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Hello all you crazed N64 lunatics out there!! This is Kaiokenattack, with a review of the game Space Station Silicon Valley by DMA Design and Take 2 Productions. Now, I know that this game has been out for a while, but I'm writing this to give this game the publicity it deserves. I feel that all those who have seen pictures only of this game and instantly turned their heads away from it needs and MUST give this game another chance. Let me see if I can convince you.

Space Station Silicon Valley was made by the Brits over at DMA. They are famous for other games like Grand Theft Auto. Well, this is a HUGE jump from the mature gameplay of GTA. SSSV is, and continues to be, THE funniest, most hilarious game I have ever played in my life. The only one that comes close is South Park. SSSV will make you laugh so hard that you will wet yourself.....well, if you get the jokes that is. The humor (or humour for all you Brits out there ;-) is non-stop. The intro sequence and the opening movie will have you bustin' a gut. Well, I'll just get on with the game!

The game starts out in the year 3000 when Space Station Silicon Valley mysteriously returns after having vanished when it was sent into space 1000 years in the past. And the problem is, OH MY GOD! IT'S HEADING RIGHT FOR US! (sorry, I just had to say it.) Well, what should we do? Introducing...Dan Danger and EVO the evolutionary robot, heroes for hire!! The world president sends Dan and EVO out into space to stop the hurdling space station. While EVO and Dan are fighting over what music they want on their spaceship's radio, EVO accidentally knocks out Dan in his anger. And not knowing it, they run into an asteroid, and then, right into the Space Station! EVO punches the eject button, which just so happens to work after they have already crash landed. EVO's shell suit is broken, and a small microchip, the brains of EVO, falls down. (there's something else that happens here that you'll just have to see for yourself) EVO, the microchip, is YOU. You control EVO. And on to the control section of the review!

You get around in the game by killing, yes KILLING animals. Poor, defenseless (well, not always) animals. After you kill an animal, you push the R button to jump EVO from one body to the next. The previous body is thrown away, and EVO possesses a new animal! Each, and every of the 45 different animals in the game are special. They all have their weaknesses, and their advantages. And also, the animals react to other animals like in real life. For instance, there is a stage where you need to round up sheep. What should you use? A dog, of course! So, you need to take over the dog's body, and round up the sheep. That's just one of the hundreds of puzzles that you need to accomplish in this game. There are 30 levels, split up into four different zones. There's a Grass/Forest zone, an Ice Zone, a Jungle Zone, and a Desert Zone. Each zone, respectively, sports its own native animals. And after you beat all 30 levels and get back all 4 pieces of EVO's shell suit, you get to play through the final 31st end level. The gameplay mechanics are top-notch. It's hard to say what they are, because there are 45 different gameplay mechanics for 45 different animals. This makes the diversity of the game HUGE. Each animal has 2 special moves, either the A or B button. And as always, some of the moves these animals do are completely tongue-in-cheek. Example: the polar bear, the hippo, and the rat all share the same move. They all place a pile of POOP out from under them that later explodes!! Isn't that fantastic?? It gets better. (or worse, in other people's opinions, heehee)

The graphics are simple, and very first-gen. But like I said in the beginning, this game is not about graphics!!! You get used to them. And besides, in some parts, the graphics are not really that bad at all. There's transparency effects, explosions, reflections, and even a little specular lighting! Everything is very cartoony, but that does NOT, I repeat, does NOT make the game a piece of cake. Go ahead, rent the game, and see if you can beat it in less than a day!! You can't, 'cause parts of this game are just plain hard! Don't worry, though. Other parts of the game are just plain easy. Once you get the hang of killing and possessing other animals, you'll be hooked for life.

The sound is really good for the low N64 standards. Each level pretty much has its own elevator music. Yes, you read correctly. There's elevator music in each level of the game. That's because there are actual SPEAKERS located throughout the stages. Sick and tired of hearing that music over and over?? Why not blow up a speaker?? And when you are far away from one, you can slightly hear the music in the distance. It's a totally interactive experience!! As for sound effects, dogs do their proper barking, sheep do their proper "bahhs," and lions roar. One of my favorites, though, is the hyena. Its special attack move is that it actually KILLS with its contagious laughter! It had me laughing for hours. Literally!

If there is one thing in this game that I love, it's the replay value. Each stage has 15 little purple orbs in it. They are cleverly scattered throughout the stages. If you collect all 15 in each stage (390 total) something special happens on the final stage. I'm not telling though! And even better, every stage also has something called a souvenir. You must perform a special, non-obvious task in every stage to get the souvenir. And if you get all of the souvenirs, another thing special happens! Here: I'll help you out. In the first stage, take over the "sighing" sheep and place it right in front of the wrecked ship's exhaust pipe. Take over the dog and bark right in front of Dan on the windshield. He'll reach over and press a button. The ship's exhaust (mainly fire) turns on and burns the dead sheep, revealing the souvenir! Isn't that twisted fun?

In conclusion, there is not ENOUGH stress that I'm putting on playing this game at least once in your life. The humor is totally twisted, and sometimes insane. The gameplay is near-perfect, and is very differentiated among animals, keeping the fun-factor sky high. The replay is some of the best ever seen in a game, which all games should have. If there is one thing I would say is bad, though, it is the camera. Sometimes, only sometimes, the camera does mess you up a bit, but you can control it for the most part, a bit like Mario64's camera. There's also an animal cam when you press the Z button that puts you right behind the head of the animal! It's great fun! I highly recommend this game to anyone that likes to think once in while when they play games and have a great and fun time doing it!