Nintendo has Mario, SEGA had Sonic and Sony adopted Crash Bandicoot as their platformer icon. Then along come Blinx a time sweeping cat created by some of the guys that came up with the speedy blue hedgehog. Developed by Artoon, which was founded in 1999 Blinx the timesweeper adds a new element into game playing, being to control the flow of time. This is only possible thanks to the Xbox hard drive, which stores your actions as you game so that it can be rewound, recorded, and other such actions. The basic storyline is that one of he worlds you look after has been invaded and time messed up, producing monsters. Armed with a weak vacuum cleaner you must venture into multiple levels, collecting time crystals which add up to make time controls, dispatch all the monsters then make it to the end point. Simple but repetitive.

Gameplay:
This is the frustrating part of the whole experience. Blinx moves slowly, his legs move quickly, he should be moving quicker but he doesn’t. The whole time he moves at the same speed around the different levels. This makes the ten-minute time limit hard to beat on the later levels. Sometimes it is not clear when playing where you should go next or what you have to do to proceed, when this happens you will miss the time limit and have to start again from the beginning of the level. Repeating the levels adds to the longevity of the game but it is just annoying rather than pleasing. Blinx’s movement is not very precise and the camera can get in the way of all the fun you should be having.

Graphics:
The visuals are the best part of the game, the textures on all surfaces are detailed, everything looks bright and colourful and the level design is good. The high quality graphics do not slow down the game at all and the game runs smoothly the whole time. Some of the monsters though are not very detailed, mostly blobs of one colour, but this won’t put you off. Blinx himself is well modelled; if you get him close enough to the camera you can make out single strands of orange hair on hi head.

Sound:
The same sound effects are used over and over though out the game, and it gets boring. The music is childish and is repeated over and over as well. There should be more variety here but there isn’t.

Round Up:
The time controls are a great idea, the problem is you have to collect loads of time crystals to actually use them, then you might be running out of time and realise you haven’t got a rewind, which you need to complete the level. They could have made Blinx move faster and not get killed so easily. If there is a sequel I hope they make those improvements then it would be a rival to the great Mario.