The Last Kids On Earth

Nice. I finished this...last week or the week before. Didn't really like book 2's ending but hopefully book 3 will be better.

I finished Book 3.

Overall, I feel it was an improvement over the previous season. Even though King Wretch was essentially a mindless monster, its way of attacking Jack and co. with nightmares was neat. I especially liked how Jack's nightmares become increasingly disturbing, topped with the one where he's dragging his friends' skeletons around while he's deliriously talking to them. Even if Jack is still pretty self-centered, the season does a better job at pointing out his major abandonment issues and how he's just a kid that's coping with both previous families abandoning him.

The other kids each get some subplots, which were very much needed. I think Quint's was my favorite, because it dealt with the stress that the resident genius would feel if everyone came to him for ideas and jobs. I didn't care about Dirk's quest to be a monster, but that's still more than he got in season two. June's obsession with the radio was fine and clashed against both Jack and Quint's arcs naturally.

Also, I've never been a fan of the show's stiff animation, but I really digged the final battle between the kids and Nightmare Jack/Rezzoch.

I am interested to see if this is it for the series after the interactive special, since the season ends with the brief introduction of a human antagonist, Evie. Not that Netflix hasn't canned shows with obvious cliffhangers before, but still.

EDIT: And it's confirmed that the series does not have any more episodes past the special at this time.

Edited by GamerSlyRatchet on Oct 20th 2020 at 2:58:17 AM

Finished the season. I liked the connecting plotthread of this book more than the last one and while I didn't really care for the final fight at first the twist with the group not being the ones to defeat the final boss of this book was nice to see. Sad that we're apparently not getting anything else outside of the interactive special though.

The video game, which is called The Last Kids On Earth And The Staff Of Doom, is coming out in spring.

https://gamerant.com/last-kids-on-earth-video-game-announcement/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

I wonder if they'll tie in Jack's "feats" with the game's actual trophies/achievements.

Looks like Netflix just set up a placeholder page for the interactive special, called "Happy Apocalypse to You".

https://mobile.twitter.com/Outright_Games/status/1372548795528056833

The video game comes out in April.

The interactive special comes out April 6.

That's coming out sooner than I expected, same month as the game.

EDIT: The trophies for the game are out. SPOILERS, especially since you get to fight two bosses I was not expecting: King Wretch (who died in Book 3) and Meathook (the white one-armed monster from the ending of Book 3).

Edited by GamerSlyRatchet on Mar 23rd 2021 at 11:25:20 AM

The game comes out June 4.

https://mobile.twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1379811334032912388

Here's the trailer:

I've been playing through the interactive and it's okay. They allow you to make more than three choices now (which I don't think was possible in these before), but it doesn't come up often. The story's pretty basic and not that interesting, but the "filler" choices and Game Overs are probably the best. I particularly liked looking at the evil book, turning the gang into zombies, and building a giant robot to fight the Octogroot and then ignoring it and the passage of time.

The show won 3 Telly Awards.

https://mobile.twitter.com/atomiccartoons/status/1397303145236025345

Having rented the game recently, I have some thoughts:

• The gameplay is surprisingly varied and entertaining. Nothing amazing, but I liked the upgrades and customizations. The enemies are also varied, so you will have to deal with them in different manners, despite the game mostly being a straightforward hack-and-slash. There's also treehouse defense sections, but they only show up three times, so I think introducing customization and upgrades to them is pointless.

• The graphics are outdated (like PS 3-era) but they did recreate the show's designs fairly well. I think the POV they chose for the game kind of remedied that issue. Wakefield is sort-of free roam, but there's not really much in the map to check, just enemies, obstacles, and the occasional collectibles. Big Momma and the fast travel make traveling through the map more pleasurable, but it's probably not a great thing that players WANT to avoid traveling throughout the city.

• The music is nice, but it gets very repetitive. Also, the sound quality is not that great, so everything sounds muted and cheap. There's actually not a lot of voice acting beyond Jack's narration and some dialogue and quips from the other four. I knew they wouldn't be getting Mark Hamill, Bruce Campbell, etc. just for a video game, but I was curious to see how Malondre would sound like, at least.

• I do think the way the game integrated the show's lore was neat. Most of the friendly monsters provide side quests or even serve as assists. Even those assists fit the individual characters well. There's a Bestiary, though the bios themselves are just kind of underwhelming. Most of the traditional bigger monsters that didn't die in the show are back as bosses.

• The story is nothing special, and unfortunately there are some continuity issues even with the involvement of the show's producers and writers. King Wretch is back, but there's no explanation for any of it. He is just treated like a normal monster that works for Malondre and he doesn't even use psychic attacks. Meathook is also a boss, but they just treat him like any other monster, even though he only shows up (in the TV series) in the end teaser. It's kind of cool to see him before the show formally introduces him, but it's still weird. The final boss is also underwhelming, with Malondre not even a boss fight, just her reviving Scrapken and Blarg as "neon" versions of themselves.

Overall, it's pretty much a typical tie-in game, but probably on the higher-end of quality. There's some clear budget restrictions and weird decisions around how the characters are used, but it's not unplayable either. You could tell they tried to exploit the show (and book)'s world as much as they could