Sabre Wulf

"This wulf is afraid of...tents?"

I was never a huge fan of Rare. Yeah, they made a lot of good games, but the only one I was really interested in back when they were still with Nintendo was Blast Corps. Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, the Banjo games, I ended up passing on them for some reason I can't remember right now. Cue Starfox Adventures, and my consideration of Rare's quality as a developer dropped some. Cue this game, and it's...not quite as low.

Gameplay

Well, it's certainly a Rare game. This title is a sequel to the old, old C64 title Sabre Wulf, back when Rare was still known as Ultimate. It's a rather interesting take on the puzzle genre, combining it with platform-style gameplay that fits pretty well.

It starts out by giving you a brief flashback detailing the events of the original Sabre Wulf. Apparently, Sabre Wulf is really this mystical wolf who was terrorizing a village, so they sealed him using an odd amulet. Cut to the almost-present day, and Dr. Dolittle-Good has broken the amulet and partnered up with Sabre Wulf to create havoc and take over the world. Your task as Sabreman, grade-A explorer, adventurer, and I suspect animal tamer, is to recover the amulet and seal up Sabre Wulf again.

The game itself is fairly simple and easy to grasp. You have Sabreman, who runs and jumps faster and higher than I would have suspected in a man of his advancing years. The game switches between the standard iso-3D perspective on the world map, where you can explore the rather small environments to your leisure, and the 2D sidescrolling stages. The latter are found when Sabre Wulf opens up a hole in the ground. No, seriously.

Those 2D stages introduce platforming and puzzle elements into the game. Your job in these stages is to recover something Sabre Wulf stole, whether it be a ladder, lantern, or a person. Most of the time, it's treasure in some form or another. To get these things, you must make your way past many, many monsters and use your own creatures to get to Sabre Wulf.

So, monsters. The bad monsters are a rather diverse bunch, from pogo stick jumping lizards to snapping bell flowers to diving...pigs? Damned if I know. Anyway, there's more, like bombs with eternal fuses, and various spiked creatures meant to block your way. To get past these creatures, you must use your good monsters. Or maybe they're just lazy... Anyway, these creatures are your tools to get through the levels. Many of them won't come into play till the later worlds, but can still be used as a more creative way of getting past obstacles. Some act as springs, others as platforms or blocks, many are used as methods of destroying various obstacles, while some hinder Sabre Wulf.

Those last ones are worth mentioning. Once you actually get the treasure or whatever Sabre Wulf stole, he wakes up (he's right nearby, of course) and chases you back to your tent. Sabre Wulf is faster than you, of course, so you must outrun him back to your tent by various means. If you're fast of thumb and wit, you can turn around and leap over him, trick him into falling down a pit, or just run like hell to your tent. However, later on this won't be sufficient, and you must dodge him by tossing down sludge monsters, gulpers (pitfalls) or other creatures that are purely trap monsters.

The game adds another element in the form of speed. The faster you get past all the obstacles and reach the treasure, the better it will be. Take too much time, and the gold bar/skull/strange contraption will become silver, then bronze. The point? The better the treasure, the higher the exchange rate at shops for ordinary coins. Those coins can buy you new creatures and body armor (able to take an extra hit) but they're expensive. Practice is the key, and the game is certainly enjoyable enough to encourage repeat play through the levels. In fact, every level in which you get the gold treasure, you unlock a challenge mode where the object is now to get to Sabre Wulf as fast as possible, without the mad dash to your tent afterwards.

One question, though: why the hell would a big, scary wolf suddenly stop chasing Sabreman when he reaches the tent? The world may never know...but I'm sure to get e-mails about it.

Graphics

Well...it's Rare, after all. The game looks like an improved DKC engine running in isometric perspective half the time. There's lighting effects, sprite manipulation, and many other technical terms I don't quite understand. Everything has a kind of 3D look to it, like all those polygonal figures in other games, but done a lot better. It's a nice indication of just how powerful the GBA can be when in the proper developer's hands. There is some slowdown in the more crowded levels, and in the levels that do both lighting and lots of objects at once, and this can trip you up, but for the most part it runs smoothly.

Sound

There's no music on the overworld maps, but the sidescrolling levels have some tunes that are either fun or just plain yech. Sort of depends on where you are. Sabreman, however, is very fun to listen to. While the general conversations between characters is passed on as gibberish to your ears, Sabreman says a lot, most notably when he grabs a treasure or walks it safely into his tent. "For the Empire!" remains my favorite line.

Replay Value

There's eight worlds, each with eight levels. Get a gold treasure in a level, and you unlock the challenge mode for that level. Like all Rare games, there's a lot to do and see before you're 100% complete. Afterwards, you can return to the challenge mode to improve on your best times. However, despite all this, the main game isn't too long. There's no 'lives' in this game, since if you die, you just start the level over. This can help, since one hit will kill Sabreman (unless he has body armor) and there's a lot of ways to die out there.

Conclusion

Okay, so I still don't think much of Rare, but this game helps a little. While it's not the toughest game around, it'll definitely give cause to dust off some unused brain cells to get past the tough situations. Having some decent thumb skills wouldn't hurt, either.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/09/04