One for the kids, Invizimals is a third-person fantasy adventure on the PS3. You play Hiro, a young explorer who discovers a special portal that transports you randomly into the Lost Kingdom – and herein lies the problem.
Even though this is a continuing series there’s minimal context at the beginning of the game. The young hero (no pun intended but I guess that’s what they were going for), magically comes across a device that allows him to travel to this magical world – but there’s no real reason why.
From the outset I felt lost, not knowing exactly why I was roaming around this kingdom with the ability to switch into 16 different Invizimals. Apart from the helpful tips from your inbuilt tipster and your watch-like device a la Yu-Gi-Oh, you’re pretty much left on your own.
One thing that’s going for the game, is the overall look of the Lost Kingdom. Similar to Ratchet & Clank, the world looks quite slick with pretty solid graphics but one unforgivable aspect of the game is its ridiculous camera-angles.
Sometimes you feel claustrophobic unable to see where you’re running and unable to guess if you’re about to fall off a side-platform or not.
Each Invizimal has its own unique powers and abilities to help you get through this fantasy world but to acquire these powers you must engage in a “battle”. Now, I know this is a game for kids but even kids won’t be impressed with how the battles pan out. There’s literally no skill involved but the slight mashing of four buttons in slow motion – disappointing to say the least.
Unfortunately this game remains frustratingly easy with weak dialogue and plotline nothing like the greatness of the Spyro, Crash Bandicoot or Ratchet & Clank games that have gone before it. It feels rushed and not well-crafted which is sad because the overall concept could have worked with some fine-tuning.
In a nutshell, Pokémon and Skylanders really have nothing to fear.
