Yuri_Yslin

I am surprised people consider this game hard - it really isn't. The enemies provide absolutely no challenge whatsover and the time limits (on stages with time limits) are plentiful. Most bosses, save for the last guy, you can literally outDPS with the drive gun standing in front of them, as long as you brought with you the item that replenishes your shields when you **** only "challenge" comes from the terrible controls, mostly due to the need to constantly press the analogue sticks down. Because of how stiff the xbox analog sticks are on xbox classic's original controller, it wears down on your thumbs quickly and can lead to wrist pains after a while. Other than that, the game is a very literal excercise in mediocrity - there are only two weapons (and the gun is worthless most of the time, so you end up using your basic attack 99% of the time), the powerups don't change much and their effect is hard to notice, the enemies are boring & provide no challenge whatsoever (they are only there to slow you down), the plot is only elaborated upon in the text-only reports that you unlock after each mission. The only thing worth praising are graphics, they are crisp, however, you do experience slowdowns from time to time. The boost system was probably intended to be fun and rewarding, and in the demos (that play if you leave the game on the title screen for a while), it looks pretty rad. In reality, the system is ruined by the fact that the aiming controls are Jet Force Gemini-tier of nonsense - aiming with the right analog stick is overly sensitive and keeps resetting itself after you let go of the stick, even a little. This makes it virtually impossible to play like in the demos. You will struggle to keep the camera in one direction when moving because of how bad the controls are. The game is also short, doesn't have any remarkable music (except maybe track 13 - "Banquet, Before, Hereafter", but it's very short) and becomes boring and repetitive really fast. The camera is awful and will actively ruin your day on the levels where you're supposed to land on tight platforms. All in all, a very mediocre game, would not recommend it to anyone. It's a waste of time to play, even if you're a retro fanatic.

An uneven game. It does bring interesting art and gameplay concept, but often fails to execute. Some parts of it - like the hyped Death Ball (whole chapter 5) - are just laughable. You get ahead and you win. You repeat that three times and that's it. Makes me really wonder if anyone playtested this game. Soundtrack has some cool tunes, some meh tunes, and that one absolutely obnoxious track with some girl screaming off tune to a crappy beat (chapters 2 and 4), it made me mute the TV every time it started playing. The fights with Police were braindead, the Tag races... I mean, you can just wait in one spot and spray them as they pass by, and you'll still win. There's so much wrong with this game. And the extreme repetitiveness of it (enter a level, spray all tags, do a race or fight Police, rinse repeat) really makes you bored at times. But at the same time, the actual races (not the ones you're supposed to spray someone's back) are fun, and there's plenty of cool "platforming" in this game that makes you entertained. There is a lot of aspects to this game that are a nod to the "collectathons" of N64 times - there's a ton of things to explore for, unlock or beat. It's probably THE challenge of the game, because the storyline is just braindead easy, save some hard to find tags or difficult jumps. The difficulty is also very uneven, ie. in the final boss fight you have to do a series of jumps with perfect precision (hard as hell) and then fight one of the easiest bosses in video game history. Okay? I guess it's a love/hate kind of a title. You either love it, or you don't. I certainly didn't. It's not a bad game, but it's not a good game either. Which leaves it at 5/10.