Do you remember being a kid and running around outside
thinking you were chasing made up creatures around. Well someone took that idea
to the next level with Invizimals.
Invizimals has you taking on the role of Hiro, who entered
the world of the Invizimals, to find out what is going on in there. Invizimals
are human type animals and they have been entering our world for years, we
however have only just started going to there. Upon entering the world, Hiro
encounters Ocelotl, and due to the nature of what’s happening, obtains the
ability to become Ocelotl himself and use his skills and powers to progress
through the game.
After then you will use Oceelotl to defeat your next
Invizimal character, Minotaur and then use Minotaur to defeat the next,
Tigershark and so on and so forth. It’s a minor quirk but it would have been
nice if you could truly fight them, instead the defeating of them is limited to
a series of quick time events after which the opposing character will agree
your strong and pass some power onto you.
This is where the game stops getting new ideas, which is sad
because with the level of details in previous games for character design, the
chance to have some truly wild Invizimals helping out would have made this game
a lot better. But for the 16 Invizimals you do meet, and obtain the powers off,
the games inability to let you explore areas, or discover things for yourself
restrains it in a way that even very young kids would hate.
Throughout the game you are given hints from a voice who
guides you by not only holding your hand, but requires you to accept what is
being said before you can progress. Each time you encounter something new in
the world, a door, a new enemy or even a different type of crate, the voice
kicks in and tells you exactly what it is and how to defeat, destroy or get
around it. This would not be so bad, if you were allowed to explore other areas
of the game at your own pace, but unless the game requires you to go somewhere,
everywhere else is off limits.
The controls in the game are basic at best, and while the
game is clearly aimed at kids, you can’t even chain together two attacks,
because starting one type of attack requires the full animation cycle to run
through before you can start another one. However the worst part about the controls is
that lack of camera control. The world is fully realized, but sadly the camera
only lets you pan to the left or right of a given area, and not even by much.
Each time you want to see something off to the side, you need to psychically move
there to look.
Invizimals for PlayStation 3 is a strange game in that
without the context of the Vita game, or the previous PSP versions, you don’t really
know what you’re getting into. But at the same time, having no knowledge also
produces a better game for it. With poor camera controls, a very basic combat
system and no chance for exploration, the game misses a lot of chances to make
a really strong game. And that is a shame as it ties in with the Vita version
of the game really well.
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