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.