Vexx

"Vexx is a new dog with old tricks"

It seems as though over the last few years, Acclaim, formerly one of the premier (and I admit, that is a bit arguable) developers of the 16 bit era, has fallen flat on it’s face and become the butt of a lot of jokes about the industry. No one really knows when Acclaim began their tragic downfall. Perhaps it was on the Dreamcast, where Quarterback Club failed miserably and became known as one of the worst football games ever. Perhaps it was when they purchased the South Park license, and churned out three craptacular games that shamed the good name of the Comedy Central staple. My opinion is that they went down when they made those god-awful Olsen Twins games. One thing I think everyone can agree on though is that lately, Acclaim has hit their low, putting out awful, seizure inducing games like Turok: Evolution, and the terrible, rebellious, and overall immature BMX: XXX. And, months after it seemed like all hope was lost, Acclaim dropped Vexx on us. While it paves little new ground in the platform genre, Vexx is a damn good game. And yes, even I was delightfully surprised.

Vexx starts out like basically any other platformer. You play as Vexx, the hairy, impish looking hero of the game, who is trying to gain vengeance against the Shadowwraith Dark Yabu, who just so happened to, yup, you guessed it! He killed a member of Vexx’s family; to be more specific, his grandfather. So, Vexx, armed with a set of razor sharp talons, sets out on a journey across the lands of Astani to kill Dark Yabu, and save the people of Astani.

Now, it should be noted that while Vexx bares a lot of similarities to a certain mustachioed plumber, the game is completely different in one aspect; the mood. While Mario’s latest game takes place on a sunny, pleasant island, Vexx’s game is dark, and takes place on floating worlds of rock and water. Another one of the few differences is that Vexx is more on the violent side than on the cutesy spraying, jumping antics of Mario. In Vexx, you literally kill enemies, and are even able to juggle their dead bodies around for combo points. Otherwise, Mario fans will be right at home with Vexx, as there are portals to side worlds, lots of jumping and platforming challenges, and even some minigames.

As you start out on Vexx’s journey, you will probably notice that nearly all of your many combos are rooted on one button, the X. This makes for easy attacking, as X and A will give you a kick jump which can flip the enemy up into the air, and pressing X three times will execute a sort of triple-cut move. Unfortunately, this easy combo system also makes it so that you can kill basically any enemy by just mashing the X button over and over. It’s a very sharp double-edged sword, which gives the game both fun and repetitiveness.

The main gist of Vexx is collecting Wraithhearts. Each land has a number of these blood-gushing rewards, and as you collect them, you can open up the gates to new lands. There are nine lands in all, each creepier, spookier, and more fantastic than the last one. Unlike a lot of platformers, Vexx is not collection heavy. While in each stage two of the hearts are always collecting 100 heart shards, and collecting six soul jars, this never gets to be truly overwhelming. Besides, even if it were, the creativity of the game would make you forget about that.
Like I just said, a lot of the challenges in the game are very creative and captivating. Some of my favorites include the challenge in the Neverglades level, where to find the six soul jars, you must become part of a series of tapestries that tell the history of Vexx’s lands, jumping from one head to another, grabbing soul jars as you go. Another one of my favorites is in my favorite level of the game, The Below, where in order to free a heart, you must walk power up six domes to release a heart. The catch is, you have to perform the task upside down, with your controls flipped completely. Tasks like these more than make up for some of the more unimaginative ones, like facing off against your inner demons in a game of collecting coins that plays like a Mario Party gone bad-ass.

One of the main problems of games like Vexx is that the camera is usually good for ****. And, unfortunately, Vexx is now included in that black list. In fact, I’d be willing to say it’s the second worst game camera of all time, runner up only to Sonic Adventure 2. The camera will constantly get caught up behind rocks, platforms, and basically anything else it can come upon. While this happens in a lot of other games, what makes Vexx’s camera so horrible is that during some challenges, it will shift into pre-determined spots. Making it even worse is the fact that a lot of the spots are in the worst area possible. This truly hampers an otherwise excellent game.

Now, these worlds that you explore are easily the best looking levels I have ever seen in a game. Not in a graphical standpoint however; there are some draw-in problems in darker areas, and some of the textures are a bit on the jagged side. I’m talking about just how the levels look. Each area has it’s own identity and tone, whether it be the rocky inclines of Timberdale, to the incredible, sci-fi underwater look of The Below. All of these levels look like they were taken out of one of those fantasy books, and weaved into interactive environments that are just flowing with color and vibrancy. The only problem is that a few of the later levels in the game start to copy the themes of the first few more imaginative levels. But overall, a lot of time and effort was put in here, and it truly shows.

While some of the challenges are just follow-the-arrow-to-the-heart type quests, I’m warning you now, Vexx is a very difficult game. Some of the game’s platform stages are true killers, and you will lose a lot of lives if you don’t have patience. Also, some of the challenges have timers, and most of these challenges will come down to the very last second. Plus, the game doesn’t steadily increase in difficulty; a lot of the more difficult challenges start right in the first stage, like where you have to jump from pole to pole to get the last soul jar. This does make for one good thing though. For all its difficulty, you are going to be playing this game for a while, likely around 20-25 hours if you want to get every single heart. Hell, some areas within little sub-stages of the game have taken me a chunk of time to complete.

One of the areas that the game does lack in is the sound department. With these big, massive levels to work with, you think Acclaim could’ve gotten some sort of orchestra together just to do a little recording for the game. Unfortunately, all we are left with are basically two different tunes during the daytime (both of which are just synthesized), and a bell tolling at nighttime. The voice department is lacking as well, although this really shouldn’t be looked upon too harshly, as there really is no voice acting, save for one or two cut scenes.

To sum it all up, Vexx is a great game that could’ve been even greater. If you want an epic quest that will take you awhile to complete, or a back to basics, all kinds of platform romp, this is a great game for you. For action game fans in general, this is also a pretty damn good rent, if not worth a purchase. While the camera is truly unforgiving, and it has a steep difficulty, the creativity of most of the heart quests and the epic scope and grandeur of the levels more than make up for it’s shortcomings. To hell with the naysayers, Vexx is a damn good game, and Mario would be proud.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/09/03, Updated 03/09/03