take cover, select the best weapon for the job, and fire in short, controlled bursts before charging into battle. Of course, if you find yourself outnumbered and need to make a quick getaway, Raze comes with a Samus-style roll that's incredibly fun to use.

Variety is the spice of life and it's one reason why Raze's Hell is a quality gameplay experience. At the outset you're attacking Kewletts in nasty-looking forests but you'll soon travel to barren wastelands and other different-looking locales, and although the game booklet (providing you actually take a look at it) displays the various types of Kewletts that you'll come across, you never know what to expect from level to level, and this keeps the standard third person shooter gameplay from becoming stale. It also helps that the game's graphics are well done. You'll be looking at first generation stuff, but the explosions, the gibing, and the character designs (especially all of the Kewletts) really inject a heavy dose of personality into this game. I just appreciate being able to go from a dark and dreary location to a happy rainbow environment without the core gameplay mechanics being compromised. No matter where you are, Kewletts bleed red.

They also love to talk...a lot! Much of the sound effects and music in this game is average at best, but listening to the Kewletts ramble on about the war, the aliens they're killing, and how much they hate Raze is amusing. Their dialogue repeats over time, but it's varied enough that you'll hear new phrases.

Keeping with variety, there's more than one way to play Raze's Hell. Not only can two people play the game cooperatively, but there's a small collection of games you can check out via Xbox Live. Most of it's the kind of stuff we normally find in first person shooters such as death match, team death match, and capture the flag, but there's also soccer as well as some offline stuff like golf and exciting mini challenges where you need to survive wave after wave of Kewletts.

Only crybabies will get seriously pissed at this game's difficulty level, so I'm not going to hold that against it. However, Raze's Hell does suffer from an inconsistent frame rate. It never slows down the action so much that the game's impossible to play, but it is noticeable. In general the game has a "lack of polish" feel to it that normally comes with a $20 price tag.

Games like Raze's Hell make me wish I was still in college, because its subject matter is an academic paper waiting to happen. Its developers may have not had any intentions to take a few shots at certain nations of the world, but if you closely follow the news and play the game you'll see comparisons to the recent goings on in certain third world countries. Again, this may have been unintentional, but Raze's Hell is one of the most obvious examples of a game being used to make a political statement...err...or not! Either way, it's an immensely enjoyable shooter that features plenty of bang for your proverbial buck, so sign up, grab a weapon, and make those little $#%&#^*# pay!