Seriously, a videogame about a “musician”? Whilst slotting the UMD into my PSP, memories of the Sega Megadrive game, “Moonwalker” flashed into my mind. Like one of Michael Jackson’s songs, that game was really Bad, and considering the closest thing we have had since then are games based on movie licenses, it’s fair to say that this game (which will be known as Fiddy from now on) isn’t off to the greatest of starts. It’s all about the reputation, and 50 Cent knows all about that.
With that in mind, I was totally surprised to find that not only is this game not totally rubbish, and a worthless cash-in that ties in with 50 Cent’s movie, but that this is actually a pretty good game, that plays well, and is beautifully presented.
For those that don’t know, 50 Cent is of course well known for his incredibly popular records, but the Bulletproof name comes from when he was shot multiple times in his younger days, yet survived - he has recently told his story in a movie that got released earlier this year. I’ll be honest, I am not 100% sure how accurate this game follows what really happened (but I am fairly certain it’s very loosely based), but the story is about Fiddy finding the guy who tried to kill him, meeting various friends and foes along the way. There are even cameo appearances throughout such as Eminem as a dodgy copper, which I found quite amusing – he’s even got the bleached blonde hair still.
Fiddy is an action game set in a 3D isometric perspective, and you run or sprint around mainly shooting bad guys, but you sometimes also have to find clues and information that will help you complete the current mission. It’s all very simple stuff, like finding a password, turning on security panels in the right order, or killing the enemy boss at the end of the mission. You shoot with ‘Cross’, lock-on to enemies with ‘R’, and switch weapons by holding ‘Triangle’. Gun, knife, and hand-to-hand combat are a simple affair, but it’s done well and works, so why try to make it complicated huh? It’s nice to play a PSP action game that doesn’t have a broken camera, or aiming system, or stupidly complex controls. There are often quite a few enemies on screen to deal with, and the game and aiming handles it well, allowing you to take enemies down quickly, switching targets if you need to, and you can then rob the enemies of ammo and money, with which you can buy armor, better weaponry, and even cheats if you have lots of cash.
Fiddy is a decent looking game; it’s perhaps not pushing PSP as much as other games, but then it runs smoothly, doesn’t have glitches, or splitting polygons everywhere. The games presentation is slick, with nice menus, quick loading, and an insane amount of music and music videos, all of course written and performed by 50 Cent, which is a massive bonus if you’re a fan of him. Fiddy is voiced well too, with of course the main man voicing himself, and as mentioned previously, Eminem features too. Other characters are acted well too, and every single one of them swears more than you thought was possible.
So to summarise, I enjoyed playing this game. I was pleasantly surprised to find that although Fiddy is pretty simple and unoriginal, and doesn’t really change much throughout the adventure, it plays well. It’s something that can be picked up, understood and played with ease, which for a handheld game is perfect.
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