Hello, and welcome to The Memory Card Collection. A weekly column where I will be wheeling out, what we consider to be some of the best games that have been released. There is only one criteria, that the game had to of been released over five years ago. So, without further ado, I present to you the first inductee to The Memory Card.
Blinx: The Time Sweeper.
You might think it a bit of an odd game to have been nominated to the Memory Card Hall Of Classics. However, it is a fantastic game. Now, most of you might not have played this game, you probably looked at the box art and thought that it was just a game for kids, and for this I cannot set any blame at your feet. However, the game, whilst rated at 3+ was one of the best games I played on the original Xbox.
Let me do a rundown for you:
You play a anthropomorphic cat who can control time with his vacuum cleaner. He works at a facility called ‘The Time Factory’ which is where time is created, distributed and maintained. You play a Time Sweeper, one of the agents who helps with the maintaining of time. However, all is not well as a gang of evil-pigs begin to disrupt time in one universe. Time is cut off to this universe, and just as it’s about to be fully cut off Blinx receives a message from a young princess, so you inevitably jump in and begin to affect the rescue of the princess. And, of course you must manipulate time to do this.
And it’s in this last aspect, that the game shows it’s true colours. The colours of not just a good game, but a good game with some innovative gameplay mechanics that don’t just look good on paper but they also play well. You have six time manipulation abilities, which you gain access to by collecting crystals in each level. Rewind and Fast Forward, which do exactly as they say on the tin and move things backwards and forwards. Pause stops time. Slow Motion, makes things slow. While Record enables you to, well, record things. The final one, isn’t quite a time manipulation device but is actually quite important in the end. It’s called Retry, and it’s pretty obvious what it does.
When I first played this game, it was kinda hard to play. But as I got more used to it, I actually began to enjoy it and once I finished it I just wanted to play it some more. I found it a lot of fun, and I’ve played it five times since. And do you know what, I still think it’s an incredible game.
If you disagree with anything that was said in this, or would like to suggest a game to be featured in The Memory Card, please e-mail george@thegamefanatics.com thank you.
