3RM @ NYCC 2012: Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion

Tony:

Disney Epic Mickey is Disney’s recent attempt to reintroduce Mickey back into the video game industry. While Disney Epic Mickey and its sequel, Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, are console games focusing more on 3D platforming and the moral choices between being good or bad, Disney Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion for the Nintendo 3DS focuses more on returning Mickey back to his 2D platforming days on the 16-bits consoles. At New York Comic Con 2012, I was able to try out the title for myself and it definitely fits the roll well.

As I just mentioned, Disney Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion plays like Mickey’s older excursions back on the 16-bit days. Unlike the console titles, the game is broken up into small levels which can be reselected via the level selection screen. Once in a level, Mickey must work his way through the stage to the exit. I managed to play the second stage and a little bit of the fourth stage in my playtime. Like in the old days, the paths to the exits were filled with spiked ceilings, moving platforms, and high ledges for Mickey to overcome. Reaching for the exit, I also encountered a number of enemies which could be taken out the same way they were defeated back in the day: by being stomped on. In some cases, Mickey had to jump off monsters in order to reach higher places. If I couldn’t jump because of a low or spiked ceiling, I could also use a spin attack to defeat the monsters nearby.

However, what is really important is the addition of paint and thinner. Taken from Epic Mickey, Mickey can use a magic paintbrush to shoot out paint and thinner at his opponents, although he has a limited supply of both. During my playtime, I had to use my paintbrush in order to defeat out-of-reach enemies behind some roots. Once they were dealt with, the roots disappeared and Mickey could continue. From what I gathered, the difference between using paint and thinner was what the monster dropped. Using paint, the monsters left behind hearts which healed Mickey, and using thinner, monsters left behind tickets, which I did not find a use for during my short hands-on.

Paint and Thinner also has a major importance in regards to the game’s platforming. While everything appears normal on the top screen, the touch screen reveals interactive objects which may or may not be there. In one case, I touched a stomping Pete obstacle via the touch screen. I then used thinner to wash out the block’s silhouette, trying to stay in the lines in order to get a better score. If I happened to use thinner outside the lines too much, I would have to start over again. Once the silhouette was gone, so was the obstacle on the top screen, making it easier to navigate through the room. In another case, Mickey could not reach a high platform, and I noticed a silhouette of another platform on the bottom screen. After selecting it, I had to paint along an outline in order to fill in the object. Again, like thinner, the game rates your tracing skill and will kick you out if you fail too much. Interestingly, the outlines being traced in didn’t have to be the object in question. One platform was a set of letter blocks so I had to trace a letter rather than the blocks. This kept things more interesting than if I had to paint in squares over and over again. Besides blocks, I also painted in Tinkerbell who said she would happily assist Mickey once Peter Pan was rescued. She also revealed to me the location of a bunch of tickets. During Mickey’s quest, I assume that he will be saving a multitude of Disney characters that in return will assist Mickey on his journey. 

There was one more unique thing I learned about using paint. After creating an object with paint, a meter fills up some. When the meter maxes out, Mickey become energized, allowing him to plow through enemies and run faster, which brings up the one thing that bothered me. Mickey’s normal walking speed was terribly slow, like he was moving through molasses. More than once, I tried to find a run button to make him go faster. While I might get used to it after playing the game longer, moving so slowly in a platforming game feels off. Otherwise, it is a spot-on 16-bit platformer.

Despite playing like an older game, Disney Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion takes advantage of the 3DS hardware to make the game look and feel more modern. Following the idea of illusions, each stage environment blends between various Disney worlds and the mysterious castle. The sprited backgrounds are colorful and surreal much like the Disney worlds they represent. While they are sprited, with the use of layers, parallax, and the 3DS’s 3D visuals, the backgrounds felt deep and expansive. One part I really found impressive was how the illusion backdrop appeared far way while the castle backdrop rested closer to me. As for the monsters and Mickey himself, their animations were fluid, much like the animation of a cartoon. The music of the game was also enjoyable and fit the mysterious castle theme and colorful locales. One little throwback I noticed was that the sound effects used for Mickey jumping on an enemy and grabbing an item were the same sounds used in the old Castle of Illusion games. There is no doubt that the developers of this game were big fans of the originals.

Disney Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion felt like a solid platformer from the old days of 2D platforming. With new ideas like the Paint and Thinner mechanic along with the blending worlds and characters, the game is definitely taking steps in the right direction.

