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Blade Kitten
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Graphics & Sound:
Blade Kitten is a different kind of cat. The game is a 2D/3D mashup that draws on some cool design to create a world you'll want to explore, but you really can't judge a book by its cover. Under the hood, there are some identity issues, but Blade Kitten is a vibrant romp on the surface, inspired by a series of comics from Krome Studios Creative Director Steve Stamatiadis.
Beginning with the cinematics, you'll get a strong Jak & Daxter vibe, setting the scene for classic platforming action. In a futuristic age that is colorful and filled with living detail, Blade Kitten places you in the role of a sassy girl who backs up her attitude with a sentient blade and some assorted creatures. She's pitted against all kinds of enemies, but the environment is her real challenge. Platforming works best when you combine climbing ability with tricky jumping sequences, and there are plenty of complicated areas to explore here. You don't have the ability to move in and out of the background, but Blade Kitten includes some portals that accomplish this, letting you explore areas you've only seen in the distance. One of your posse can be sent into the foreground or background to gather items, which is another way to suggest 3D without really delivering. What's missing is the kind of 2.5D platforming that fans will remember from a game like Klonoa, which would have broken Blade Kitten out of an otherwise pretty stale mold.
Another area that gets old fast is the witty dialogue delivered by the game's heroine, Kit Ballard. Fans of the comic may relish hearing her talk for the first time, but after the fiftieth, even they may be cringing. Don't get me wrong: There's some good voice talent in the game, well-structured cinematics, and humor abounds, but hearing the same line delivered every time I press a certain button sequence just doesn't improve the experience.
The surrounding noise and effects during Blade Kitten are fun, and the blade sounds are particularly inspired. If you're going to have a huge, floating blade following you around, at least let it sound really cool. In a very real sense, the Blade Kitten comic was brought to life in the game, including all the elements that readers will love. Measured as a fan service, Blade Kitten scores well, but against the options for platforming and 3D action titles on Xbox Live, it's going to have a hard time standing out. At least there is plenty of variety during the game and new elements you'll encounter in each level or stage.
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Gameplay:
Any game that lets you buy new costumes for your main character shows either a predilection for style over substance, or an extreme confidence in the loyalty of its players. Dedicated Blade Kitten adherents can unlock all kinds of cool things, not least of which are the game's achievements. Dressing Kit up isn't as important as arming her appropriately, and luckily you can do both. Gathering crystal shards during the game earns you points that can be cashed in during these transactions. If you search hard enough, you may be able to find some hidden treasure chests, rewarding the patient and thorough players. Mostly, Blade Kitten is a run-and-gun experience where you can clear levels easily as long as you aren't obsessed with earning points.
The story revolves around Kit arriving on a new planet to hunt down an assigned target - She is a bounty hunter, after all - where she quickly runs into trouble. It's up to you to clean things up once things go sideways, and you'll alternately be doing the chasing or being chased. It's a fun ride, but very structured. You pass through areas, you get into some fights, you collect some items, and you start a new level or stage. Variety in gameplay isn't nearly as prevalent as in the style and design of Blade Kitten, which is a shame. If you're over the age of 20, you've likely already played your fair share of platforming titles, regardless of platform. It's not that Blade Kitten is a bad game, but just a very ordinary experience.
