Blinx: The Time Sweeper
Posted December 23, 2002
Mascots sell systems, and no genre of game creates easily identifiable mascots like the tried-and-true platformer. Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog has only ventured onto the GameCube so far this generation, and Nintendo's roster also includes Mario, the pudgy plumber that defined what a platformer is in the first place. Though a character with that sort of marquee value has yet to emerge from the Playstation 2, it's still enjoyed a string of platform successes like Jak and Dexter and Ratchet and Clank. The XBox was the only console without a serious, exclusive contender in the platformer department, an oversight that seemed destined to be corrected with the arrival of Blinx: The Timesweeper. Microsoft's Artoon-developed entry captured seemingly everyone's attention at E3, showered with endless praise by the gaming press and propelling expectations clear into the stratosphere. Meeting such high expectations would've been exceptionally difficult for any game, and Blinx, unfortunately, isn't quite up to the challenge.
Although time seems to pass without a hitch, it's not merely some fundamental concept of the universe as we've been misled to believe. No, time is a manufactured product cobbled together by the dedicated felines at the Time Factory, and it's up to the Timesweepers to clean up any imperfections that may sneak into the timestream in the process. Adding more work to the Timesweepers' already busy schedule are those geniuses of love, the Tom-Tom Gang, who have invaded world B1Q64 (I keep thinking this is some sort of Bumper Stumpers-style pun, but I haven't figured it out yet). As platformer convention requires, the princess has been snatched, and time crystals have inexplicably begun to transform into monsters. The skittish folks at the Time Factory are ready to write B1Q64 off as a loss, but Blinx, realizing a game with his name in the title wouldn't be much fun otherwise, bravely hops into a portal to save the day.
Gameplay:
It's a given in platformers that the cute, cuddly lead character will have to hop around levels, gathering whatever icons happen to be littering the landscape. In Blinx, the pursuit isn't quite as mindless as most. There's the standard gold, which can be put towards purchases at the duty-free Timesweeper shop, as well as Cat Medals that unlock animations and sketches. The strategy in Blinx comes in the form of the time crystals that are scattered around each level and appear whenever an enemy is dispatched. The gems are the key to the time powers -- Pause, Slow-Motion, Rewind, Record, Fast Forward, and Retry -- that set Blinx apart from the rest of its platformer contemporaries.
Most of the powers are fairly self-explanatory. "Pause" freezes enemies and the landscape for a few seconds. "Rewind" reverses the flow of time, often used to repair a damaged piece of the landscape or something along those lines. "Record" records the character's movements for a few seconds, then a phantom Blinx replays those actions, allowing Blinx to interact with a duplicate of himself. "Slow-Motion" slows down the game's action, while "Fast Forward" speeds it up. "Retry" gives Blinx another opportunity to duke it out with an enemy after taking damage.
Gems are collected in batches of four. Three gems of the same type bestow upon Blinx a single instance of a particular power, and collecting four like gems give him a double shot. Once a gem is picked up, it cannot be dropped. The only way to correct a mistake is to pick up more gems, possibly losing out on another power in the process. This doesn't mean that Blinx just has to hop on gems in some sort of specific order. Blinx is limited in how many time abilities he can carry at any given time, and newly acquired powers come at the expense of whatever unused ones he may have in his inventory. Additional slots for powers and retries can be purchased should the need arise, and oh, it will.
Also available at the shop are upgrades for Blinx' weapon. As the game begins, Blinx is armed with a TS-1000 sweeper, which is basically a glorified vacuum cleaner. Any contact with the monsters that skulk about B1Q64 is fatal, and the only way to return them to their crystalline form is to suck up nearby garbage and shoot it at the buggers. Larger items require more suction power, and other sweeper models allow Blinx to gobble up particularly monstrous pieces of trash, as well as to sweep up elements like fire, sand, and water.
As inventive as the concept of manipulating time in a game is, it's not implemented in Blinx as well as it could've been, often coming across as more of a gimmick than an integral part of the gameplay. Entire levels can pass without Blinx having to dip his paw into his chronal bag of tricks, and even when he does, it's often merely to repair a fallen bridge or something equally mundane. It's not until the later levels that the time powers seem to be added in as more than an afterthought. If the Fast Forward power could make Blinx move faster, I'd be snagging every triangular yellow gem in sight, but the character moves at a maddeningly sluggish pace no matter what.