Alex:

Before Epic Mickey released on the Wii last year, the happy-go-lucky Disney mascot had graced several consoles with adventures, and perhaps the most memorable of those adventures were in the Castle of Illusion series, released on the Sega Genesis and Sega Master System back in the early 1990's.  Now twenty years later, Dreamrift (Monster Tale) and Junction Point (Disney Epic Mickey) have come together to produce a brand new game, both reminiscent of the old Illusion series while also bringing new Epic Mickey flairs into the mix.  The game was playable at Nintendo's New York Comic Con booth this year, and after playing the game a short while, I can see the love put into it with a dash of concerns here and there.

In Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion, the world of the Castle of Illusion series has become the latest world to become part of the Wasteland, a land created by the great wizard Yen Sid to house lands and beings forgotten by the world.  However, the Castle's ruler, evil witch Mizrabel, does not wish to remain in the Wasteland and begins capturing still-famous toons in order to break free from the Wasteland for her own evil aims.  Thankfully, Oswald tells Mickey of the captured toons, including Minnie, and our rodent protagonist is off to defeat Mizrabel once more.

At first glance, Power of Illusion resembles the older Illusion games, with every character and item drawn in sprites rather than represented as 3D objects.  The background initially resembles those games, too, but the 3D display reveals a more deep, detailed design that the older consoles would most likely ignite trying to copy.  Animations have been made even smoother, too, modernizing the style to fit the current era.  If the sprited graphics were not enough to evoke nostalgia, the sound effects certainly will.  A number of the sound effects sound like they belonged on the older generations of systems, but here they play loud and clear on the Nintendo 3DS.  These older sounds are enhanced with a full soundtrack and occasional voice work which evoke the style of Epic Mickey onto the handheld space.

The first thing one might notice is that this game is not designed to be extremely fast-paced in the traditional sense.  In fact, Mickey moves a bit slower than you might expect, but considering the fact that the levels are a bit more claustrophobic than others, it might fit better as the game progresses.  Mickey has the ability to stomp on enemies as well as hit them with either Thinner or Paint, both of which have their own limited uses.  Defeating a monster with a particular method rewards you differently, either with health or with tickets to use elsewhere in the game.  Mickey can also use a spin attack when he is low on ammo and cannot get a jump on the enemy.  Besides his own arsenal of attacks, Mickey can make use of doodles that he gathers in his adventures.  At any point in time, players can touch the bottom screen to either erase or draw onjects in and out of existence.  I did find that the transition between completing a drawing or erasure took a bit longer than I expected, but there was enough variety in the drawings themselves to keep the experience fresh during my time on the demo.  I hope the game finds unique ways of using this doodle ability so that it does not degrade on the experience as it progresses.

Barring my concerns expressed above, the game looked and played great on the 3DSXL.  If the game can maintain the style I saw on the demo and without getting too repetitive with the doodles, I suspect this game will fit quite well with both the Epic Mickey and the Castle of Illusion series.

3RM @ NYCC 2012: Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon

Tony:

It has been almost eleven years since Luigi’s Mansion was released on the Nintendo Gamecube, and we are on our way to getting a sequel. Announced in E3 2011, Luigi’s Mansion 2, now called Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, is the long awaited sequel that hopes to expand on the ghost hunting series in new ways and new depths. Although it will not make it out until next year, I got a hands-on with it at Nintendo’s booth at New York Comic-Con 2012.

The demo on the show floor had three areas: a spooky mansion, a broken down clock tower, and a snow covered cabin. Throwing luck to the wind, I picked the farthest one into the game. In hindsight, for someone who had never played this game before, that was not the best idea, especially since the game's controls differ quite a bit from the original. After selecting the stage, the game listed three missions for the cabin, although the bottom two were still locked. The only mission selectable was to find a missing toad somewhere in the Chalet. After a quick briefing from Professor E. Gadd, Luigi was teleported to the cabin via security camera.  Who knew Willy Wonka and E. Gadd worked together for a time?

It did not take long for me to find Luigi’s Mansion-esque puzzles within the snowy environment, such as a hidden chest hidden under some snow or coins residing within a snowman’s head, which required me to shoot it with the Poltergust. Later, I had to shoot heated coal at an ice-covered door and send a puck straight into a hockey net, all of which felt fairly reminiscent of Luigi’s Mansion. Some puzzles in Dark Moon revolved around the new darklight. In front of the house stood a framed coin drawing sitting in a snow bank. After shining the darklight at it, the painting came to life and showered gold coins everywhere. Later this ability was used to reveal doors and paintings hidden by ectoplasmic orbs. Once revealed I had to quickly suck them up before they hid the object again. At the end of my playtime, the darklight was also used to free the missing toad from a painting, which lead to a hilarious cut scene that I hope is one of many that happens with poor, scardy-cat Luigi.

