If you're familiar with the "Professor Genki - Super Ethical Reality Climax" side missions from the main game, you can expect an extremely exaggerated and over-the-top iteration of those activities in the form of four new games: Genki Apocalypse, Super Ethical PR Opportunity, Sexy Kitten Yarngasm, and Sad Panda Skyblazing. The irony here is seemingly intentional; for anyone who's played the original Genki activities, the notion of anything MORE preposterous seems implausible, but in an unceasing campaign to add more layers to the cake of absurdity that is Saints Row 3, Genkibowl VII is successfully the most delightfully nonsensical and wonderfully inexplicable portion of the game, downloadable content or otherwise.
Weighing in at a diminutive $7 (or 560 ms points) this DLC is pretty affordable. I found the length of gameplay to be proportionately appropriate for the price as well, considering you get roughly 2-3 hours worth of new content depending on your style of playing.
Besides the cost, the high point of Genkibowl VII is quite simply the opportunity to participate in your very own wacky, epileptic Japanese game show. Sexy Kitten Yarngasm demands to be played, not only because of the name but because the gameplay involves taking the helm of a 30 foot ball of yarn and using it to decimate the city around you. Sad Panda Skyblazing is also a blast; skydiving from one rooftop to another with the objective of taking a chainsaw to as many mascots as possible within the time limit, all while bouncing off multicolored balloons and flying through floating rings on your way to the finish line... It's just good, wacky video game fun.
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| Yarngasm Baby! |
Although fun on the surface, there were two issues I had with this DLC. First, since Genkibowl is simply an expansion of the already sizable list of optional free roam activities, it equates to little more than adding a few extra blips to your city map. As I personally found the activities in the main game to become a bit tedious when compared to the story missions, I couldn't help but feel that way during certain parts of Genkibowl VII. The game types are all enjoyable enough, but in the end they're completely detached from anything else that constitutes a story in SR3, and as a result feel inconsequential.
Secondly, most of the new game types appear to be essentially just re-skined and slightly re-tooled versions of the existing content. Genki Apocalypse is a spruced up version of Super Ethical Reality Climax with a few new gameplay features, but it's mostly window dressing. Super Ethical PR Opportunity is little more than an Escort mission, of which you've likely done many within the main game, albeit this time Professor Genki is your co-pilot and a bad ass flamethrower has been affixed to your vehicle. Sexy Kitten Yarngasm, although I loved it, is clearly just a re-skinned iteration of the Tank Mayhem mini game, as viewed through the Genki prism. Sad Panda Skyblazing is the only truly new game type, and on its own it isn't long enough or deep enough to make up for the fact that the other 75% of the DLC doesn't feel fresh or unique.
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| Steelport Chainsaw Massacre |
The Final Word
Although it's difficult for me to condemn anything that costs a mere seven bucks, whether or not this DLC is a good value for your money will largely depend on how much you enjoyed the optional side activities in the main game, and how passionate you are about the Professor Genki mythology within the Saints Row universe. It's definitely a fun addition and it adds more play time to Saints Row 3 (something I thoroughly appreciated and want more of), but ultimately this content doesn't add much in the way of new gameplay, doesn't offer anything in terms of story, and doesn't boast a huge replay value. If you're looking for an inexpensive and amusing excuse to go back to Steelport, give the zany feline professor a spin, but otherwise you won't be missing much by skipping over this DLC.
4/10
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