Blinx: The Time Sweeper

"Fun for those who aren't afraid of a challenge..."

I had been waiting for Blinx to come out ever since I first read about it in the Official Xbox Magazine. The concept sounded amazing and the graphics looked excellent. I had been disappointed with Xbox games since I bought the system (the only one I have truly enjoyed is Halo) and was sure this one was going to be a keeper.

Then I read the review on a games website whose syllables begin with G and S. I found myself struggling to decide whether to spend a good $50 on the game as I had read a pretty good review on another gaming website whose syllables begin with I, G and N ;-). I decided to take the change, figuring that at the very least I would be able to sell it used on eBay.

I am very glad that I made that decision as Blinx is a very fun and very challenging game. I started playing it on Saturday (Oct. 12) and quickly became addicted.

The problems that all reviewers seem to point out (but rank with different importance) are certainly there. The camera can be quite the pain in the butt in small rooms. Blinx can only fire in the direction he's going since there's no aiming feature (that was taken up by the camera and I don't see why he couldn't just turn his torso). When the crystals fall from enemies, it can be a pain in the ass to retrieve the ones you want (I usually just avoid them in that case).

However, I disagree with the aforementioned reviewer's qualm that the game is too frustrating. I have not yet hit the really high levels (I'm about to face the fourth boss), so perhaps I have not yet experienced the controller-throwing, console-smashing frustrating levels yet, but thus far the hard parts have simply been challenging. There was one level that took me about an hour (and dozens of restarts) to complete, but I simply felt challenged and wanted even more to complete the level, knowing that it definitely could be done and I just had to figure out the right combination of time powers.

Speaking of time powers, these things are really fun. The fast forward is kind of useless and the slow is simply a hacked pause, but the pause, rewind and record functions are really cool. The pause has helped me out in many emergencies, the rewind is just fun to play around with and the record is the ultimate in usefulness - it allows you take out twice as many enemies with the same ammo and same amount of seconds off the time limit.

If you had been wanting to buy this game, you shouldn't be discouraged by the negative reviews UNLESS you're the type of gamer who doesn't like challenge and wants so simply get through the game easily - Blinx will definitely challenge you and you'll find yourself restarting levels over and over again to figure exactly how to beat them... but beating them is that much sweeter.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/14/02, Updated 10/14/02