Just like its predecessor, Dark Moon is primarily a ghost-hunting game. After entering the Chalet, I was quickly confronted by a couple of ghosts. Unlike Luigi’s Mansion, these ghosts are not affected by the flashlight and instead must be dealt with using the new strobe function. After a second or so of charging, the strobe flashes in the direction Luigi faces and paralyzes the ghosts. Once paralyzed, I was able to suck up the ghost much like in Luigi’s Mansion. One added feature to combating ghosts is a suction meter that if filled up can not only suck up the ghost but also leave behind treasure. During the first encounter, I discovered the importance to knowing my surroundings. On the left side of the room was a large bearskin rug. When I approached it, it jumped up and scared Luigi. While it was funny, it also left him open for attack. If things like this happen throughout Dark Moon, I will have to keep my guard up and eyes open. In other rooms, I encountered ghosts carrying objects and wearing hockey headgear, which blocked the strobe. Clearly ghosts will set-up defenses against the strobe and require Luigi to get around them. In these cases, I had to wait until right before they attacked Luigi to flash the ghost, as the faces were no longer hidden. An issue I had with the combat was the aiming. In Luigi’s Mansion, there were two joysticks to aim and move Luigi. Here, I had to use the circle pad to do both while the X and B buttons aimed up and down. For someone who has played Luigi’s Mansion a lot, these controls felt fairly different. I hope with the extra development time Nintendo will add the Circle Pad Pro as a control option to help players of the first game get into this sequel more easily.

The visuals in Dark Moon look even better than Luigi’s Mansion did on the Gamecube. The environment is filled with details such as snowflakes and reflections on the ice. The best thing about the visuals was the character animation. The animations, especially Luigi’s, are fluid and add to the game’s cartoon humor, bringing the game to life. Seeing Luigi tremble as a bearskin rug roars at him is memorable as is his panicked look when the floor breaks beneath him. I would love to see what other hi-jinx Luigi takes part in. As for the music, it reminded me of Luigi’s Mansion without really sharing its theme. The serene, calm music outside matched the icy, abandoned landscape. Also having the music change as the lights in a room turn on was another nice touch brought over from the original. Considering the presentation, one concern I had was toward the frame rate. More than a few times, usually when vacuuming a ghost, the game would slow down and make it difficult to see if another ghost was coming for me. I hope Next Level Games smoothes this out before its release. Another issue is depth. When the 3D is up, telling where a ghost is relative to Luigi was easy. However, when in 2D, the game’s depth perception was a tad harder to grasp, leading me to flashing to the side of a ghost rather than spot on. This might have been a problem due to the game’s camera angle which takes advantage of the system’s 3D depth. Also, having to rotate the 3DS to adjust the camera around did not really help.

Filled with similar puzzles, interactive environments, and evolved gameplay, Dark Moon felt like what it should be: Luigi’s Mansion 2. With new diverse mansions, new challenges revolving around new power-ups, and new hilarious animations, this already feels like a classic. I just hope they polish it enough so its frame rate issues are fixed. Shame this did not make the Halloween season, but we can have some belated scares in early 2013.

3RM @ NYCC 2012: Paper Mario: Sticker Star

Tony:

Being a huge fan of the Paper Mario franchise, I was more than ecstatic to learn that a new Paper Mario was coming to the Nintendo 3DS, Paper Mario: Sticker Star. At New York Comic Con, I managed to briefly explore Mario’s new world at Nintendo’s booth, and I also got a quick feel for the game’s new battle system.

As in other Paper Mario games, Mario and company are literally paper-thin and live within a diorama-like world filled with trees and rivers that look like they were made of paper. Sticker Star even went so far as to make the very coins Mario collects to look like cardboard! Within the short time I had with the game, Paper Mario Sticker Star’s interesting use of the paper theme already has me guessing what surprises await later in the game.

My experience began right after Bowser Jr. took away the bridge I was about to cross and threw its crumbled remains on an unreachable ledge.  From there, I explored the grasslands I assumed were the first areas of the game.  Even so early in the game, the environment was filled with a number of interactive elements, from flowers which could be folded up by a hammer to tape which hid secret caverns. While looking around, I stumbled upon a group of scrambling toads. After talking to their leader, they decided to help me get the bridge back from a high ledge. Rather than follow Mario in a large group, they piled together much like a deck of cards or a stack of papers, and when they reached the ledge, they transformed into stairs for Mario to climb. Again, the game continued to emphasize its paper elements more than ever.

