| Platforms: PS Vita | Developer: Playerthree | Rating: E |
| Genre: Platformer | Price: $4.99 |
A game that has been critically bashed by many reviewers but does it really deserve it? Let’s find out if they are right or not.
Story/Level:
It begins with some comic like intro or something which talks about a guy that wants to take over the world by going back in time using a Chronovolt (which are spheres that do time travel.) You play as a niece of a scientist (which you won’t know nothing about either of them) to try to stop him from taking control of the world. To me it was confusing. They tried really hard to give it a plot but it never really took off. The tutorial is short (I mean really short) probably because they tell you what everything is during the game like how to make this enemy get teleported out of the level or keys to open doors. I don’t mind really but if they were going to do it like that then what is the point of having a tutorial in the first place? They could have explained how to move and look during the game because building a level that only takes 20 seconds to do the tutorial which is a waste of time and waste of a level. The beginning was not good what so ever. If they were trying to make a story, than they have to put some effort into it. All it is stating is “hey here’s the guy that is trying to take over the world, now stop him” but why does he want to control the world? Every villain has a reason for their actions. Like was he getting laughed at all the time? A story needs to explain the villain’s action in some way. The beginning is not good and the plot was ruined from the get go.
The only thing that I can say that is any good at all is the level design it’s self, it was ok but not great in any way. That is really it but I found way more bad than good and there were probably more goods but buried under a ton of problems. The problems I found is that the levels are short. It probably take you less than five minutes (depends how fast you want to move through the level and excludes any mess ups) for most of the levels and I expected it to be longer to be honest. There is no replayability at all. You will be surprised if you would finish it at all in the first run actually. It gets that repetitive and that is not even funny. Get to point A to point B and go quickly to point B before the portal closes. Each level feels the same. All the obstacles feel like it was a copy and paste from the previous level and the plot was confusing. If there was supposed to be one that is but it felt like they were trying to make a plot and if they were trying, well it failed. Having a story was pointless, no need for it really because all it is just try to capture this guy from ruling the earth. They were again trying to do something but it failed miserably. They should have just said forget about a story and make all these levels with puzzles and obstacles to see if they can succeed. Practically think of mahjong. It probably would have been better that way.
The ending was too simple. I was expecting a challenge and I didn’t get that which is sad. Which there was a teaser for another Chronovolt game and I hope that if they do make a second one that they actually put some effort into it and by effort I mean make it good.
Overall it was not good at all. It was giving me headaches because of how bad it was. It surprised me really because it shouldn’t have been that hard (I know it takes knowledge to make a game but I meant it shouldn’t have been hard to add puzzles and obstacles that didn’t look like a copy & paste from previous levels). They need to try harder next time.
Gameplay:
The game can be fun for a little bit but not for long sadly. I wish it would be more fun but it just gets mediocre after a while. The controls are easy to understand and that is good. Collecting electric sticks (or whatever you call them) is easy and it pretty much slows you down a little bit from plowing through the level but it barely does that. These electric sticks help you rewind time which is helpful when you are about to fall off of the level and if you have enough electricity you can teleport the enemy’s minions to some other dimension to get them out of your way. It has a leaderboard which if you are a competitive type of person you could try to be number one.
You cannot use any other chronospheres unless you pay for them which to me is a bummer because it would be pointless to get it for one playthrough. They should have allowed you to have them all or half of them for free. Controlling the camera is hard which annoys me when I need to turn the camera quickly. Overcompensating in this game is very easy to do which it is a pain when you move forward and to stop you may accidently overcompensate and die and especially hard if you need to go fast to beat the time limit and you sometimes the platforms are small. There is no jumping button. Yes I know a nit-pick but I believe platformers should have jumping in it. There are pretty much no checkpoints at all which it is a pain because you will have to make sure you don’t die or you would have to go through the whole level again.
Overall they did fair but not great. They needed to do a lot of things differently but it is ok as is.
Presentation:
The music is good. I liked it because to me it had a good beat which is not saying much but hey at least it’s something. The Main Menu layout is simple to understand. The colors in the game was pretty which is surprising.
The problem I have with the Main Menu is that the background looks like it was done cheaply. They could have had an animated background of something. There are framerate issues which you would notice it when turning the camera and certain parts of the level. The design was not done that well was a bummer to the game. When I played the game, I kind of felt that it was incomplete. At times I just felt like I was playing a beta rather than the final product. There are glitches like a platform randomly just disappeared out of existence and died because of it. There was another glitch that when I went on a moving platform and when it stopped it threw me off of the map like it was a slingshot.
Platform Genre Mastery:
Yes it is constantly used but timed parts make you move quickly and you need to be precise to make sure you don’t fall (which is hard when overcompensating happens most of the time). Like other platformers it is challenging when it wants to.
There are no puzzles when it should have them. It had every opportunity to do it like press certain button in a certain order or something near that. The execution was done badly. It was bad enough that I think they should have done some other genre because they are not good at platformers. To me this was an embarrassment to the genre. It had the things needed for a platformer but everything in the game made it stale and sometimes it is unplayable. I am sorry but they needed to do something different.
Overall they did a little bit under a fair job but like I said above is that they should have done a different genre.
Conclusion:
I just recommend staying away from this game. There so many other games on PS Vita that is so much better.
Story/Levels- 3/10
Gameplay- 5/10
Presentation- 4/10
Platform Genre Mastery- 4/10
Overall- 4/10
