AWARDS SEASON: BEST GAME OF THE YEAR 2002

Overall winner

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

Honourable mentions

Pokemon Ruby

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: THE WIND WAKER

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GC exclusive.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is a game published and developed by Nintendo for the Gamecube.

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HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS REVIEW

Playstation version reviewed.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is an adventure game published by EA Games and developed by Argonaut for the Playstation, Playstation 2, Xbox, Gamecube, Game Boy Colour, Game Boy Advance and PC.

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RATCHET & CLANK (2002) REVIEW

A bit better than Agent 9: The Game, although not too much better.

PS2 exclusive.

Ratchet & Clank is a platformer published by Sony and developed by Insomniac Games for the Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Vita and "reimagined" for Playstation 4.

GAMEPLAY
You can't shoot and move around in 1st person, a lot like everyone's favourite Spyro character Agent 9. I must say that Insomniac deserve some credit for starting a series similar to the most unpopular part of their former series.

I have never ever seen a game with worse checkpoints. Sometimes you'll have to redo a whole level just because you slipped off a platform at the final part. This just leads to huge frustration and me scratching my head at such a bizarre idea. I really can't reiterate this point enough. Some of the checkpoints are simply shocking and you'll have to replay so many segments over and over again because of how terrible they are.

Switching to other weapons through the quick menu simply doesn't work very well, as you have to use the analog stick to select a new weapon, meaning Ratchet will just stand still while you do it, as you're having to do it so quickly you'll often get the wrong weapon too. Why not just slow down the game while the player selects, or even just freeze the game, something, almost anything would be better than what's in the game.

Sometimes the hook won't attach to things and you'll fall off despite doing what the game wants you to do. Sometimes you can even land on moving platforms and fall off.

To get all of the weapons you'll have to grind to be able to afford them all. I find that hugely disappointing as I hate things like that, why should I even have to grind for things like that? Why not just give out more money for me to spend and keep a nice flow to the game, rather than running off and hitting the same old tired enemies again and again.

The auto-aim on guns is awful at times, meaning you have to awkwardly hop around and waste ammo hoping that that'll finally allow you to hit some enemies.

Turret sections. Why did these have to be in the game? Insomniac showed with the Spyro series how to perfectly implement things like this, where they were minor and just served as means to get to the next part, or even hidden parts of levels, here they're just shoved in your face with the usual thousands of enemies crowding around with you having to shoot them, they're missiles and the big target you'd got in to destroy.

While we're on the topic of Spyro, all the levels in that felt inspired, the way they were designed and put together, along with so much more made the game so much fun to play. Here in this game I rarely got that feeling, most levels felt pretty boring or similar to others and quite frankly I just didn't find it very fun playing through some.

There is some good in this game though, loads of new ideas and plenty of different weapons for different scenarios, such as the Visibomb gun where you can guide the rockets yourself. Some of the Clank puzzles were interesting and there were some cool moments, such as escaping the rising waters in the sewers on Blackwater.

STORY
I didn't really like Ratchet, I know he's supposed to develop into a more likeable character but that story arc failed to win me over really, and I know the story shouldn't be taken to seriously but Insomniac have done well with this stuff before, look at the Sorceress from Year of the Dragon. Even in spite of the development I just didn't really like Ratchet, as well as his Crash Bandicoot reject appearance.

GRAPHICS

Looks pretty good.

SOUND
The soundtrack kind of reminded me of The Matrix, although not as good. The music was just there really, I didn't feel it enhanced anything too much, nor did it really ruin anything.

VALUE FOR MONEY

Takes around 10 hours to finish the story.

OVERALL
Quite frankly, I haven't played many more frustrating games than this one. It's a real shame because one of the reasons it's so annoying is that you can see some really good ideas in it, but they're crushed by some of the flaws that the game has. I just really didn't enjoy may segments of this game at all, but after seeing  how great this franchise managed to become in later instalments, it at least supplied the ground work for those to come.

Of course this game isn't a complete mess, and you can see the huge potential it has, even if it fails to reach it in many aspects, and the game was clearly enough for most people to check out a sequel. Personally though, I'd recommend Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus over this any day if you're looking for a great platformer that fulfils its potential (Franchise wise however, they ended up going opposite ways).

SPYRO: ENTER THE DRAGONFLY (2002) REVIEW

Rushed out the door.

PS2 version reviewed.

Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly is a platformer published by Universal Interactive and developed by Check Six Games with Equinox Entertainment for the Playstation 2 and Gamecube.

