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"Cutesy XBOX"

I'm a melancholic soul - always dwelling on the transient nature of existence; the fragility and fickleness of humankind; the ever-approaching stare of the Grim Reaper's evil-eye.... and it's for these reasons that I am curiously drawn to bright and colourful things - I constantly need cheering up you see.
So when I discovered that three jolly and rainbow-hued games were coming to XBOX, the flicker of a half-smile dawned upon my ashen face.

The three games in question [which, dare I say it, would not look out of place on a Nintendo console] are BLINX, PSYCHONAUTS and TOEJAM & EARL III, and far from being just your run-of-the-mill cutesy platformer type thingies, all three games will feature new and innovative gameplay [if the previews are to be believed].

BLINX, a time-travelling ginger cat, will attempt to become the official mascot character of the XBOX, a la Mario, Sonic and er, Lara. By collecting certain magical crystals, the player will be able to momentarily gain control of time - i.e. you can pause, record, rewind, fast forward or slow down proceedings. All this is made possible because of the XBOX's hard-drive. It's tricky to know exactly how all this time-warping malarkey will work in actuality, but it all sounds rather good to me; and furthermore, the main guy behind NiGHTS is the main guy behind BLINX - so hopefully it'll be a peculiar, outlandish and unashamedly dreamy affair.

PSYCHONAUTS puts you in the shoes of Raz, a psychic wonderkid who has to foil some twisted evil-doers with an array of psychic powers such as teleportation, telekinesis, levitation, fire-starting, prophecy and invisibility. Sounds promising, and it also looks very nice indeed, which always helps.

TOEJAM & EARL III - ah yes, the return of the deranged duo in glorious 3D. Probably the most striking feature of this game is the random generation of the gameworld which apparently ensures the uniqueness of every game - [I'll believe that when I see it!]. Anyway, whatever the reality, I'm looking forward to it regardless. MegaDrive memories come flooding back....

So there you have it: three cutesy games coming to XBOX.
The prospect of giddy high-jinx gameplay is assured.

Just out of interest, Psychonauts was named the "Best Original Game" at E3 in this year's Game Critics Awards.
Blinx was runner-up.

Cinnamon wrote:
> Talking of *giddy high-jinx gameplay* - Role on Crazy Taxi 3!

*

Oh yes, 5EXY515! ;)

Nomad_Soul wrote:
> The prospect of giddy high-jinx gameplay is assured.

Talking of *giddy high-jinx gameplay* - Role on Crazy Taxi 3!

Definatly. I'm really looking forward to the near future and 2003 is shaping up nicely for X-Box games too. :-)

September/october time onwards xbox will mean buisness.

Yeah there is that. ;-) I'm really impressed with what the X-Box will be bringing over the next year and a half. :-)
Can't wait till Christmas and onwards. ;-)

savatt1668 wrote:
>Its criminal that the Dreamcast didn't last.


Good job it did'nt last if you think about it, we would'nt have all these impressive games (and more to come) from sega as they would of stayed with the dreamcast.

Psychonauts looks good. But I'm REALLY looking forward to Blinx and Toejam & Earl 3. :-)
Sega are definatly one of the best companies for games. Its criminal that the Dreamcast didn't last.

I don't normally like "cutesy" games, but I must admit that Blinx sounds like it's gonna be a great game. All that meesing about with time, fast forward, rewind, record stuff. Excellent. Give the power to the player, that's what I say.

I am certainly looking forward to blinx.