Elements we enjoyed most were special moves, and interesting techniques for taking out on enemies like dropping down from the sky with a powerhouse slash. We like solving interesting puzzles, but most in this game are limited to doors or machinery with distant locks you must access or sabotage. Riding a mount early in the game was a great feature, but it's not always intuitive where you can and can't go. This is also true to some extent while on foot, but only with the best of intentions, because of all the opportunities to find hidden items behind false walls or tucked into crevices. We had mixed feelings about the other members of your entourage, but they generally serve their purpose and get the job done. Compared to exciting sidemen, Skiffy is pretty weak, especially since he/she only works on autopilot; compare this to similar games from recent years where the action switches between two or more characters, to create variety. Other movers in the world of Blade Kitten are mostly soldiers that seem to exist for no other reason than to drive you completely insane. They're like crates in soldier form... What would have made Blade Kitten more than a weekend distraction is some really rock-solid mechanics coupled with deep platforming, or more creative structure and involved puzzle action. Krome comes dangerously close to turning their own original license into a typical licensed game, which isn't a good thing. |
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Difficulty:
Those lackey enemies can sometimes do the darndest things, like corner you and chop you into shreds before you have any chance to defend yourself. Quirks in the interface and with the controls make some areas in Blade Kitten especially frustrating. Platforming is the least of your worries, especially when there are some helper features that make you stick to the trickier elements like glue. Why the balancing wasn't done on some of these enemies, we'll never know, but it may have been the developer's idea of offsetting Kit Ballard's ferocious blade.
Armed with the blade, there are very few enemies you can't slice through like a hot knife in butter. Those that defend themselves can be taken out by sliding attacks and those death-from-above slams, so it's all the more surprising when a lone enemy can immobilize and defeat you. This happens rarely, but more often than we'd like. Enemies are surprisingly agile, climbing over obstacles in the environment to attack you, or sniping you from afar.
Only in cases when you are surrounded by large groups of enemies does it become a matter of life and death, assuming you've mastered at least the basic controls. Blade Kitten does a nice job of instructing you on these controls from the beginning, taking the guesswork out of how to get around. The mounted controls and special commands you'll use at certain points in the game are clearly defined, so we never really felt like this was a hard game to pick up and play. The level of challenge won't be a problem for gamers accustomed to fast-paced action or platforming, and as we've mentioned, the platforming doesn't really hold its own. Somewhere in the DNA of Blade Kitten is a great platformer yearning to come out, but it's in constant competition with action/shooting gameplay that often dilutes the entire proceedings. |
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Game Mechanics:
A lot of time has passed since the days of Crash Bandicoot and other early platformers, to the point that we know how a game like this is supposed to look and feel. The look is definitely on target, but the controls are questionable. While everything works as advertised, in terms of the buttons and their functions, Blade Kitten fails to connect the dots between nimble acrobatics and physical fighting. Thinking about a recent entry like Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, you have Lara planted on the ground for 60% of the game, compared to the third-person platforming that defined the earlier games. Even with the change in perspective, that game managed to blend shooting-action with some puzzle-based platforming that worked. In Blade Kitten, there's no free-motion and very limited ranged combat, so almost all the action is vertical platforming or up-close combat. During combat sequences, only about 2-3 moves are well defined and none of them chain very well. You expect the typical fighting game controls that mix up jumping attacks with other special moves like slashing or sliding. Each of these actions can be performed in Blade Kitten, but there's a discernible pause between the execution of each one. You feel a bit like the heroine is robotic, and that there's some lag between entering the command and seeing its execution. Jumping, in a pure platforming mode, is more easily executed but there aren't enough opportunities for Kit to really showcase her skills. When those opportunities arise, the game uses "smart" landing spots to ensure that Kit never misses her mark. From one angle, this is a good way of mediating frustration players feel over failing, but from another it takes the thrill out of these sequences. There are also plenty of move-sets that just don't get enough mileage, where they could have been used more often as elements in creative puzzles or set pieces.
We loved the approach taken to bring a flat, 2D character to life in a game. Fans of the Blade Kitten comics will no doubt appreciate the time and attention put into designing the world of Kit Ballard and her colorful entourage. There are some fine examples in the game that show the development team was inspired by classic platforming titles, but uneven controls and gameplay handicap what otherwise has all the right intentions. Younger fans may find Blade Kitten more than adequate, since they don't bring the same level of precedent and expectation to the table. Even so, we expect that the control issues and some flat spots in gameplay will fail to click with most gamers, other than die-hard platforming fans or Blade Kitten devotees. |
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-Fridtjof, GameVortex Communications AKA Matt Paddock |
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