Although Blinx can hop around time any which way but loose, he can't tackle the linear distribution of the game's levels in quite the same way. To stroll into level 4-3, the player has to have completed 4-2, and to get that far, 4-1 has to be finished, etc., etc., etc. Although Blinx has to follow the same linear path to new levels, he can -- and is basically forced to -- revisit earlier levels. Sometimes this can be a plus. Collected time powers and retries carry over from level to level, and it's much easier to gobble them up in the earlier stages of the game. The game also tracks the fastest completion time and ranks the player accordingly, providing an incentive to roar through levels more quickly the second time around. There are also hidden items in some levels that can't be unveiled until pricey new equipment is purchased later in the game. The biggest motivation for trotting through levels a second or third time isn't to unearth Cat Medals, but to scrape together every piece of gold to snag some of the pricier items in the shop. Neither the positioning of the monsters nor the overall difficulty change when a level is revisited, which makes me wonder what the point of a Timesweeper is if their work is so quickly undone. Many levels can't be sufficiently explored in a single try, thanks to a ten minute time limit per stage. I'm not entirely sure why a lead character who can manipulate time would be bound by an arbitrary counter.
Easily the most frustrating element of the game is its camera, which whips around wildly. My thumb remained on the right thumbstick for the duration, adjusting the camera almost as frequently as I'd move Blinx around with the left stick. Between the awkward camera and the highly questionable auto-aiming of Blinx' sweepers, I often found myself unnecessarily using a Retry after a brush with a monster or missing what should've been an easy shot.
Graphics:
Blinx: The Timesweeper is a graphically mixed bag. Its cute, spunky title character looks fantastic, every bit as marketable as a mascot ought to be. Not nearly as much thought has been put into his enemies, a number of which are little more than amorphous blobs or checkered spheres. This improves marginally as Blinx progresses, but many of the time monsters and level bosses just feel as if they were hastily churned out to get the game on shelves in time for the holidays. The monsters look wholly out of place in the gorgeously rendered levels, which are both richly detailed and skewed with a cartoon sensibility.
As is the case for all but a handful of titles on the XBox, owners of HDTVs can play Blinx at 480p, though the game lacks the 16x9 mode becoming increasingly prevalent on games for the system.
Audio:
The most notable aspect of Blinx' Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is the electro-pop soundtrack, which, if primarily in the earlier levels, can be infectiously catchy. The sound effects, on the other hand, tend to be pretty drab, many of which sound as if they were lifted from the Hanna-Barbera library rather than created originally for this game. The voice work on Blinx is sparse, limited to a couple of unintelligible high-pitched squeals.
I'll rattle off some technical notes for the home theater crowd. The rear channels provide some directional cues, such as the stock springing sound of ChronoBlobs bobbing behind Blinx, as well as scattered ambiance in some levels. Certain sound effects, such as the chimes as menus are navigated, are also reinforced by the surrounds. The rears otherwise remain silent, as the game's soundtrack sticks entirely to the front speakers. The center speaker often gets short thrift in the six-channel gaming world, but in Blinx, it provides occasional sound effects and ambiant sounds, such as the flowing of sand in the Hourglass Caves. The soundtrack is responsible for most of the subwoofer activity, but the collapse of towers and bridges are accompanied by a respectable rumble.
Conclusion:
Blinx: The Timesweeper is a disappointment. I don't mean to suggest that the game is some sort of wretched, unplayable monstrosity, but Blinx doesn't live up to the outrageously high expectations set for what was supposed to be a revolutionary platformer. With significantly more time invested in pre-production and some considerable polishing, Blinx very well could've met or even surpassed the hype. The end product feels rushed, and hopefully Artoon will be given a little more time to iron out some of Blinx' flaws when the inevitable sequel rolls around.
I enjoyed Blinx in small doses. A couple of levels in a sitting were reasonably enjoyable, but tackling any more than that left me quickly frustrated. I never really found myself fighting the urge to grab a controller and pop Blinx in my XBox in quite the same way that games like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and MechAssault did. Despite its flaws, Blinx follows the platformer formula closely enough that it can still be fun. An okay game doesn't warrant dropping fifty bucks, though, and a rental or a demo spin would be the way to go before plunking down any cash for a purchase.
