PO'ed Definitive Edition
Developed By: Any Channel/Nightdive Studios
Published By: Nightdive Studios
Date of Release: May 16, 2024
Price: $19.99
Ahh, the humble chef. Perfectly at home in the hottest kitchen and the most frigid of walk-in freezers, this majestic beast can make a masterful meal out of any adversary. Who would be better suited to fight off an invasion force of freakish aliens when the badass space marines have all failed? Such is the plot of the 3DO classic PO'd, a First-Person Shooter from developer Any Channel released way back in 1995 for Panasonic's ill-fated console. And now Nightdive Studios have seen fit to let their mad genius KEX engine developer Kaiser helm a remaster of this absurd culinary killfest.
As usual for a Nightdive release the first thing that has been updated to modern standards are the controls. In the original game you had to contend with the bloody 3DO controller (which is basically an subpar genesis controller with shoulder buttons tacked on) to control the game, and it was a pretty tough experience. Thankfully the modern controls make up for ALL of those shortcomings, which I am thankful for as PO'ed has a lot of first-person platforming to contend with. The added precision helps so much in that regard.
The visuals and sounds have also been brought up to modern standards, and though the game engine is very simplistic, it gets the job done with some really batcrap insane level design. There's a lot of verticality to these levels, which wasn't a common thing in first person shooters of the time. The sheer wackiness of the enemy designs really stands out in a positive way. Where else are you going to get to fight walking butts that fart in your general direction?
Nightdive has certainly proven once again that no matter the age of the game, the absurdity of its subject matter, and the general unplayable jankiness of the original gameplay are all obstacles they can overcome quite handily with their KEX engine. All in all PO'ed Definitive Edition is fully worth experiencing, as it was one of the best FPS games on the 3DO. I'm thankful for the resurgence in 3DO games lately, it truly was an underrated system, and I'm looking forward to Nightdive's upcoming remaster of Killing Time.
PO'ed Definitive edition gets 9.35 farting butts out of 10
