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Acclaim Entertainment and Acclaim Studios Austin have entered the mascot platform arena with Vexx, but is it worth it?
Vexx stars our friend Vexx, who is from Overwood, a village on the Planet Astara. Dark Yabu and his Shadowraith crew has wreaked havoc on Vexx’s village, with destruction close by. Vexx and his grandfather, Vargas, wouldn’t go down without a fight so they attempted to attack Dark Yabu, with no prevail. Dark Yabu showed his mercilessness by destroying Vargas with no remorse. Vexx escaped with a mindset to avenge his grandfather’s wrongful death. Vexx later united with the Asanti War Talons who help Vexx.
Vexx has been in development for quite a while (formerly under the name Jinx) and quite a bit of hype has surrounded it. Acclaim Studios Austin has developed an excellent platformer, although one has to ponder whether Vexx’s delays helped or hurt it. Vexx is made up of huge worlds, with plenty of surprises, challenges, and bonuses.
Vexx’s gameplay is made up of nine worlds who offer seventy objectives together. In each objective you (are supposed to) gain a Wraithheart. Wraithhearts are required in order to advance to the next level and further your progress. The more you are able to obtain, the more worlds you’ll open up, enabling you to win even more Wraithhearts.
Throughout the course of the levels, you’ll see Vexx’s diverse range of enemies. You’ll find everything from small flower-things, to small-big things, to more complicated enemies like the Shadow creep, Shadow minion or Shadow guard. Each enemy you destroy fills up your fury meter, which can be used to unveil special attacks. To make combat more fun, Vexx is equipped with a combo-based system, which becomes second nature in no time. To further the gameplay, Vexx will be able to receive the Rock Suit or the Air suit, which offer their elemental power up. If combat is being too tough on you, look around for hidden health or life bonuses.
Vexx has a lot of different ways to accomplish his tasks, and most involve some vibrant particle use. In addition to fighting, you’ll climb mountains or swim. You can swim underwater or over it, and climbing enables you to reach various places. In addition to these, you’ll have four basic jumps. You can have a normal jump, a wall jump (ricochet off walls), a pulse jump (charged jump), or a long jump which you execute while running.
Time plays an important part in the world of Vexx. Throughtout levels, you’ll find sundials, that allow you to control time. Time passes beautifully and nighttime will bring out some of the tougher enemies. You can’t always evade nighttime though, since certain hidden levels can only be found at this time. As expected, the various worlds increase their difficulty as you play along.
Visually, Vexx does a great job at flexing the muscle of the Gamecube. The skies are particularly noteworthy, as it is interesting to stand on a sundial and watch the skies change from morning to evening and from evening to night. The sunrise, the sunset and the rising moons do a great job at illustrating a real, “living” world. Particle effects are put to use as you’ll notice sand and dust spreading when Vexx lands. The water effects aren’t mind-blowing, but small touches like having droplets appear on your screen make them worthwhile. The worlds were designed with great thought and their size keeps things interesting. Vexx’s attacks, swimming and climbing are all well animated and full of particle effects. Vexx is also designed solidly, though appears a bit blocky at times. He is different though, and makes a great “franchise mascot.” If your TV supports progressive scan, you’ll be treated to sharper visuals as Vexx supports the format.
On the sound side, Vexx runs a good soundtrack, that isn’t really memorable but you’ll enjoy it as it plays. It never becomes annoying and fits the theme of the game dead-on. There isn’t much voice acting in the game but what is included is done superbly. The combat sound effects sound great, and you can hear Vexx’s metal clinging as he battles or scales walls. Environmental ambience is provided from the bridges and waterfalls and makes the world sound believable. The enemy grunts aren’t impressive but do their job.
The Gamecube really didn’t need any more platformers. The system already features decent games like Crash Bandicoot and Ty the Tasmanian Tiger to good games like Sonic Adventure 2 to the grandfather of all platformers, Mario Sunshine. Vexx is high on the list and makes a noteworthy entry to the list. Gamecube owners should not miss out on Acclaim’s Vexx.
-- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Feb 21, 2003
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