Blinx: The Time Sweeper

"A Clean Sweep."

Back in the day, there were simple 2D platformers. They were considered new and cutting edge. The very peak of entertainment technology. Then, someone invented isometric games - the closest thing possible to a full 3D game. However, they weren't bargaining on the sudden appearance of full 3D gaming. At this point, one begins to wonder just how far this technology could go. Surely a four dimensional game would be impossible? The fourth dimension is time - how can this be made into a game? As always, there's SOMEONE just waiting to surprise us again.

While Blinx's gameplay is not as great as some of the other platformers out there, it does have one feature that makes it truly revolutionary - the fourth dimension is entirely at your mercy. Blinx controls time like we would control a video recorder - he can Pause, Rewind, Slow, FF and even record. And this is the basis of the definitive 4D game.

Storyline - 6

OK, it has to be flawed somewhere. In a (wise) attempt to make Blinx appeal to as broad an age group as humanly possible, Artoon have put a simplistic "kiddy" story in the game. This does not really detract from the game, it just makes the opening a bit... unbearable. It's not a BAD storyline, it just feels like it was made for the young ones.

Time is something we humans take for granted. The flow of time in ours and all dimensions is controlled by the Time Factory and it's hard working feline workforce. The maintenance of the flow of time is critical - a glitch in time will take on the physical form of a Time Crystal - and these, if left alone, turn into monsters. If this occurs, the Time Factory will send in a specialized "Time Sweeper" to eliminate the monsters and gather up all stray crystals. Time Sweepers also pick up the trash that can be found lying around and take it back to the Time Factory's recycling plant for cash - thus maintaining a steady income as well as the continued existence of the dimensions they are deployed into.

Of course, there also exists a bad guy gang; a certain group of Tom Toms who are looking for a quicker buck. They hang around the Time Factory, sneak into dimensions, steal Time Crystals, and sell them for profit. One day, while they are trying to be a bit more adventurous, they take a trip to dimension B1Q64. Here, they not only do a major Time Crystal raid, they also kidnap the dimension's Princess. However, they have no idea of the danger involved with Time Crystals. While busy broadcasting their ransom demands to the Time Factory, their entire haul of Crystals suddenly disappears.

For the Time Factory, who have officially not had any major accidents for the last 7347 years, this is very bad news. B1Q64 is now in a critical state, and the Time Factory has no choice but to cut off it's flow of time and wipe it from existence. Blinx, one of the Factory's sweepers, who happens to be hanging around nearby, charges towards the dimension gate in a display of mindless heroism. The game is on...

Gameplay - 9

This is where the fun starts. As is implied by the job title "Time Sweeper", Blinx has a trusty Vacuum Cleaner to do his dirty work for him. The basic gameplay involves picking up trash, and shooting it at a monster. Once all the monsters in a level are removed, the goal gate opens and you can finish the level. Due to the instability of the dimension, you have only 10 minutes before a monster infested region becomes temporally unstable and vanishes. If you get hit, you die instantly, but fear not - Blinx has retries at his disposal. Up to three at first, up to nine later. Each retry rewinds you back to a point at which you could get out of your current predicament, and play restarts.

Of course, you can mix it up with Time Controls to make it more interesting. Time Controls are gained by picking up combinations of Time Crystals. At the start, you can only hold three time controls, but this is expandable to 10. The effects of Pause, Rewind, Slow and FF are all pretty obvious, but record is a little more interesting. When you activate record, everything goes green and play continues as normal for 10 seconds. After this time period, everything rewinds to where it was before you used record. Play then resumes, and a green copy of you plays out exactly what you just did. This means that you can play cooperatively with yourself - and this feature becomes vital later on. Some things to note - you are invincible while recording, and you can do everything you could normally do while recording. This means you can use seesaws to catapult yourself up high, cross treacherous lava pits to the switch on the other side to drop the bridge down. Rewind also has some unique uses - downhill rivers flow backwards, carrying you up hills, and collapsed bridges rebuild themselves again.

And of course, there's the shop. Even if Blinx acted directly against the wishes of his supervisor, the Time Factory is still obliged to pay him where due. Money can be obtained through either recycling trash or from picking up gold directly from the levels. Money can be spent on Retry Holders, Time Crystal holders, Retrys, Sweeper Upgrades, special trash, and, if you're really loaded, you can buy designer clothes, so you can sweep in style.

It's not all the same though - every fourth level is a boss. These are simply bigger versions of normal monsters with more health and more attacks. These begin as being quite easy, but they get very difficult very quickly. Bosses add a nice challenge - except the Lv 7 boss, which is absolutely packed with glitches and is damned difficult.

The controls are wonderfully simple. The left stick is used for movement, the right stick controls the camera, A button to jump, B button to use Time Controls, and either X button or Right Trigger to use the Sweeper.

Graphics and Sound - 9

The graphics in this game are nothing short of phenomenal - just what we'd expect of Xbox. Every cobblestone is done to extreme detail, every speck of rust is shown, shiny things shine beautifully, and there are absolutely no texture errors at all. There are no "things appearing to be there but actually aren't" errors, no tiling, no problems with anything graphical.

The sound is pretty good, too. The level themes are all well done and are all appropriate for the level. The menu and shop themes are also good. The only problem is that these themes can get a bit repetitive - hearing the same theme for three levels in a row isn't really much of an experience.

Replayability - 6

Scattered around every level are "cat medals". These provide the replayability. They are all hidden - some require time crystals, some require particular sweeper models, some simply require you to look around. There are 80 in all - getting all of them is the main replay challenge. When you collect certain amounts, you unlock stuff - some pointless, some fun to look at, and some just... weird. Most of the cat medals, however, are exceedingly annoying to get - they require you to continually upgrade your sweeper, which takes a long time because it's so expensive and you have to build up the cash, and so on. This is okay at first, but it sure gets annoying.

There is no multiplayer feature in Blinx. It's really not that kind of game.

The Verdict - 8

Blinx is a good game - but not great. The gameplay's all good, but the replay value doesn't add much to the game.

Pros
4D Gameplay
Simple controls
Brilliant graphics and sound

Cons
Not much Replay Value
No Multiplayer
Slightly kiddy story

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/26/04