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In this day and age, game innovation is few and far between. Companies mostly
chose to create a game that will sell and forgo anything radically different in
fear it may not work. But, luckily, Microsoft full well knows the value of
innovation and encourages it in their developers. Blinx: The Time Sweeper, one of
my most looked forward to platformer behind Mario Sunshine, creates an
absolutely innovative experience, but unfortunately has its share of problems.
Some back story. Blinx is part of a corporation that monitors the flow of time
in a number of different worlds. When something goes wrong, time spits out these
crystals, and it is up to the Timesweepers to clean up those crystals before
they sprout into monsters, throw time off whack, and thus negatively effect the
limitless other worlds they take care of. Things were running smoothly until a
nasty gang of pigs, the Tom-Tom Gang, decides to invade one of those worlds,
cause time rifts, then gather the resulting crystals and sell them to other
worlds, as these crystals can also effect the flow of time itself. For
insurance, they capture the princess of the world and hold her to avoid any
intervention. Unfortunately, they weren't able to grab all the crystals and many
sprouted monsters. This caused such a massive problem that the only logical
route was to just time freeze the entire world for the rest of eternity, or
chance destruction of the rest of them. Of course, our hero sees this and has an
instant crush on the princess of the world and decides to take on the job of
ridding the monsters and stabilizing the time continuum alone.
Pretty Kitty
Blinx is a really gorgeous game. That is sort of the only way
to describe it. While, for some reason, you don't see any fur shading on Blinx,
which would have been perfect, everything else is really nice. Texturing is
really pretty and the character models are really high poly. Texture work is
phenomenal and the visual style of the levels is also quite impressive. Effects
are nice, especially when you go into various time modes, like when you pause
the game and wander through water, it leaves an opening where you walk. With all
the visual glory, the game doesn't slow down (not counting the pause power),
showing off some XBox power.
Silky Smooth Controls
One of the most
important things a platformer has to get right is the control scheme. If
something is off, like response time or button placement, then the entire game
fails on the whole. Blinx pulls this off very well. Controls are responsive to
your movements and your buttons are right there for your use. A jumps, X sucks
in trash and blows them at monsters, and holding the B button down opens up your
time control screen.
Time Crystals Good Idea, but Frustrating
The very
basis of Blinx is the use of the time crystals you pick up around the level.
Grab 3 of one type plus any other type and you got yourself a new move.
Unfortunately, the game doesn't set itself up to allow you to get them this way.
Crystals are bunched in clusters of different types and you have to be careful
as to which ones you grab. I would have preferred it to be a simple power-up
that automatically added the ability to your belt. Also, you are only able to
hold onto three at a time. Meaning, if you need a record ability, but have two
pauses and a slow, you are going to have to waste one and then locate the
required crystals. This sort of becomes a pain when you are hunting down a
needed ability just to find out you don't have the space for it. Time crystals
also effect your lives. Collect 3 heart icons, and you get another life. You can
only hold 3 at once to start, but you get money after each level and you can
then buy means to hold more of them. What happens when you die is it acts like a
big rewind feature. You die, then you see your death in reverse and start over
before the fateful error, with the game giving you enough time to avoid the
mistake.
 Brutal Level Designs
Blinx is highly
deceiving. The game starts
out really simply, just giving you a basic point A to point B level setup. You
just use your powers for convenience against enemies. Later, though, the levels
get tough, and brutal. A lot of times you will come across a puzzle, like a
fallen bridge or a door that closes on you when you step off the lever, but on
the other side of that is another door that does the same thing. This is when
your time abilities become important. Many times, what you have to do is not
apparent, as you might do one thing you expect it to be, yet just find out you
created yet another problem by using the wrong power. Every power has a
function, and every power is needed to get around any given level.
Unfortunately, this ties back into the previous section as in many cases, I
found out that I was unable to complete the level because there were no more
crystals around and I didn't have the right ability, forcing me to restart
entirely.
Sounds Good
I really can't comment on the voice acting as it is
some odd language that sounds like a mixture of Italian, German, and Japanese.
Sounds themselves are well done and seem to use the XBox sound chip to full
measure. Music is decent and sound effects are pretty good throughout.
Where
Is My Slow Button?
The biggest flaw in Blinx is it is over way too fast. It
took me 8 hours to complete. While many will tell me, "Hey, how about finding
all the cat icons," I'm the kind of gamer that wants plenty of substance before
searching for the hidden stuff. Game developers: extras are meant to subsidize
the gameplay length, not be a pivotal part of the length all together. It was a
shame, too, Blinx is fun to play and I really wanted a bit more of it. It is a
shame that once it is over in that 7-8 hours, the game is over. Once you figured
out what to do in each level regarding your powers, the challenge is gone and
the fun factor diminished.
Bottom Line
Blinx is no Mario, but it is still
an innovative and entertaining game. It is visually impressive, has some decent
audio features, and some great ideas. Too bad the crystal system became a pain
and the game was so short. Blinx is an awesome rental, but just a tad too short
to warrant a full-on purchase. Too bad, this game was really fun while it
lasted.
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