‘Raze’s Hell’

•• (out of four)

Majesco for

Xbox,

$19.99

Rating: M (Mature)

In “Raze’s Hell,” evil comes in shades of pink and yellow and sky blue. The game’s evildoers venture from a plentiful land, filled with colorful rainbows, green rolling hills, lollipop trees and smiles galore. The Kewletts – happy-go-lucky critters that look like Teletubbies with monkey ears and antennae – don’t set out to wreak havoc and destruction upon neighboring societies out of malice; they’re simply acting as missionaries cleansing the world of its unhappier and not-so-pretty places and creatures.

In beautifying the world, the Kewletts torch an ugly village and slay its ugly inhabitants. The village’s lone survivor, a wicked-looking dude with gnarled horns named Raze who’s definitely not cute, becomes enchanted by a mysterious artifact and, loaded with new abilities, wages a one-monster war against the cute-as-a-button invaders.

Raze’s main weapons are bugs hiding in the flora, which become magical spitballs. The red ones act like rocket launchers, firing a hefty payload of discomfort, while yellow ones allow Raze to hawk sniper shots. Others are truly bizarre. The seeker, for example, allows Raze to control a mosquito-like bomb and fly it into enemy targets.

For happy folk, the Kewletts are well-armed and darn fine shots. And although you can replenish your health fairly easily (by gobbling up the hacked-up entrails of fallen enemies), I was nearly beset by controller-breaking frustration on occasion. Without exceptionally pretty graphics (everything is a tad too blocky) to entice you to look past the cheap deaths, the story mode ceases to be fun or funny after a few hours.

For $20, you get more than a mildly amusing war against killer cutesies. Loads of mini-games, split-screen co-op play throughout the story mode, and online game play flesh out this budget-priced title.

– Ryan Huschka, Knight Ridder