40 WINKS (1999) REVIEW

A nightmare for all the wrong reasons.

Playstation exclusive.

40 Winks is a platformer published GT Interactive and developed by Eurocom for the Playstation.

GAMEPLAY

The game is certainly set at children and I can’t really see why anyone older would want to play it unless they just really love any kind of platformer. Quite simply the game is too hard for kids, it was certainly too hard for me when I was younger.

The levels are linear and small, leading to the camera being hard to get in the right place at tight corridors and you often can’t judge where you need to jump, often resulting in falling off plenty of segments, this would infuriate any grown person, let along younger people. Your character can also slip off platforms rather easily, even though you landed in the right place.

STORY
I’ll actually give the game some props for trying something a bit different with something plenty of games had done before, instead of just being a generic happy platformer it does explore something different, even if all the characters and the premise are boring.

GRAPHICS

Looks like a game that came out of the SNES a few years ago. The cutscenes also make this game seem like it would have made a good Sunday morning cartoon for kids, rather than a video game.

SOUND

Boring generic soundtrack, voice acting isn’t great either and you’ll grow tired of hearing Ruff or Tumble screeching every time they throw a limb.

VALUE FOR MONEY

Don’t bother with this game, plenty of better platformers out there, kids won’t enjoy this, no one should enjoy this. It’s hard to push through an hour of it, let along more than one playthrough.

OVERALL

A game that is too hard for kids and perhaps even too scary for some, it seems 40 Winks is trying to appeal to a market that isn’t really there. There a plenty of good platformers around, all of them better for young kids and adults alike. Not only could this give a child nightmares after playing it with huge frustration, it could give them nightmares for years to come thanks to the shoddy camera and tricky for the wrong reasons platforming.

SPYRO 2: GATEWAY TO GLIMMER / RIPTO'S RAGE (1999) REVIEW

Back and better than ever before.

Playstation exclusive.

The War Z (Infestation: Survivor Stories) is a survival game published by OP Productions and developed by Hammerpoint Interactive for the Playstation, Playstation 3 and PSP.

GAMEPLAY

Levels now don’t all look and feel like their hub worlds, you can go from the peaceful Autumn Plains to the lava filled pre-historic Skelos Badlands. Every level feels far more unique, as well as a bit longer, while also filled with more things to do other than charge and flame down your enemies, as now there are plenty of mini events within the levels, such as finding someone’s lost pet, protecting baby turtles from being turned into soup, and growing plant to reach new parts of levels.

Some people didn’t enjoy the bosses in Spyro but the sequel improves these too. There may be fewer fights themselves, but they are much more fun. The fights aren’t just about chasing one enemy though a level, but strategic battles that will test how good you can really be as Spyro, the fights excellently utilise all of Spyro’s regular abilities and even some new power up ones. Without spoiling much the final fight is particularly excellent, using many of the games mechanics flawlessly.

Flight levels, or as they are now called, Speedways, are another vast improvement over the first game.

My largest complaint with Spyro 2 would have to be the obviously cut content, levels are unevenly distributed among the hub worlds, and the final hub world even forgets about the supposedly important talismans completely, as well as being a very small world in comparison to the other two.

STORY

GRAPHICS

SOUND

Stewart Copeland returns with another amazing soundtrack, although I personally felt it was a tad bit worse than the first, that’s no bad thing, as it’s still fantastic. They also went part of the way to fix the repetitive voice actors appearing, and while fewer characters sound identical, many characters still sound very similar.

VALUE FOR MONEY

The game feels a bit longer than the first game, although not by much. The bigger variety in content certainly makes it feel fresher though, and the game has a few things you can enjoy for a while on end, like Ice Hockey.

OVERALL
Spyro 2 takes the formula from the first game and improves it in almost every way, making this a must own for anyone with a Playstation.