The XBox needs a killer platformer, and between the upcoming Tork and Microsoft's acquisition of Rare, I don't think one's too terribly far off on the horizon. Unfortunately for gamers salivating for a platformer fix here and now, Blinx isn't it. Rent It.
Although time seems to pass without a hitch, it's not merely some fundamental concept of the universe as we've been misled to believe. No, time is a manufactured product cobbled together by the dedicated felines at the Time Factory, and it's up to the Timesweepers to clean up any imperfections that may sneak into the timestream in the process. Adding more work to the Timesweepers' already busy schedule are those geniuses of love, the Tom-Tom Gang, who have invaded world B1Q64 (I keep thinking this is some sort of Bumper Stumpers-style pun, but I haven't figured it out yet). As platformer convention requires, the princess has been snatched, and time crystals have inexplicably begun to transform into monsters. The skittish folks at the Time Factory are ready to write B1Q64 off as a loss, but Blinx, realizing a game with his name in the title wouldn't be much fun otherwise, bravely hops into a portal to save the day.
Gameplay:
It's a given in platformers that the cute, cuddly lead character will have to hop around levels, gathering whatever icons happen to be littering the landscape. In Blinx, the pursuit isn't quite as mindless as most. There's the standard gold, which can be put towards purchases at the duty-free Timesweeper shop, as well as Cat Medals that unlock animations and sketches. The strategy in Blinx comes in the form of the time crystals that are scattered around each level and appear whenever an enemy is dispatched. The gems are the key to the time powers -- Pause, Slow-Motion, Rewind, Record, Fast Forward, and Retry -- that set Blinx apart from the rest of its platformer contemporaries.
Most of the powers are fairly self-explanatory. "Pause" freezes enemies and the landscape for a few seconds. "Rewind" reverses the flow of time, often used to repair a damaged piece of the landscape or something along those lines. "Record" records the character's movements for a few seconds, then a phantom Blinx replays those actions, allowing Blinx to interact with a duplicate of himself. "Slow-Motion" slows down the game's action, while "Fast Forward" speeds it up. "Retry" gives Blinx another opportunity to duke it out with an enemy after taking damage.
Gems are collected in batches of four. Three gems of the same type bestow upon Blinx a single instance of a particular power, and collecting four like gems give him a double shot. Once a gem is picked up, it cannot be dropped. The only way to correct a mistake is to pick up more gems, possibly losing out on another power in the process. This doesn't mean that Blinx just has to hop on gems in some sort of specific order. Blinx is limited in how many time abilities he can carry at any given time, and newly acquired powers come at the expense of whatever unused ones he may have in his inventory. Additional slots for powers and retries can be purchased should the need arise, and oh, it will.
Also available at the shop are upgrades for Blinx' weapon. As the game begins, Blinx is armed with a TS-1000 sweeper, which is basically a glorified vacuum cleaner. Any contact with the monsters that skulk about B1Q64 is fatal, and the only way to return them to their crystalline form is to suck up nearby garbage and shoot it at the buggers. Larger items require more suction power, and other sweeper models allow Blinx to gobble up particularly monstrous pieces of trash, as well as to sweep up elements like fire, sand, and water.
As inventive as the concept of manipulating time in a game is, it's not implemented in Blinx as well as it could've been, often coming across as more of a gimmick than an integral part of the gameplay. Entire levels can pass without Blinx having to dip his paw into his chronal bag of tricks, and even when he does, it's often merely to repair a fallen bridge or something equally mundane. It's not until the later levels that the time powers seem to be added in as more than an afterthought. If the Fast Forward power could make Blinx move faster, I'd be snagging every triangular yellow gem in sight, but the character moves at a maddeningly sluggish pace no matter what.
