Vexx

"Traverse the world of Astara to avenge your grandfather"

Vexx is a platformer much like Super Mario 64 or Spyro. Published by Acclaim (Turok, All Star Baseball, Burnout). It is set in the land of Astara, a peaceful civilization seeking to expand itself through space travel. However, when they open their first gateway (or rift or wormhole or whatever you want to call it) evil beings called shadowraiths emerge and began to wage war on Astara. Eventually all of Astara becomes enslaved and for 700 years not much changes. Enter: Vexx. Vexx's grandfather is killed by a shadowraith named Yabu and that pisses Vexx off, so during the night he sneaks aboard Yabu's ship with intent to harm (brutally murder). Instead of finding Yabu, he finds the Astani War Talons, which meld themselves to his hands, choosing him as savior of Astara, now he has to kill the bad guys, get the girl, save the world, blah blah blah.

The game controls fairly. Moving Vexx around is easy enough by itself, though the combat is slightly difficult. Mostly because Vexx can run pretty fast and the enemies have a tendency to appear out of nowhere and you end up running right into them. And seriously: they appear out of nowhere. They fade into view when you get close enough, and then if you back off, they disappear. But the thing that needlessly complicates combat, jumping between moving platforms and just plain and simple running along elevated walkways is the camera system. Though it is easily maneuverable, the camera angle always seems to reset itself to its default position at the wrong place and at the wrong time. For instance, when you're trying to jump from moving platform to moving platform you'd like to actually see the platforms you're trying to land on, no? Instead you often see the back of Vexx's head and shoulders.

The graphics are pretty and the environments are cool, especially ‘The Below' (an absolutely huge domed water bubble located in a swampy area under dark moody skies, in which lie ruins of a long submerged city now inhabited by all manner of otherworldly undersea creatures). The script is corny, but the voice acting isn't half bad. Also, there are a few songs in the game's repertoire that are good, but most of it is just good ole' BGM.

The game is certainly long enough with nine levels, each with 8-10 objectives to accomplish, but the only help you get with finishing these objectives are short riddles (four lines) and that does not do much to get you by in the large worlds of Vexx. More than likely you are going to need a walkthrough, even if you only use it to get past the hard parts.

So if you're a platforming freak and you've got patience to deal with the camera and the riddles, go for it. It's got a little style; it's got a cool bad guy and its fun to wear gloves with huge metal claws. But if you're game-shopping and right next to it on the shelf you see Jak or Ratchet, make sure you ask yourself: is there any reason to have patience for bad camera systems when you could just buy the better game in the first place and save yourself the headache?

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/10/07