As such, the basic platformer seems to have been left as a 'kids' genre. VIS Entertainment's Brave: The Search for Spirit Dancer has taken this route. Unfortunately, it's not one of those kids games that has another layer of depth for adults (or smart kids), but the same, straightforward romp we've seen for two generations.
'Brave' is a Native American boy who lives a simple life. That is, until the inevitable destruction of his village by an ancient evil. Against all odds (and logic), it's now up to the ten-year old to save the world by searching for the legendary Shaman, 'Shadow Dancer', who (of course) turns out to be Brave's father. But the story is inconsequential, the quest usually just proceeds like this: meet a character, explore a central area and kill some enemies with your hatchet, collect the eight pieces of the item the character needs to open/break/uncurse the door/portal/road block, navigate some platforms, move on.
They somehow manage to work in a lava level...
Gameplay is your standard mix of platforming, fighting, and the occasional flying section. Don't expect the ultra-tight control of Mario though; Brave is firmly in the tradition of Banjo and Jak, complete with the head-bobbing, exaggerated strides of 'wacky' cartoon characters. The game begins with a set-piece that teaches the jumping system, followed by the standard tutorial area to go over the basic commands like fighting and climbing. Then off you go, learning a new move or two as the quest progresses.
Despite the setting, the developers have somehow managed to work in the bog-standard lava world and ice world environments, and all the features that go with them (ice is slippery etc). There aren't a huge variety of enemies, though most are pretty well-designed from a gameplay perspective. Some enemies are quite clever, and some come at you in packs of twenty. Frustratingly though, Brave suffers from a balance problem – sometimes you can get knocked down by one enemy, and attacked by another before you can get up. It can be very annoying to lose your whole health bar from a small mistake because you don't have a chance to fight back.
Another feature of the game is the attempt to capture the idea of Native Americans being 'at one with nature', with the addition of some animal command moves. You can learn to make animal noises to distract enemies, possess certain animals for a short time, or become a spirit version of some powerful animals, like a bear. Unfortunately, most of these are so area specific that they may as well have been done in a cut-scene, and as such feel underdone. The only real function of these 'abilities' is to break up the gameplay - they don't add any depth to the system at all.
...and a snow level. All in the same valley!
The polite way of describing the graphics engine is that the game has a simple look with a few nice touches. You could also say that VIS spent half of the PS2's system resources on the main character's hair, leaving the environments to feature hexagonal trees and lego block rocks (OK, not quite, but nearly). At least the frame rate remains good almost throughout the whole game, even when dozens of small enemies surround you. There's some slowdown here and there, but it's not much of a problem. But with a low-end engine like this, you would expect it to run well.
The game has a reasonably high standard of presentation, if not production values. The initial load upon starting or continuing a game is quite long, but there's very little loading after that. The auto continue system works really well, so you can just pick up exactly where you left off every time. However, the voice acting and story are so painful and cliched you may find yourself cringing with every cutscene. They seem to want a 'kids sitcom' feel to the story, and the precocious American child-acting makes you wonder why they bothered with the setting they chose.
In this challenge, Brave must count the polygons.
It's not going to teach the kids about Native Americans, that's for sure. The 'valley' the game is set in features the expected North American fauna (bears, eagles and wolves etc.), but there's no effort to remain consistent. You'll notice African wildlife, South American influences on many characters, and the incredibly rare North American penguin. Honestly, if the designers have no idea about history or geography, why do a culturally themed game?
If you need depth or intelligence in your game design, look elsewhere - Mario, Rayman and Prince of Persia come to mind. If you know a kid who really needs a 'my first platform game', then your best bet it to crack out the old N64 and Banjo Kazooie, or even VIS Entertainment's own Earthworm Jim 3. If that's not an option, this game's competent enough. Brave does exactly what you expect it to do. But it does nothing more.
I'm goin crazy with this problem 
oooh I will cry because of this thing 
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