The 10-Cent Tour: Matt Hazard is a fictional videogame hero who, after a 25-year career, has fallen on hard times. He's attempting a "comeback" in Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard, trying to find acceptance on today's new, next-generation consoles. Unfortunately, the comeback, being orchestrated by an evil CEO who secretly despises Matt Hazard, is designed to be an elaborate ruse to lure Hazard to his final game-over doom. Speaking of doom, there's no doubt a DOOM reference in the game somewhere. Pretty much every classic game since the dawn of the medium gets spanked by the old satire paddle here.

1. Voiceover powers, activate! The game features the voices of Will Arnett (as Matt Hazard) and Neil Patrick Harris (as the evil CEO). Oh, let the laughter ring out!

2. The game -- from what I've seen so far -- is actually funny. No, really, it is. If I sound surprised, that's because I can probably count on one hand the number of times a videogame has made me chuckle. Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of gaming -- trust me -- will laugh early and often. (We dare you to try not to laugh when you see the Mario-like character, aka Captain Carpenter, in the game.) This begs the question: If games can be scary, why can't they be more consistently funny?

3. The game opens with a cleverly written "Behind the Music"-like profile of Matt Hazard called "Inside the Game," which is actually narrated by Jim Forbes (the real-life "Behind the Music" guy).

4. The same people that created the very funny Dead Head Fred -- North Carolina-based Vicious Cycle Software -- also created this game. This could make them the potential go-to development house for anyone looking to make the virtual funny. Clearly they've got a knack for pairing great writing with great concepts.

5. As fond as we are of Eat Lead's concept, the execution, from what we've seen and played thus far, comes across as Gears of War-lite -- only with crappier controls. This leaves us with the question: Can a crappy game overcome its inherent crappiness by being funny? Our guess is that it can ... but only if it's very, very, very funny. We'll have more on this oddball title as we get closer to Eat Lead's ship date later this spring.

The Crispy Forecast: Some clouds -- especially in the gameplay department -- with occasional sunshine, thanks to the consistently funny writing.

This preview is based on an in-office demo by the publisher with a mix of hands-on time and publisher-controlled time.