If the Apocalypse Comes, Beep Me
You've played Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2002) on the Xbox, right!?
Introducing WOKE GAMER, an infrequent column about now-vintage games you may have slept on. First up: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2002) and its sequel, Chaos Bleeds (2003)
It’s August 2002 and I am 15 years old. I’ve been working as a server at a restaurant all summer long and have some cash to burn, so I accompany my mom and sister to the mall for alleged back to school shopping. “No video games,” she says as I split off from them into the mall at large. I return 25 minutes later, lugging a large plastic bag. In it, a brand new Xbox and a copy of the just-released Buffy the Vampire Slayer game. It was the best $350.00 I had ever spent.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer aired from 1996-2003 on The WB and then UPN starring Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy, the single girl in the entire world chosen to fight vampires. During that time, an expansive Buffyverse came to be. We’re talking books, comics, card games, an official magazine. Even after the show ended, we would get a decade long “canon” continuation of the series in comic book format - with Joss Whedon’s involvement - that spanned “seasons” eight through twelve. Don’t ask for my opinions about them, though!
Buffy the game seemed like a coup for Microsoft - at least in my eyes. A relatively rare Xbox exclusive I cared about; it was the reason why this JRPG-loving Sony acolyte even considered to purchase the gargantuan console. Released in August 2002 - weeks before the series’ seventh and final season began - the game sees players controlling the titular heroine in an original plot set during the show’s third season, involving the revival of the Master, a vicious ancient enemy who was the series first major villain. It is a straightforward action game which has Buffy trek across her typical haunts - the high school, cemeteries, a weird nightclub which seemingly loved letting in teens called “The Bronze,” and more.
The game features tight combat with a surprising amount of depth: Buffy jumps, kicks, and punches her way through seemingly endless combo options with aplomb. What starts with ordinary vampires grows to include undead skeletons, werewolves, cult members, and a host of various other baddies. Buffy, the Scooby gang, and even the vampires are just as quippy in the game as they are in the show, thanks to sharp writing from Christopher Golden and Thomas Sniegoski, both of whom contributed to the Buffyverse through novellas and other expanded universe writings. If Buffy isn’t sparring with the undead, nasty beasties and the like, she’s at least giving them a proper talking down while solving puzzles or engaging in the hidden multiplayer combat mode.
Taut gameplay and clever writing are matched by excellent vocal performances from nearly the entire cast. While Gellar is conspicuously absent from the games, her stand-in Gisele Loren does a remarkable job in both games. Her delivery is a near match for Gellar, and still sounds great in this mini-pilot for a Buffy cartoon that never got off the ground. Alyson Hannigan appears in the first game but is replaced by a poor imitator the second time around. Additionally, the game’s sharp graphics take full advantage of the Xbox’s processing power at the time. Entertainment Weekly said, “as vampire video games go, Slayer doesn't suck.”1 Other outlets praised it as a “terrific action game.” 2GameSpot called it 2002’s “Best Game No One Played on Xbox.” If only they knew about me; sadly, my GameFaqs reviews from 2002 do not include one for Buffy!
The following year I was surprised to hear of a multi-platform sequel called Chaos Bleeds. Scripted by the same pair who wrote the previous title, this game takes place during the show’s fifth season and involves the First Evil, a primordial ancient force that serves as the series’ final villain in the show. Buffy and cohort work to thwart the plans of the First Evil as the veil between dimensions bleed, involving alternate dimensions and the reappearance of a host of characters that are otherwise dead. I think we call that a “Multiverse,” now. I have a copy of this game on all three platforms like a total freak.
Despite having a different development team, Chaos Bleeds looks and feels very similar to the first game, but somehow lacks its finesse. The graphics seem a bit duller (perhaps due to being multiplatform) and hit detection in combat isn’t as tight. There’s a general consensus that Chaos Bleeds just isn’t as good as the first game.
It tries to make up for it though, by offering a whopping six playable characters including Buffy, Willow, Xander, Spike, Faith, and…Sid, a living ventriloquist dummy that was featured in a single episode in 1997 and never mentioned again. I am still not sure why he is there. Chaos Bleeds also boasts a dedicated multiplayer component with a handful of gameplay modes, including ordinary combat, a survival challenge and others. It may sound like a Smash Bros good time, but the multiplayer modes feel like shallow Mario Party minigames rather than substantive. There are about 25 playable characters available - oddly enough, Giles is not playable anywhere, but you can unlock Joss Whedon to play as. Aren’t you already a big enough creep without having to play as a bigger one?
In both games, Buffy has an arsenal of weapons: aside from her handy stake, she can obtain swords, spears, and even a water gun filled with holy water? When playing as other characters in Chaos Bleeds, there is an appreciable change for most: sure, Buffy and Faith may have similar fighting styles as vampire slayers, but playing as Willow the witch typically involves using magic spells through executed combos to, for example, light a vampire on fire. Even Xander, a useless human, spends most of combat avoiding enemies until he finds a weapon to use.
There are a few other Buffy games - for Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS. I appreciate their existence and their temporary contribution to the local and national economy whilst these games were made and sold in a free market. That said, I do not like them. They lack the attitude and punchiness of the console titles, and don’t feel authentic to the larger series. Same can be said of the sole mobile game released in 2004 - why was I playing this game on a Motorola Razr?
In part, that’s what makes the two console games so special as a Buffy fan in 2004 or 2024. As a teenage fan, the expanded universe always had something to whet your appetite: comics, books, card and board games. However, nothing comes quite as close to replicating the excitement of watching a new episode of your favorite show quite like playing a game that understands the essence of its licensee. The character likenesses and voices, the familiar music and locations - and don’t even get me started on the sublime recreation of the opening credits using footage from the first game.
Sure, it makes perfect sense if you have not played these games - doubly so if you weren’t a fan of Buffy during the Bush administration. If you aren’t going to watch the show with a silly name, why play the game? More than twenty years later, though, and these games hold up for their quality and enjoyability for fans of the series, action games, or both.
Admittedly, these games might come across better than they actually are because they are seemingly a standout in a sea of licensed games of varying quality at the time: for every well-created Buffy game, there is an atrocious Alias or Xena ROM floating on the internet waiting to claim an hour of your life.
It’s also a bleak reminder that the frequency of good, licensed games is mostly a thing of the past. On the Super Nintendo, it felt like every mascot, cartoon and movie had their own game. The 7UP Spot mascot had one and it wouldn’t surprise me if there was a Joe Camel prototype game floating around somewhere. I’ve played through plenty of SNES or PlayStation-era licensed titles, from beat-em ups to anime-based RPGs that still hold up. Nowadays, if you aren’t Dragon Ball or another incredibly popular series, you’ll be relegated to a short-lived mobile game or an uninspired budget title that does a disservice to the larger IP.
I know we aren’t getting any new Buffy games - or even a remaster. But we’ll always have our memories and nostalgia. I’ve been hit by that a bit hard as of late, with an inkling to get my Nintendo 64 up and running. I brought it into a local game shop for repairs and when I returned to pick it up, I checked to see if they had an Xbox so I could replay the game as nature intended: sitting on my couch. There was a single Xbox available, with no working disc drive, and it had been modded and installed with a hard drive featuring nearly every single Xbox game. I looked at the sticker on the console: $350.00.
So much for nostalgia.
Robischon, Noah (13 September 2002). "'Slayer' Ride (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Review)". Entertainment Weekly. No. 671–672. p. 158. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
MacDonald, Ryan (16 August 2002). "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
How cool. Had no clue there was a Buffy game. Checks out though, it was the era of cross platform franchises.