Getting the bridge back was not enough to bring it back across the river.  In order to bring the bridge back into the real world, Mario and his sticker partner Kersti would have to use Paperization magic.  When using Paperization, the game world flattens, leaving Mario and Kersti to apply the necessary sticker back onto the world, in this case, the bridge. She mentioned that this could be used anytime if I wanted to place stickers onto the world, but sadly, my playtime ended shortly after this so I was never able to experiment with it.

Besides exploring the grasslands, I returned to the overworld to explore a few other areas. I first tried to explore an area near a desert, but the path was blocked by a large door. On the door there were several shapes resembling various stickers I had in my collection. I most likely needed to use Paperization here and place the correct sticker on their respected shape in order to open the door. However, there was one shape I could not match with my sticker collection.  It is possible that this sticker might only become available after I complete the first area, giving access to the new region. The third area I explored was Decalburg, the game’s central city. Here there were a number of Toads hanging out as well as a shop where I could buy more stickers in case I ran out. There was also a save block and heart block similar to other Paper Mario adventures. It appears as though Mario will be returning here frequently in order to restock before entering new areas or facing off against bosses. One interesting thing I noticed was that the game saved every time I exited to the map. This might be a feature to allow more on-the-go playtime.  This is the first handheld Paper Mario game, after all.

Exploring Paper Mario was fun, but the real meat of the game was its new battle system. Surprisingly, Mario no longer has partners to assist him in battle, including Kersti. Secondly, in order to perform any attack, Mario needs to use a sticker. This had me concerned since this meant Mario had limited attacks. However, these stickers are quite plentiful throughout the world and can be easily peeled off the environments. They also come in a variety of qualities from worn-out to shiny. The shiny stickers were rarer and dealt more damage than the worn out sticker, which did far less. This mechanic added a little bit of strategy on which stickers to use as well as which stickers to collect since they take up space in Mario’s sticker book, which is located on the bottom screen. Much like other Paper Mario RPGs, by pressing the attack button at the right time, Mario performs a stronger attack and sometimes even hurts nearby enemies, too.  At the end of each battle, Mario receives a bunch of coins and no experience points, much to my surprise. Supposedly, in order to increase stats, Mario must complete side quests rather than grind in battles and gain levels. My concern here is that this will make battles more obsolete although Nintendo claims the coins earned in battle are still important. I will have to play more in order to see if that is the case. Besides that, the battle system is engaging and as fun as in other Paper Mario games. I just hope battles do not become tiring as I play.

Paper Mario Sticker Star is looking to be a very charming experience with its various paper effects and sticker themes. I will have to play it more in order to truly understand the changes made to the battle system as well as the new level-up mechanic, though. I also hope that the lack of partners does not take away from the experience. Besides that, Sticker Star has currently met my expectations, and I cannot wait for it to stick to me this November.

3RM @ NYCC 2012: Crashmo Impressions and Video

Tony:

In December 2011, Nintendo released the downloadable title Pushmo on the 3DS eShop. Critically praised for both its ingenuity and challenge, the game revolved around pushing and pulling colored blocks to create platforms needed to climb up the puzzle to reach the ending. Less than a year later, Nintendo has announced a sequel to Pushmo, Crashmo, which was playable at its New York Comic Con booth. Deep down I felt I was prepared for anything Nintendo would throw at me in Crashmo given the hours I had spent with Pushmo. However, within moments of getting my hands on the game, I quickly learned that the rules of the game had changed, making what would be a simple puzzle in Pushmo into a far more elaborate challenge in Crashmo.

Continuing the Pushmo franchise, Crashmo retains Pushmo’s colorful visuals and simplified characters. This playful exterior hides the game’s more challenging nature.  The same goes for the game’s soundtrack, which again is claming and fun while not being too intrusive. This is important since a more intrusive song would have tested my patience while I tried to complete a puzzle for the fifth time in a row.

Much like the visuals, the game’s controls were nearly identical to Pushmo. Mallo, the game’s lovable sumo protagonist, walks, jumps, pulls and pushes just like he did in Pushmo, but there is now the added feature to rotate the camera 360 degrees. Although I did not have to do that with the puzzles I played, it was a sign of things to come.

Like Pushmo, the point of the game is to reach the goal usually located at the top of the puzzle. However, how Mallo gets there has changed considerably.  Unlike the blocks in Pushmo that can be stretched or squished to make platforms, all the blocks in Crashmo are solid and cannot change shape. This meant I had to create stairs and platforms using the blocks provided. Besides being solid, these blocks are also affected by gravity, falling straight down until they hit another block, the floor, or Mallo, who can hold the blocks up but cannot not do anything else while under them. Since Moe couldn’t pick the blocks up if I made a mistake, the rewind function became even more useful here than in Pushmo.

