Blinx is a kitty that works at the ‘Time Factory’, the place where all time is created. While at work one day, a gang of Pigs cause glitches to occur in the fabric of time, which threatens to destroy an entire world. The glitches manifest themselves as Time Crystals and monsters, causing the world to destabilise. The workers from the Time Factory evacuate, except for Blinx, who straps on a Time Sweeping Vacuum Cleaner, and plunges headfirst into the self-destructing world.
That’s your introduction to Blinx. The next story-related event occurs at the very end of the game. There’s no cutscenes, character development, or story progression between levels. The developers chose instead to focus on the gameplay, and it appears to have paid off.
The concept of Blinx is simple. You have ten minutes to clear an area of monsters and make it to the exit platform. To defeat a monster, you need to suck trash into your vacuum cleaner, and shoot it in the general direction of the creature you’re trying to hit. Depending on the strength of the monster, you may have to hit it several times.
To help you get through tricky situations, Blinx can earn the ability to control Time itself, which you’ll find will help you immensely. The time controls are:
· Pause: Temporarily stop everything around you. The handiest Time Control.
· Fast Forward: Everything, including Blinx, will move fast. Blinx also becomes invulnerable to attack.
· Rewind: Did that bridge collapse on you? Use a rewind control, and it’ll rebuild itself in front of you. Enemies are also affected, bouncing backward and inhaling spat projectiles.
· Record: The most interesting Time Control. Using the XBOX’s inbuilt hard drive, every tiny detail of what you do is recorded. When the timer runs out, a green identical version of Blinx will replicate exactly what you did while you continue exploring or fighting. It’s rarely used, but occasional ingenious puzzle designs require thoughtful use of the control.
· Slow-Mo: Everything except Blinx moves slowly. Great for dodging fast bosses.
To earn Time Controls, Blinx must collect Time Crystals, which appear throughout levels in different shapes and colours. For example, if you wanted a Pause control, you’d look for Blue Moon shaped crystals. If you got three Moon crystals and a Star (Slow-Mo) then you’d get one Pause control. If you got four Moon crystals, you’d get two Pause controls. If you make a crystal combination that doesn’t include three of the same symbol, then it is negated and you must start collecting again.
Each level also contains three or four ‘Secret Cat Medals’, which can only be found by thoroughly exploring each level. If you collect enough, you’ll get a Prize, which happen to be the strangest prizes ever included in a videogame. Period.
During the course of a level, you can also find golden treasure scattered about, which gives you Gold to spend at the in-game shop, where you can buy additional Life and Time holders, upgraded time sweepers, different costumes, and even ammunition!
Level designs aren’t exactly groundbreaking, but are interesting enough to keep you playing through to see what’s next. There are also incentives to go back and play levels again, as an area that appears to be initially inaccessible can be opened up with the help of a different Vacuum Cleaner. Occasionally, you’ll find Time Control related puzzles, where you’ll need to use your brain if you want to continue. For example, one person cannot use a seesaw, but if you record yourself jumping on the other end, then your recorded self will send you flying up into a new section of the level.
The game is divided into nine areas, each with a distinct graphic style and mood. Each area contains three levels (rated on a difficulty scale of one to five stars), a shop, and a boss. Boss fights usually consist of finding a weak spot, and firing trash at it. Some times it’s harder to find a weak spot, and sometimes the bosses fight downright dirty. One boss in particular caused my Controller to go flying across the room in a fit of rage, mainly due to unbalanced gameplay design.
Fun With Water!
The graphics of this game are, to say the least, beautiful. Blinx himself is exquisitely detailed, with realistic fur and a fantastic character animation. Most enemies are simple blobs, with high poly counts and cartoon style movements.
Water reflects and reacts to every movement, and if you happen to pause while walking through, it will move to the side like a blob. When time unfreezes, the water rushes back, filling up the trail you left behind. The game’s textures are crisp, but uninspired. They adequately created the moods in the levels, but are nothing out of the ordinary, which is slightly disappointing. The lighting in this game is a high point. In the Hourglass Caverns, light refraction from water is projected onto the cave walls, ambient lighting from plant life cast shadows and illuminate Blinx. In the factory, the red glow of molten metal radiates onto all surfaces, turning the walls a brilliant shade of red, together with some amazing heat distortion effects.
J-Pop Lover's Dream
Aurally, Blinx is not so pleasing. The music is comprised of synthesized J-Pop style tunes, which get very repetitive very quickly. Blinx doesn’t talk; except for one little “Meow” he says when he slides down the side of a wall. For a character to have personality, he needs to be seen AND heard. Blinx, unfortunately, remains silent throughout. The sound effects were suitable, but nothing really stood out, except for the ambience when played in Dolby Digital 5.1 Sound.
Please Mr. Gates, I'd Like Some More!
Blinx came as a surprise to the gaming community when it released late last year. It managed to combine traditional gameplay mechanics, and infuse them with a new, exciting, refreshing concept – time control. This truly is the first 4D game in history (the fourth dimension being Time, of course) and here’s hoping it’s not the last. Bring on Blinx 2, Microsoft!
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