Review: Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow Is ... Fun?

I don't know how I feel about this.

On the one hand, Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow has charm. The original writers are attached to this project, and that shows in the humorous dialogue between characters.

Yet, so much of the game feels like every other freemium title clamoring for your digital wallet. Interactive maps to build on, characters and their annoying upgrades ... all the mobile tropes are included, just with a Futurama skin attached. That wouldn't necessarily be so bad, if the game wasn't so obvious about wanting you to pay-up.

Almost immediately, you hit a wall — the Professor will take one hour to perform his upgrade. Typically, a game at least eases you into these long wait-times to try to suck money out of you. Not Worlds of Tomorrow — the game here presents you with two options; wait the hour, or spend 'pizza slices' to perform the upgrade instantaneously.

So you spend the pizza slices, right? Wrong. The game conveniently starts you out with just enough pizza slices to come up short. "Buy you can buy more pizza slices!" the game exclaims. Soon, you're brought to a purchase screen, with all of the different pizza slice options. At first, it seems unoffensive — 50 pizza slices for $1.99. I think to myself "that's stupid, but not the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen."

Review: Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow Is ... Fun?

Then I see "Best Deal!" Oh, what's the best deal? 3,500 pizza slices! For one hundred dollars.

A traditional, console, AAA-title will cost you about $60. $60. What is this garbage? Who's paying $100 for pizza slices? I get the math — if you only went for the 50 slice-package every time you needed pizza, by the time you hit $100 you'd have 1,000 slices less than if you went with the "best deal." What a load of crap.

So, yeah. It's a freemium title. Maybe I'm biased — these things make me nauseous. But, if we look past that, does this game have something to offer?

Well, yeah. Kinda. There's some cool stuff going on under the hood, most notably the multiple genres the game juggles. It starts as a world-builder, then an explorer title as you drift through the galaxy on quests, then things shift as the game turns into a retro turn-based action game.

I have to admit — I have a lot of fun with the turn-based battles. I love the pixel art, the battle sounds, even the gameplay. I like it so much, in fact, that I wish this were the game. It's the only part of the game that has me coming back — I just want to fight some aliens in space!

I don't see why this game had to be a bloated, freemium clone like so many games out there, when the developers have some really cool ideas here. Well, actually I do see why — $$$.

Ideally, this game would be $1.99, maybe $2.99, and would be a retro-style adventure game, where you battle aliens across the galaxy, with in-app purchases limited-to-non-existant.

But dollar signs in the app store scare players away. Free games bring people in. And once people are in, they'll happily spend money to advance through the game.

But I won't. Sorry, Furturama: Worlds of Tomorrow — there's a lot of promising aspects to your game, but I don't think I'll be revisiting your universe anytime soon.

If you'd like to try Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow for yourself, you can find it here for iOS, and here for Android.

The Verdict

+Original and funny dialogue
+Some fun and ambitious game modes

–Freemium tropes all over the place
–Expensive in-app purchases

This review is our opinion based on the quality of the game, factoring in things like gameplay, storyline, advertisements, cost and in-app purchases, and touch controls.