One factor that does not affect the blocks is fiction. No matter how many blocks are on top of or next to the block Moe pushes, he will push the block and move any blocks in its way. However, any block that is not in the way such as the blocks on top remain in place and fall down with gravity. This adds new frustrations and strategies to the puzzles. In one puzzle, I needed a certain block to remain on top of another block while at the same time getting another block from the top. In order to do that, I had to push another block in front so when I pushed the bottom block, the block I wanted to stay remained because it was blocked (no pun intended).

After playing a number of puzzles I can conclude that Crashmo is the prefect sequel to Pushmo. Crashmo retains the same push-pull game play of Pushmo but also changes the rules to the point where it requires a brand new approach to solving the puzzles. I look forward to screaming at my 3DS when this comes out this November.

---

Alex:

I was not prepared for Crashmo.  I thought I was, having played through the vast majority of its predecessor, but I was still unprepared for the insanity Crashmo presented at Nintendo’s New York Comic Con booth this year.

Crashmo is the sequel to last year’s 3DS eShop hit, Pushmo.  Our sumo friend Mallo has returned again, but this time, the blocks he moves go in every direction possible.  The game begins with Mallo meeting up with Papa Blox who introduces him to his grandniece Poppy.  Mallo greets her with a sumo pose, but the force of his pose scares all of Poppy’s birds away, leaving Mallo to go find them for her!  Unlike Pushmo, however, the birds land on top of a very different type of block formation.

Crashmo’s goal may be similar, but the concepts behind the gameplay itself are quite different.  In Pushmo, Mallo had to pull out color segments from images so that he could reach the top and rescue the child trapped in the Pushmo.  In Crashmo, though, Mallo has to push and pull blocks which stack upon one another and obey the laws of gravity (for the most part).  This makes moving a single block much more complicated; one bad move could lead to the whole puzzle falling to pieces.  In Pushmo, puzzles could be taken one layer at a time, but with Crashmo, a bit more foresight must be used to correctly build the puzzle into a stairway to the bird.  It is this change that ultimately makes Crashmo even more puzzling than its predecessor.

Aesthetically, the game matches that if Pushmo very closely.  All of the characters and environments resemble that of Pushmo, and the music is just as cheerful and soothing as ever.  Building and sharing levels are still major elements of the game, but from the looks of it, the levels still need to be shared via QR codes.  Still, I cannot wait for the deluge of puzzles created from Pushmo puzzles and vice versa.  It just might be a little more difficult to produce these new puzzles initially.

I found myself having trouble grasping the fact that moving a block only moved that one block, regardless of whether other blocks were standing atop of the moved block.  I guess the blocks do not have any real friction in this world.  Either way, walking into Crashmo with Pushmo experience was partly ineffective.  I would say that anyone who thought Pushmo was too easy or too difficult might be singing a completely different tune with Crashmo.  It takes the idea of Pushmo and makes it unique again.

I just hope I will finally be prepared when Crashmo comes out November.  Or else I'll need to tape the 3DS to my hands so as not to throw it against the wall!

Third Rate Game Play: Blinx: The Time Sweeper

Game: Blinx: The Time Sweeper System: Xbox Developer: Artoon (Pinobee) Publisher: Microsoft Player: Tony Experience: Had played briefly once before

Over a decade ago, Microsoft entered the gaming industry with the Xbox, and in that generation of gaming, the company attempted to create a variety of new IPs with the help of multiple developers worldwide.  While Halo was providing a great base for first person shooter fans and western gamers, Microsoft needed to create a mascot that would be seen as less violent and more marketable.  Where Nintendo had Mario, Sega had Sonic, and Namco had Pac-Man, Microsoft would have Blinx: The Time Sweeper.

Blinx: The Time Sweeper was developed by Japanese company Artoon, headed by Naoto Oshima, one of the founders of Sonic the Hedgehog.  Oshima started development within Sega as far back as 1988 with Kujaku-O (known as Spellcaster in the US), an adventure title based on the manga Spirit Warrior.  After designing The Last Battle and Phantasy Star II, Oshima, along with Hirokazu Yasuhara and Yuji Naka, would produce Sega’s big mascot adventure: Sonic the Hedgehog.  While Oshima worked on the character design, Yasuhara worked on the game design and Naka developed the programming behind it.  After Sonic became a big hit, Naka and Yasuhara left to work on Sonic the Hedgehog 2 with Sega Technical Institute, and Oshima remained with Sega’s Japanese Sonic Team to work on a new title for the Sega CD: Sonic CD.  Under Sonic Team, Oshima continued to direct while Naka led as Producer, spanning across such games as NiGHTS into Dreams and Burning Rangers for the Sega Saturn.  By 1999, however, Oshima was finding himself disinterested in Sonic Team’s direction, and after his roles in Sonic Adventure, he left the company to form Artoon on August 27, 1999.

