Blinx: The Time Sweeper

"A Bold New Step In Platforming"

They say “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world”, well the hand that controls time does the same, except you don’t rule the world, you own it, and with Blinx you do just that. Blinx has advertised itself as the first ever 4-D game (the fourth dimension obviously being time) which you do in fact control here, and at will not at required or set moments. Evolution needs to be at hand here and to the dying genre of platformers, new features are exactly what is needed and for the most part, lacking in the latest platformers. The oddball water-pack of Mario Sunshine was a poor idea; Mark of Kri’s violent stealth action in a cartoon world made it all the more ridiculous, indeed the platformers era is at an end, the days of Super Mario 64 and Tomb Raider are long behind us and now serve only as a memory of what pedestal was used in inventing the 3D genre of gaming we have today.

So did Microsoft Game Studio’s latest gamble, an oddball 4D platform game pay off? To me, yes indeed, though I say it now, Blinx is a great game, but it’s also not for everyone. Blinx is an orange colored feline working at the Time Factory that creates and distributes time throughout hundreds of worlds. When a glitch appears in time, the worlds become distorted and monsters are created from these errors which call for the Time Sweepers who enter these realms and clean things up, so basically you have a human-like cat with an exaggerated, garbage mans job. A group of fat pigs called the Tom-Tom gang invade on of the worlds stealing its time crystals and kidnap the Princess which results in our fearless feline hero venturing into the doomed world to save the day. Okay, by now you know the drill, get the girl, beat the bad guys and live happily ever after. Blinx’s story is hardly its strength, luckily after a gorgeous CGI opening it doesn’t try to dive into it either, but instead says “This works, we’ll leave it at that, bada-bing bada-boom we’re done.”

From then on, its go time and right in the first level is when you’ll make your opinion about this game after you see its unusual aspects of gaming. Blinx’s only ability to attack is by shooting garbage at enemies, garbage that he sucks up with his vacuum cleaner which is littered throughout every level (Being you are a garbage man you’re also awarded money afterwards for picking up trash). Normally I would complain about this awkward method, but the game handles it rather well. There’s no worry about shooting endless pieces of trash and enemies and missing thanks to a very forgiving auto-lock which hits its target more than 80% of the time even when you thought for sure you wouldn’t hit anything. Garbage is also aplenty in the levels getting stuck without any projectile's is highly unlikely.

The second difference with Blinx is that every level has time limit of 10 minutes, your goal is to eliminate all the enemies in the level by that time then head to the goal. You’re not required to accomplish any kind of objective or retrieve this or that, you only job is the wipe out all the monsters, easy right? With the mention of the 10 minute time limit you may be cringing at the thought of heated gameplay where you’re stressing out trying to find that last enemy and escape before its too late, well to that I can gladly say the time limit in no way provides a rushed sensation to get things over with as fast as you can. In fact I have only run out of time twice in the six some hours I have played it.

Finally we have the time control, killing enemies and scattered throughout levels are time crystals which bare an eerie similarity to Lucky Charm’s marshmallows. Collecting three of the same shape will give you a time power; these operate like a tape-recorders button layout, slow-motion, rewind, fast forward, pause and record. A bridge collapsing beneath your feet can be restored with the touch of the rewind button, enemies and even bosses can be rendered helpless with the pause button allowing you to hit enemies at will. Of course probably most unique of all is the record command in which Blinx is given about 15 seconds to perform any task you please, he is then rewound and the recorded Blinx does the task you just performed while you regain control of the other Blinx and can do as you wish in either assisting in attacking enemies, or escaping from crowded rooms.

All these time elements add into a completely effective gameplay system that revives and revitalizes the platformer genre and the end product is a fantastic result. In fact after my entire time with Blinx I really can’t name a flaw with it; Microsoft has developed a truly polished and unique game that any Xbox owner who’s interested in some 3D action should look into. Blinx is a highly stylish and inventive game and is one of the best games of this year for the Xbox.

Graphics-
Easily one of Xbox’s most gorgeous looking games with highly animated and incredibly detailed worlds, enemies and areas looking like a contemplation of movies like Nightmare Before Christmas and even some reminiscent of Never Ending Story. Blinx himself looks fantastic, even down to individual strands of hair on his ears and the huge grin he gets when vacuuming. Character models are flawless with no break-up and each one looking like a motion-captured grab from top of the line CGI’s masterworks like the movies of Pixar.
Rating- 10

Gameplay-
The universal strongest point of games is Blinx’s strongest aspect as well. A very refreshing and at times incredibly revolutionary step forward in platform gaming with clever and unique touches the entire way through. The one hit kill deaths can get very difficult in some areas but the easy controls and well paced and length levels make it right for just about anyone to pick up and play; not to mention a long game by its own merits with plenty of goodies and extra items to unlock along the way.
Rating- 9.5

Sound-
Artoon & Microsoft Game Studio’s has approached this game’s sound in a very cartoon like atmosphere. The entire game is like listening to a re-run of Looney Tunes from the squeaking of Blinx’s footsteps to the stars swirling around his head when he gets whacked, in any other game they would probably seem out of place but they don’t here and these noises also don’t become annoyingly monotonous. The musical score is average, but it does happen to fit Blinx’s oddball universe and on occasion, has some fine tunes, just nothing amazing to your ears.
Rating- 8.0

Overall-
Blinx proves again why this year is turning out to be the year full of surprises in gaming with sleeper titles like The Thing and Conflict ending up far ahead of the big budget flops like Turok and Mario Sunshine. Artoon has planted their flag in the gaming industry with authority and have created a highly addictive, entertaining and visually amazing game that all Xbox owners should try this holiday season, you find yourself very surprised and find Blinx sweeping up much of your time as well.
Rating- 9.5

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/04/03, Updated 07/04/03