fantasy

My first review, a preview, was right in many ways, and when I look back, I know why this game got so much hype...it's FUN! Here are the basics of Blinx, and why u have to get it NOW!

The basics: You walk around collecting time crystals that match (4 yellow stars, 4 blue moons). Collecting four of the same kind will give u that kind of time control power for up to 10 seconds (which is quite a lot in this game). The controls are: rewind, fast forward, slow motion, pause, and record (which is really fun) in which your shadow does whatever u recorded. Now, on each level, there are a certain amount of monsters (which are quite creative). To destroy them, u have to collect trash lying on the street (suck it up in your timesweeper) and shoot it at them. Once all the monsters are destroyed, u can leave the level. You can return at any time, and in the midst of all this, you have to collect gold. With the gold, u can buy upgrades of your cloths, shoes, jackets, time holders, and of course, your Timesweeper. It is crucial to have the best timesweeper to find secrets. You'll have to play to see what I mean.

Replay Value: Tremendoes, as u can return to each level as many times as u want. Each time is petty fun, too, because u have to find secrets crucial to beating the game (while controling time of course) and collect gold. There are over 40 levels, labled first 1-1 to 1-3, then a boss. Once u beat the boss, u move to levels 2-1 to 2-3. Then beat that boss and then so on. It goes on to level 10-3 then an extremely tough boss. And no, this game is not too easy. I've still only halfway beaten it, and the overall fun never wheres off. This game, as u can imagine, has incredible replay value!

Graphics: The best yet to be seen in many ways. The water looks like clear, real, shimmering water. The landscapes are huge, and every level is detailed down to the last ounce so that u feel like your in a living, breathing world! You can actually see the very fur on Blinx's body, and his tail swishes around in a very cat like way. Everything is beautiful in Blinx: The Timesweeper, and this game really showed (in my opinion) some of the true powers of the XBOX.

Fun Factor: 5 stars! The whole thing is fun as hech. Whether it be controlling time, shooting monsters, to upgrading your weapons, this game has it all. I've spent hours upon hours playing this awsome game, and I know I'll spend hours upon hours more continueing that trend.

A u can clearly see, Blinx: The Timesweeper is a hit, and very innovative. The power to control time is weaved in very well with the superb story, and the overall depth is there. This is a Mario like game in many ways, and yet is more challenging and takes more thinking than that. Blinx: The Timesweeper should be on your Christmas List this holiday season, and will bring joy, fun, and overall excitement to the whole family (plus their are 3 games files). Enjoy!

...the good and the bad.

GOOD:
Graphics; Sound; Future
The graphics are indeed beautiful...spotlessly rendered with dynamic shadows and lighting effects. There is almost no clipping and the characters are rendered quite well.

The sound works well within the spirit of the game and the world it's created. Some of the effects are over-done, but nothing that's worth criticizing.

Read the final paragraph for my take on Blinx's possible impact on the future of console gaming.

BAD:
Story; General Game Play; Time Control; Controls
The story is simply lame. I'll leave it to other reviewers to debate the finer points of it, but I found it uninteresting and really didn't care if Blinx (Feline) ever rescued The Princess (Human). ...The game, to me, seemed rather repetitive. Start with a 10 minute clock. Complete a level. Pool your gold. Buy some new equipment. ...I know that Munch's Oddyssee wasn't the end-all be-all of puzzle games; but Munch's puzzles look like multi-planar differential equations ...when compared with this game.

Now, the time control. It was pretty cool, the first couple of times I used it. After that, it became a nuisence. Like I said before, it seemed rather contrived. For instance, a bridge falls down as Blinx is walking up to it. ...If Blinx has the requiste "Time Control Crystals" he can earn the right to make time travel backwards for a bit, rebuilding the bridge and making it safe for him to run across. ...The controls themselves simply drove me nuts. If you want to rotate the camera to see what's to the right of the little fur-ball, you have to push the right stick to the LEFT. This is CONTERARY TO EVERY OTHER THIRD PERSON ACTION GAME I'VE EVER PLAYED. There is NO way to change this. Not only that, a big part of the game is disposing of "Time Monsters" with garbage that Blinx sucks up into his vaccuum, then spits out at the baddies. This would be okay, if there were ANY way to determine with some certianty where the heck the garbage was going to fly. Without an aiming cursor, you have only the direction Blinx is facing to aid you in aiming. This is, to put it bluntly, terrible; ESPECIALLY because you can't complete a level if you don't dispatch each of the Time Monsters. So, you wind up spewing most of your limited supply of trash/ammo at one or two baddies and wind up having to go find more trash to suck up. ... Blinx might, however, spawn games that ARE revolutionary. The use of the hard drive on the x-box as an integral tool to the gaming experience is a great idea...one I can't wait to see taken advantage of in a more effective way. Look at it as a step on the road to designing a console game that really DOES take advantage of the x-box's capeabilities as a platform...

This game is an amazing platformer only for the Xbox game console. I have to say that from my experience with it, it is excellent. Many people dislike Blinx, and I'm not really sure why, but I'll tell you some of the many great things about this game.

Plot: 4/5
As far as I've seen, the plot is to help Blinx save time from perishing forever and help rescue a character...

Gameplay: 5/5
Use your time sweeper to suck in trash and hurl them at time monsters. Defeat all the monsters in each stage and get to the goal to complete each stage. At the end you are awarded gold.
There are three stages, one shop and one boss per world.

Graphics: 5/5
The environments in Blinx look so weird and creative, like strange, twisted and dark buildings. This is one of the factors that makes Blinx original. You can even see each individual hair on Blinx's head, which is very realistic.

Features: 5/5
Now, here's where the real fun of the game starts. Depending on whichever "time crystal" you acquire one of the following time events:
Pause: This requires blue time crystals. Pause completely freezes all enemies in the stage for a set amount of time.
Rewind: Pink crystals required. Rewind backtracks to stop a certain event from happening (i.e. A pillar falls on to an important item. Use rewind to set the pillar back up and quickly snag the item), or to stop you from dying.
Fast-forward: Orange crystals needed. Fast-forward just speeds things up (including you), and you are temporarily invincible.
Record: Green crystals required. Record duplicates Blinx, so as to do two things at once when needed, or to have an enemy chase after the fake while you attack it from behind.
Slow-mo: Yellow crystals needed. Slow-motion slows down all enemies so you can quickly dispose of them.
Other features of Blinx include finding special "cat medals" and gold to spend at shops for special upgrades and power-ups.

Controls: 5/5
A button to jump, twice to double-jump. Hold "X" to suck in trash, then tap it to shoot trash (keep in mind that you can only hold five trash pieces at a time). Left toggle moves Blinx, while the right one controls the camera. I don't want to go too much into control detail here, so you'll have to find out the rest of the controls on your own.

Overall: 5/5!
This is an unbelievably great game for Xbox, so get it right now and discover its great mysteries!