Artoon would begin its development history with Pinobee: Wings of Adventure (published by Activision) for the GameBoy Advance in 2001.  Pinobee is a robotic bee built to protect the world, and his dash attacks and other abilities are all upgradable within the game’s multiple worlds.  Pinobee would see a rerelease on PlayStation in 2002, and a Japan-only sequel was developed, Pinobee and Phoebee.  While Artoon was working on advancing the Pinobee franchise, it was working alongside Microsoft on developing Blinx: The Time Sweeper.

Microsoft Game Studios was the game publisher branding for Microsoft as of July 2002.  Microsoft itself was founded by Paul Allen and Bill Gates in 1975, initially selling BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800.  Microsoft would become famous for the development of MS-DOS and subsequently the development of Windows, which debuted November 1984.  Over time, Windows and Microsoft Office have held a majority share in both OS and office software markets.  Microsoft’s first published PC title (from MobyGames) would be 1979’s Microsoft Adventure, a Softwin Associates-developed computer port of the adventure game Colossal Cave.  Other major titles include the Microsoft Flight Simulator series debuted in 1982, the hit puzzle game Minesweeper, released in 1992, and Ensemble Studios’ Age of Empires in 1997.

Microsoft began its venture into console development with the creation of the Xbox, which launched stateside in 2001.  Development began in 1998 when Kevin Bachus, Seamus Blackley, Ted Hase and Otto Berkes from the DirectX team began to develop a video game console based on PC equipment.  With the help of Ed Fries, head of Microsoft’s game publishing division, the “DirectX Box,” later renamed to Xbox, would be developed and eventually unveiled at GDC 2000.  In order to bring more attention to the high-end console, Microsoft acquired Bungie Software in June that year.  At the same time, Microsoft would move on to publish games exclusive to the Xbox from multiple software developers.  These include Oddworld: Munch’s Odyssey by Oddworld Inhabitants, Project Gotham Racing by Bizarre Creations, Amped: Freestyle Snowboard by Indie Built, Fusion Frenzy by Blitz Games, and Azurik: Rise of Perathia by Adrenium Games.

In 2002, while Blinx and other major titles were in development, Microsoft formed Microsoft Game Studios.  From here, Microsoft Game Studios would handle all publishing and distribution for the Xbox.

Blinx is a cat on a mission to fix glitches in time. With the aid of his trusty and powerful Time Sweeper, Blinx must recover lost time crystals, fight Time Monsters, and ultimately rescue a kidnapped princess. Visit nearly 40 levels in warped-reality worlds inspired by Venice, canyons, caves, ancient ruins, and even the works of artist MC Escher. You can also buy gear and power-ups, which enhance gameplay performance, or you can purchase enhanced versions of the Time Sweeper.

~Description

What's most important is gameplay. Gameplay, gameplay, gameplay. It all starts with the gameplay and the game design. Once we have that where we have the basic concept of what sort of play is going to be involved, from there comes the character design, the world design and the environment….With Blinx when I first created the character, I was looking for a character that would appeal to the Japanese market. At that point, we still had a lot of hopes for the Japanese market. While Blinx isn't totally American, in Blinx 1, the character is very, very cute. The way I made the character appeal to the Japanese market was by adding lots and lots of detail. With Blinx 1, the fur was super detailed.

~Naoto Oshima (about creating Blinx), Director, Artoon [1UP]

Blinx: The Time Sweeper is a platforming adventure title with time-manipulation elements playing a major role.  Players assume the role of Blinx, and cat who lives in the Time Factory, a land existing outside of the realm of time.  In fact, the Time Factory and its inhabitants are tasked with providing time crystals to multiple worlds across the universe to allow their occupants to live on happily.  When things go awry, the time crystals can become monsters, but thankfully Time Sweepers can work at defeating said monsters and maintaining order in every world.  When dimension B1Q64 is attacked by the pig Tom-Tom gang, however, things go terribly wrong; as the gang proceeds to gather as many time crystals as they can, monsters grow and emerge en masse, threatening to destroy the land and spread to other worlds.  Before the Time Sweepers can cut off the link to the Time Factory, Blinx jumps into B1Q64’s warp tunnel, aimed to save the world and earn the world's Princess’ affection in the process.