Although Blinx can hop around time any which way but loose, he can't tackle the linear distribution of the game's levels in quite the same way. To stroll into level 4-3, the player has to have completed 4-2, and to get that far, 4-1 has to be finished, etc., etc., etc. Although Blinx has to follow the same linear path to new levels, he can -- and is basically forced to -- revisit earlier levels. Sometimes this can be a plus. Collected time powers and retries carry over from level to level, and it's much easier to gobble them up in the earlier stages of the game. The game also tracks the fastest completion time and ranks the player accordingly, providing an incentive to roar through levels more quickly the second time around. There are also hidden items in some levels that can't be unveiled until pricey new equipment is purchased later in the game. The biggest motivation for trotting through levels a second or third time isn't to unearth Cat Medals, but to scrape together every piece of gold to snag some of the pricier items in the shop. Neither the positioning of the monsters nor the overall difficulty change when a level is revisited, which makes me wonder what the point of a Timesweeper is if their work is so quickly undone. Many levels can't be sufficiently explored in a single try, thanks to a ten minute time limit per stage. I'm not entirely sure why a lead character who can manipulate time would be bound by an arbitrary counter.
Easily the most frustrating element of the game is its camera, which whips around wildly. My thumb remained on the right thumbstick for the duration, adjusting the camera almost as frequently as I'd move Blinx around with the left stick. Between the awkward camera and the highly questionable auto-aiming of Blinx' sweepers, I often found myself unnecessarily using a Retry after a brush with a monster or missing what should've been an easy shot.
Graphics:
Blinx: The Timesweeper is a graphically mixed bag. Its cute, spunky title character looks fantastic, every bit as marketable as a mascot ought to be. Not nearly as much thought has been put into his enemies, a number of which are little more than amorphous blobs or checkered spheres. This improves marginally as Blinx progresses, but many of the time monsters and level bosses just feel as if they were hastily churned out to get the game on shelves in time for the holidays. The monsters look wholly out of place in the gorgeously rendered levels, which are both richly detailed and skewed with a cartoon sensibility.
As is the case for all but a handful of titles on the XBox, owners of HDTVs can play Blinx at 480p, though the game lacks the 16x9 mode becoming increasingly prevalent on games for the system.
Audio:
The most notable aspect of Blinx' Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is the electro-pop soundtrack, which, if primarily in the earlier levels, can be infectiously catchy. The sound effects, on the other hand, tend to be pretty drab, many of which sound as if they were lifted from the Hanna-Barbera library rather than created originally for this game. The voice work on Blinx is sparse, limited to a couple of unintelligible high-pitched squeals.
I'll rattle off some technical notes for the home theater crowd. The rear channels provide some directional cues, such as the stock springing sound of ChronoBlobs bobbing behind Blinx, as well as scattered ambiance in some levels. Certain sound effects, such as the chimes as menus are navigated, are also reinforced by the surrounds. The rears otherwise remain silent, as the game's soundtrack sticks entirely to the front speakers. The center speaker often gets short thrift in the six-channel gaming world, but in Blinx, it provides occasional sound effects and ambiant sounds, such as the flowing of sand in the Hourglass Caves. The soundtrack is responsible for most of the subwoofer activity, but the collapse of towers and bridges are accompanied by a respectable rumble.
Conclusion:
Blinx: The Timesweeper is a disappointment. I don't mean to suggest that the game is some sort of wretched, unplayable monstrosity, but Blinx doesn't live up to the outrageously high expectations set for what was supposed to be a revolutionary platformer. With significantly more time invested in pre-production and some considerable polishing, Blinx very well could've met or even surpassed the hype. The end product feels rushed, and hopefully Artoon will be given a little more time to iron out some of Blinx' flaws when the inevitable sequel rolls around.
I enjoyed Blinx in small doses. A couple of levels in a sitting were reasonably enjoyable, but tackling any more than that left me quickly frustrated. I never really found myself fighting the urge to grab a controller and pop Blinx in my XBox in quite the same way that games like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and MechAssault did. Despite its flaws, Blinx follows the platformer formula closely enough that it can still be fun. An okay game doesn't warrant dropping fifty bucks, though, and a rental or a demo spin would be the way to go before plunking down any cash for a purchase.
The XBox needs a killer platformer, and between the upcoming Tork and Microsoft's acquisition of Rare, I don't think one's too terribly far off on the horizon. Unfortunately for gamers salivating for a platformer fix here and now, Blinx isn't it. Rent It.