GAMEPLAY
Most of the levels are pretty rubbish, in fact all of them outside Thieves Den aren't very good.

Bugs are everywhere, crashing, long loading screens and even infinite ones.

Major framerate issues in some areas

It's frustrating really because you can a few sparse elements of the formula that made the Insomniac trilogy so great. Even if some of those things are simply collecting gems and the overarching thing, in this case dragonflies. I highly doubt that this game could have lived up to the fantastic first three games, but it perhaps it could have been a decent edition to the franchise.

One of the very few good things about this game was that Spyro now talks outside of cutscenes, so will actually interact more with NPCs unlike Ripto's Rage or Year of the Dragon where he wouldn't actually talk outside of cutscenes.

STORY
The game actually forgets it requires this part after the intro and I’m not joking. There are three cut scenes in the game, the start, a random one in the middle that was probably thrown in to explain the lack of a Crush or Gulp fight, and the end.

They also fail to capture some of the characters from what little they include about them, such a Ripto in the intro saying Spyro should join him, even though it's evidently clear from the second game that he really hates dragons and would never make such a suggestion. They didn't need to make Crush or Gulp talk either and Sparks just buzzes randomly, despite his buzzes actually lining up with words and somewhat sounding like them in Year of the Dragon.

GRAPHICS

I mean, at least Spyro looks good, they did well there I guess. Although what on Earth happened with all the other characters? Why do other characters wave around as if they’re drunk or slowly mutating into something?

SOUND
Stewart Copeland does it again with another good soundtrack, even if it is much weaker than the previous three I think he did a pretty great job considering how pretty much every other aspect of the game failed. However that final battle theme, it can't have actually been done by Stewart Copeland right? Or had even he given up at that point? It's just Gulp's Overlook theme from Spyro 2 with terrible strings thrown on top.

They reprised many of the voice actors from the original trilogy, if not all the important ones. I'd give it as a bonus point but to some extent it draws back from the experience knowing that it has some connections to the original trilogy because this one doesn't deserve any links to the previous games. No Insomniac no party though, so I think we can keep this game distant from the originals and ignore their attempts to link them.

Many things reused in strange context from the original trilogy

Things that sound nearby are actually on the other side of the map which can make searching for items or trying to find some enemies a pain.

VALUE FOR MONEY
This game is sadly a disaster, and was obviously shoved out the door far too early, don’t waste your money or time on encouraging these practices.

OVERALL
The premise of this game goes as follows: Spyro, after defeating the Sorceress at the end of Year of the Dragon, took to alcohol and drugs as he had no one else to defeat. In his drug induced state, he witnessed the apparent return of Ripto in desperation of someone to take on. If you look at it from this perspective it all makes sense; the wavy characters, the bugs, the bad framerate, the lack of story, the poor level design, the everything. Don’t do drugs, kids.

Really though, thanks Universal Interactive for trying to destroy my favourite game franchise just to push a clearly unfinished mess out for the holidays. I even wanted to like this game but it's obviously a complete failure and can't even be liked in the so bad it's good way. I shouldn't have to be speaking about a Spyro game that way though, and quite frankly it's pretty upsetting that this game exists in the form it does. It hurts to see such a great franchise suffer such a misstep.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS REVIEW

Playstation 2 version reviewed.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is an action game published by EA Games and developed by Stormfront Studios for the Playstation 2, Xbox, Gamecube and Game Boy Advance.

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SEEK AND DESTROY REVIEW

Playstation 2 exclusive.

Seek and Destroy is a platformer published by Takara and developed by Barnhouse Effect for the Playstation 2.

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DAVID BECKHAM SOCCER (2001) REVIEW

All your favourites are here; such as Garrard and Scoles.

PS2 version reviewed.

David Beckham Soccer is a sports game published and developed by Rage Software for the Playstation, Playstation 2, Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Colour.

GAMEPLAY
The game has no weight to it or anything, it's almost like football on ice.

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SOUND
There are supposed to be two commentators bouncing off each other but they both act as if they're in different parts of the world commentating on two completely different matches. The joy doesn't stop there though, as the reactions of both can be hilarious, scoring a simple tap in when the game is already over can cause the commentators to scream out as if a world cup winning goal has just been scored.

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THE ELDER SCROLLS III: MORROWIND REVIEW

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PC version reviewed.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is an RPG published and developed by Bethesda Softworks for the Xbox and PC.

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