Silicon Fusion >> Reviews >> Blinx: The Time Sweeper

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Review:

30th November 2002:
Blinx: The Time Sweeper
Can Microsoft steal some of Mario's thunder this Christmas with their own innovative platform game?
Posted by Marc Hull - Xbox - UK and Europe

With the Xbox being Microsoft's first foray into the world of games consoles, one of their first big challenges is to create games franchises that everyone will begin to know and love. Nintendo has Mario, Sega has Sonic, Sony has (up until recently) Crash Bandicoot, and so it was inevitable that a cute platform character would appear on the Xbox sooner or later, and who better to do it than Artoon, a development company consisting of ex-Sonic Team members? However, since the genre is packed with games, to get anywhere they needed to add something original and innovative, so while Mario's busy cleaning up pollution, the Xbox's new hero, called Blinx, is sweeping up time.

Although a lot of modern platform games have a 'hub world' from which other areas can be accessed, Blinx instead opts for the more traditional, linear approach of completing the stages in a set order. The game is split into many varied worlds, where each has three standard levels, followed by a boss, with 35 different areas to be completed in total. Also unlike most other platformers, Blinx has a very simple goal to each level; you simply have to destroy all the enemies and find the exit gate. Removing each enemy from the game is done by using Blinx's helpful vacuum cleaner (has he been getting tips from Luigi, I wonder?) - you first have to suck up some of the dustbins or other objects lying about the level, and then you can fire them back out at any nasty creature that might cross your path.

So initially Blinx seems like a fairly simple game, with only one goal per level and some pretty basic controls to get to grips with. However, the title's main innovation is in the ability to control time throughout each levels, which helps you destroy some of the game's tougher enemies and solve certain puzzles. Dotted throughout each level, and scattered about when you kill a bad guy, are time crystals that come in six different varieties. Whenever Blinx picks up a time crystal, it is added to his current stockpile of up to four crystals, and by matching three of the same type you can unlock a particular time control. For instance, getting three blue half-moon shaped crystals allows you to use a 'pause' time control, which will cause everything around you to stop moving for a certain amount of time, allowing you to move out of the way of projectiles and pick off the helpless enemies. There are also 'rewind', 'slow' and 'fast forward' controls which all have their various uses; for instance, the rewind option is very handy if a bridge has fallen down, since you can go back to when it was still standing and cross it. The game even has a 'record' control, which allows you to make a duplicate of yourself so that one of you can stand on a switch while the other walks through the gate it opens, and there are 'retry' crystals that rewind the game when you get hit by an enemy, effectively giving you an extra life.

However, although a really nice concept, there are some problems with the time control system that make the gameplay a little more annoying than it should be. Firstly, your time crystal stockpile can only hold a four crystals at once, and three of these have to be of the same type to give you one time control, with two time controls awarded to you if you get four of the same. However, you can't choose which time crystals you keep and which you discard, instead once you've picked one up you have to keep hold of it until you fill up your stockpile with either a valid combination or an invalid one so that the game discards all four crystals. Sometimes it can be really annoying if there are three crystals of the same type ahead of you, but you're already carrying two odd ones, since they can't be discarded until you've filled up your stockpile by finding two other crystals. It's also very easy to accidently pick up a crystal and muck up a combination, which is very annoying if that particular combination was essential for completing the level.

Despite the time control problems, Blinx does have some very good points. Graphically, it is one of the Xbox's nicer-looking games, with levels containing excellent, high-resolution textures, great lighting effects and highly detailed characters. The engine also uses a nice array of special effects when a time control is active, including motion-blur and depth focusing techniques, which make everything look really polished. The presentation is also superb, with some great menu screens that use the 'background video' effect first seen in titles like Gran Turismo 3. There's also plenty to do in the game, with hidden secrets in each of the levels and shops that allow you to buy new items and vacuum cleaner upgrades to aid your progress. The game's sound is generally good, with some nice background music and the usual platform-game effects, but some of the sound bites can be annoying, such as the tape rewind noise that plays whenever you use a retry.

Gameplay is really the only area in which the title doesn't seem to meet expectations. The time control system is flawed, and also seems unnecessary for most of the levels, making it more of a gimmick than a vital aspect of the game. Blinx also seems to move a lot more slowly than most other platform characters, so exploring the levels can be tedious sometimes, and the fact that you only need to be touched by an enemy to die also makes progress quite frustrating. Although the title goes back to the more traditional 'level-by-level' platform game approach, which is quite nice to see, it means that progress is very linear, so if you get stuck on one level you can't go and advance elsewhere in the game.

Overall, Blinx isn't a bad game - it just doesn't live up to the hype. Technically, it's superb, with some great looking levels, loads of nice effects and some incredibly detailed characters, but the gameplay seems too slow, with too few puzzles and bad execution of the title's main selling point; the time controls. However, it's a neat concept, and I certainly hope Blinx returns in a better thought out sequel.

Marc Hull

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Review Summary:

Although Blinx looks fantastic, it is let down by some fundamental gameplay flaws that become quite frustrating later on in the game. It's still a good game, but after promising much at this year's E3 show, it won't live up to many people's expectations.

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Blinx: The Time Sweeper
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