The game is a slow-paced platformer with time-based puzzles incorporated into each level.  The purposes of each stage is for Blinx to defeat each of the monsters present in the area before exiting through a portal at the end.  At times, members of the Tom-Tom gang will emerge to attack Blinx, as well.  In order for Blinx to harm either Tom-Tom or monster, he has to suck in random items into his vacuum, the TS-1000, and shoot the debris back at them to cause damage.  While traversing around each level, there may be landmarks which collapse or shift out of reach for Blinx to reach, and sometimes enemies or markers may be too hard to defeat in real-time.  Thankfully, Blinx can acquire Time Powers by obtaining at least three similar Time Crystals out of four collected at a time.  These powers range from rewinding the world around Blinx to recording a copy of himself to assist him in puzzles and battles alike.  At the end of each level, what Blinx has collected gives him money to spend in a Shop for upgrades later in the game, and players are graded based on time performance, with each level limited to ten minutes.  There are no lives, but rather, Blinx has a set number of Retries which can be increased by gathering three heart Time Crystals in a set of four.  At the end of each Round, Blinx will face off against a large monster reminiscent of smaller monsters fought in the adventure.

After Blinx, Artoon would develop a sequel, Blinx 2: Masters of Time and Space in 2004.  In this sequel, players assume the role of either a Time Sweeper or a Tom Tom, and Blinx and other characters from the predecessor act as secondary characters, assisting players as they attempt to piece together the legendary Big Crystal.  Despite the attempts made to make Blinx a formidable mascot for the Xbox branding, the character failed to garner much clout outside of Japan, where he remained the mascot throughout the lifecycle of the Xbox.  Instead, many adopted Master Chief as the unofficial mascot of Microsoft, and as the company moved forward, he would become Microsoft’s biggest character.

Besides working on Blinx’s sequel, Artoon would begin its development history with Nintendo.  In 2004, the developer created Yoshi: Topsy Turvy, a platforming adventure title in which players can tilt the GameBoy Advance to help Yoshi traverse the world and complete the levels’ special goals.  The game did well enough that a couple years later Artoon would develop another Yoshi title for Nintendo, Yoshi’s Island DS.  The company’s last major title developed for Nintendo was the Wii Remote Plus arcade game FlingSmash which released in 2010.

Artoon’s collaborations expanded beyond just Nintendo and Microsoft.  Artoon would work with Sony on Echoshift, a PSP spinoff of the Game Yarouze-developed Echochrome.  The company also developed Club Penguin: Game Day! on Wii for Disney in 2010.  One of Artoon’s biggest collaborations would come with Mistwalker, the design company headed by Final Fantasy-creator Hironobu Sakaguchi.  These projects include Blue Dragon (published by Microsoft) and Away: Shuffle Dungeon (published by Majesco).

Artoon was busily developing a few more projects when, in 2011, parent company AQ Interactive announced that it would be absorbing Artoon and other development subsidiaries feelplus and Cavia.  While not credited as Artoon-developed, the Nintendo-published and Mistwalker-collaboration project The Last Story was developed by what was mostly Artoon.  Also, while there is no definite proof right now, there is speculation that Artoon was working on the 3DS platformer Cubic Ninja, published by Ubisoft, before being merged into AQ Interactive.

After the merger, AQ Interactive would itself go through a merger with Marvelous Interactive and Liveware to create Marvelous AQL.  Since the merger in October 2011, Marvelous AQL has had one game release in the US – the Nintendo-published and Square Enix-co-developed board game Fortune Street on Wii.  In Japan, the company has developed other games including the female ninja side-scrolling action series Senran Kagura.  Currently, Marvelous AQL project Harvest Moon: A New Beginning will be releasing this November and Rune Factory 4 (developed by Neverland Co.) is expected for a US release at some time, as well.  MAQL is notably working with Keiji Inafune, known for Mega Man and Onimusha, on a number of projects, too, including Soul Sacrifice on the PlayStation Vita and Kaio: King of Pirates for the Nintendo 3DS.

But where was Naoto Oshima in all of this?  Before the merger into AQ Interactive was complete, Oshima left the company with other developers of Artoon to create a new company: Arzest Corporation.  Arzest has worked predominantly with Nintendo since its inception, but the company has yet to release a major release since 2010.  The company’s first works were three games in Wii Play: Motion: Spooky Search, Jump Park, and Cone Zone.  After that, Arzest was behind the development of the 2011 StreetPass Mii Plaza update, including the addition of Find Mii II and improvements to Puzzle Swap and StreetPass Map sections of the program.  We have no information as to what else Arzest is working on.

