Vexx

"vex - tr.v. vexed, vex·ing, vex·es 1. To bring distress or suffering to; plague or afflict."

I would assume that Vexx is most likely the product of the same thing that brought about such revered and well known platformers as Dr. Muto and Ty the Tasmanian Tiger. Higher ups at the companies that put out games like these probably all got together in a room and said to themselves ''Hey, I bet if we had one o' these 'mascot' things, people would notice us more, eh?'' and thus, characters like Vexx are born. Obviously sent through the rigors of the marketing department before it got to the cutting block, Vexx sports all of the now-typical assets of a corporate mascot, from his 'in your face' character, to the rebellious, edgy attitude that any adolescent can appreciate.

Vexx's story reads like just about every other platformer in the history of man. Vexx's tranquil and peace loving homeland of Overwood is suddenly (and for no apparent reason) invaded by a big bad guy named Dark Yabu. Dark Yabu then enslaves Vexx's people and kills his grandfather before his eyes, no doubt pissing Vexx off just a wee bit. In his anger-filled rage, Vexx makes his escape, vowing to take down Dark Yabu at all costs. As he flees, he happens upon one of Dark Yabu's ships, and finds, by George, the Astani War Talons! Now the tables have turned, giving you the ability to fight back, and so the adventure begins.

Vexx's gameplay is largely the same as many other 3D platformers, you go from one world to the next, completing a variety of tasks (and by ''variety'', I mean ''doing the same basic things over and over again''), each rewarded with a Shadowraith heart (don't even ask what a Shadowraith heart is either, I doubt even the developers themselves have any idea). Shadowraith hearts in turn unlock each new world, each with their own list of tasks to be accomplished. Most of the worlds are what you've come to expect if you've played your fair share of platformers, forest world, desert world, aquatic world, etc., all with their own Vexx-isms, though some are at least a bit more clever, such as one in which you're put in an over-sized house akin to a scene straight out of Jack & the Beanstalk.

Control is also almost completely influenced by other titles, or in other words, Mario 64. I mean, to say that most platformers don't borrow a lot from Nintendo's classic would obviously be untrue, but it must be said ten fold in Vexx's case, as the game practically rips every single ability, even down to how they are performed, straight from the plump plumber himself. The same double jumping, the same crouch jump, the same sprinting jump, it's all here.

That said, Vexx does do some things quite differently; namely the fighting. Straying from most platformers, Vexx doesn't use conventional ''jump on the bad guy's head'' attacking strategies, no, Vexx uses blades that come out of his talons to slay his foes. It's actually surprising how much they put into the fighting aspect of the game. It's nothing overly deep, but there are some fun, button mashing, tap-tap-tap type combos in the game, as well as jumping and uppercut-like attacks which can be combined to juggle enemies. After a few worlds, it does get a bit repetitive though, I must admit.

Above all else in the gameplay area, though, I must mention my biggest gripe with the game --the absolutely nauseating (and don't think I'm joking either, I say this out of experience, and many of them) camera. I'm by all means a resilient gamer, and I've played plenty of platformers in my day, but almighty Christ, if Vexx's camera is not the son of Hades himself then I don't know what is. Not only is the sensitivity of the camera constantly relative to it's position, but the game consistently loves to think it's view is superior to yours, moving freely to accommodate it's own evil idea of what you would like to see.

Probably aiding the camera in it's work to make me spew up my lunch, Vexx's graphics are such a mixed bag it makes you wonder how many times the art department even stepped foot in the programming area at Acclaim. On one hand, Vexx's character model is often superbly animated, and could even be mistaken for a Toy Story-quality CG model at times, most enemies look almost equally as good, and the worlds are gigantic. And yet on the other hand, almost all of the environments in the game are muddy, depressing, and boring, and the level design is absolutely terrible.

The music isn't quite the same mix of good and bad --it's just mostly bad. Well, let me rephrase that, it's not [i]bad[/i], but what it is, is highly cliche and forgettable. Most of time you probably won't even realize there's music going on in the background, as the melodies are generally very infrequent. The sound effects fare better, but are still nothing special, your basic mix of grunts, slashes, and squeals. There is some fairly notable voice acting, however, which is done well for the most part.

Adding it all up, the sum of Vexx's parts leaves you with a very unimpressive experience. Normally this would be my cue to recommend that fans of the genre give the game a look, but to be honest, if you're a big platformer fan (and if you're not, I would hope you hadn't read this far), you've probably played enough of them to see Vexx for how incredibly average (and in many cases, below average) it is. So to that end, I say that even if you're a fan of the genre, you should really look elsewhere, I hear that Mario fellow has an exotic new outing a few places up the rack.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 04/20/03, Updated 04/20/03