DLC Review – The Wavy Tube Man Chronicles (The Gunstringer)
Following our review of The Gunstringer for Kinect, it seemed fitting to take a moment to take a quick look at the game’s DLC, The Wavy Tube Man Chronicles. Available on the Xbox Live Marketplace for the unbeatable price of FREE, this nearly 2GB sized game add-on takes the basic gameplay of The Gunstringer to a… unique new experience.
The Wavy Tube Man Chronicles is a live action, yes you read that right, adventure that takes place after the events of The Gunstringer. Wavy Tube Man Jr. is attempting to change the past to prevent The Gunstringer from killing his father, and only you, The Stranger, can stop him. You will mostly accomplish this by shooting bad actors in cowboy costumes before they shoot you, but also some future bad guys as well. The whole experience is very cheesy, and reminiscent of the FMV based arcade shooter games of another generation. It is certainly an interesting experience, but hesitate to say much more than that, as it often reminds us why no one makes games like this anymore.
The shooting controls aren’t nearly as refined as they are in the base game. I eventually found that standing for the game improved the results, but even then I often had to replay seemingly endless bits of bad acting because the game simply failed to recognize my arm motion. It is also just a tad bit long. The novelty begins to wear off fairly quickly and even though the DLC only clocks in at about a half hour, it certainly feels longer.
That said, it sure is hard to beat that price. A 2GB, 30 minute long piece of DLC for free is nearly unheard of, and even more atypical is DLC that offers such a radically different experience from that of the core game. You shouldn’t factor in the DLC when deciding whether to make (or not make) your purchase of The Gunstringer, and you likely won’t keep it on your HDD due to its’ size (and it lacks re-playability) but for free who are we to really complain?
Final Rating: 5/10
CBR Break Down:
Console Played On: Xbox 360
Time to complete main campaign: Roughly 30 minutes
Price Bought at: Free! Download it now from the Xbox Live Marketplace!
I think you’re being a little too hard on the free DLC with a 5/10 rating.
This is a one off novel experience, which takes me back to the laser disk era. OK, re-playability is low, except to show off to your fellow gamers.
This free DLC makes the title distinct from other kinect games… 2gb ffs, nothing else since Rockstar’s South LA in Midnight Club has come close, not to mention the novelty of this title.
7.5/10 I say :o)
I don’t necessarily disagree with your point (I did feel I was being a bit hard on it since it was free and all) but then again, if the best selling point when reviewing it is that it cost nothing… well that says something (at least to me it does). The novelty was great, the execution was off, which in some ways caused the novelty to wear thin. Guess my point would be, cheesy acting wasn’t really a negative, but having to watch the same bit of cheesy acting 15 times because it was so touchy in terms of registering a gunshot, was.