Microsoft Game Studios has since released a vast library of titles for Xbox, its successor the Xbox 360, Games for Windows, Windows Phone, and downloadable platforms such as Xbox Live Arcade.  Shortly after the release of Blinx, Microsoft acquired Nintendo developer Rareware, and from that developer, Microsoft has published such games as Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Conker: Live and Reloaded, Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo: Elements of Power, the Viva Piñata series, and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts.  More recently, Rare has been behind the development of Avatars and the Kinect Sports series.

More major franchises published my Microsoft include Fable (started in 2004 by Lionhead Studios), Forza Motorsport (started in 2005 by Turn 10 Studios), and Gears of War (started in 2006, an Epic Games property).  As for more specific projects, Microsoft Game Studios has released Kung-Fu Chaos (developed by Just Add Monsters, now Ninja Theory), Voodoo Vince (developed by Beep Industries), MechAssault (developed by Day 1 Studios), Jade Empire and Mass Effect with BioWare, Crackdown (developed by Real Time Worlds, sequel by Ruffian Games), Lips (developed by iNiS), and Kinect Joy Ride (developed by BigPark).  Any independent game released on XBLA and Windows Phone will also be stated as published by Microsoft if they themselves do not have publishing power.

Currently, Microsoft is working heavily on producing new Xbox 360 projects, including Xbox SmartGlass, a multi-device program which allows data from the Xbox 360 to stream onto mobile devices to provide insight on particular game or movie content in real-time.  As for game software, Microsoft Game Studios (now named Microsoft Studios) is headed to publish 343 Industries’ Halo 4, Sumo Digital’s Nike+ Kinect Training, Lionhead Studios’ Fable: The Journey, and Turn 10 and Playground Games’ Forza Horizon this year.  As for future plans, Microsoft Studios is working with Crytek on Kinect action title Ryse, and People Can Fly (as part of Epic Games) is working on Gears of War: Judgment for early 2013.  Smaller titles to emerge on XBLA by Microsoft include Twisted Pixel’s LocoCycle, Signal Studios’ Ascend: New Gods, and Blind Wink Games’ Matter.  No Blinx sequel has been discussed and with the absorption of Artoon and failure of its first sequel, it can be assumed the series is over.

Having never played many games for Xbox outside of a handful of titles, a good portion of which had Halo in the title, we decided to take a look at the older Xbox catalog, particularly those games which could run on an Xbox 360.  We had seen videos of Blinx: The Time Sweeper, and curiosity got to us…but would it kill us much like the cat?

In this episode, we venture into Blinx’s first two Rounds: Time Square and Déjà vu Canals.  Beforehand, we try to load demos from old Xbox games but quickly find that to fail rather swiftly.  We do not try for high marks, but we do explore where we can with little knowledge on what to do, even after having played it once before.

After having played through two Rounds of Blinx, it is easy to see where it may have lost appeal in the mainstream view.  Blinx is slower in all ways than Mario, whether by gameplay design or technical issues; framerate specifically became a problem throughout the recording.  Meanwhile, the game’s platforming element was not as heavily-focused as in other mascot platformers.  In fact, the game appeared to rely more on attacking monsters rather than making difficult jumps.  The Time Crystal mechanics were used well enough in the rounds we played, but outside of a couple specific moments, the game did not really need time manipulation to complete.  Still, when the time manipulation was used, the effects were acceptable, considering it was an Xbox original.

The style was solid, and the music was active and poppy, which further emphasized the style.  The biggest issue the game had from my perspective was the framerate, which pulled the game into a slow crawl.  Either way, we enjoyed what part of the game we played.

We actually recorded this game back in 2010, just as we were receiving our HD PVR capture device.  We would not receive a full widescreen TV for HD recording for a while longer, so the quality is not exactly the best it could be.  Meanwhile, as we recorded it twice, you might notice an attempt or two to make a joke which did not turn out exactly as anticipated.  It should be mentioned that the first time playing the game, we had issues fighting the second boss for one reason or another.  This was rectified in the recording you see here, thank goodness!

Will we continue Blinx: The Time Sweeper in the future?  If fans are willing to ask us, we will.  The biggest issue in getting it is that Gamefly has such a low supply of the game, it may very well be impossible to obtain again.  Perhaps we will need to acquire it permanently or have it lent to us or something.  Either way, we appreciate any feedback!

3RM Says: So much work to sweep so much time...should

have upgraded to the vacuum. *cough*