Blinx 2: Masters of Time and Space
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| Blinx 2: Masters of Time and Space | |
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| Developer(s) | Artoon |
| Publisher(s) | Microsoft Game Studios |
| Engine | Blinx: The Time Sweeper |
| Release date(s) | November 18, 2004 |
| Genre(s) | Platformer |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Everyone (E) |
| Platform(s) | Xbox |
| Media | DVD |
| Input | Gamepad |
Advertised as "A Heroic Battle for Time and Space", Blinx 2: Masters of Time and Space is a 3D third-person platform game developed by Artoon and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released for the Xbox on November 18, 2004.
Its prequel, Blinx: The Time Sweeper, was released for the Xbox in 2002.
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[edit] Characters
In Blinx 2 the player controls either a Time Sweeper (an anthropomorphic cat) or a Tom Tom (a pig) on their mission to prevent the end of the world by finding the 8 fragments of the all-powerful Big Crystal.
The Time Sweepers monitor time so they can sweep up rubbish on the ground to fire as ammo. Their enemies are Time Monsters and the Tom Tom Gang. They also must face the segments of the Big Crystal, when they mutate into bosses.
In Blinx 2, there are various missions the player must complete in order to find the Big Crystal. As many of the Time Monsters respawn when needed, the 'Time Sweep' mission of the original Blinx no longer applies.
The Tom Toms are a rowdy bunch, who use guns, turrets, tanks and other traps (for example, a decoy which morphs into a Tom Tom to lure Time Sweepers away). Their enemies are the Time Sweepers, their K9-1000 dogs, and a few bosses.
[edit] Time Controls
Once again, the Time Sweeper places six different Time Controls at the player's disposal. Five of these are based on controls commonly found on VCRs. The Time Control and Time Sweepers available in Blinx 2 are slightly different from the Time Controls and Time Sweepers available to Blinx in Blinx 1.
The Time Crystals themselves work and appear differently also. In Blinx 2, the Time Crystals are shaped as their symbols in the Time Sweeper on-screen interface. Also, the player can collect the Time Crystals in any order to gain Time Controls. The player has a separate stock of Time Crystals for each Time Control, and when they hold three of any Crystal, it is converted into a Time Control. The 'collect 4 in a row to gain 2 Time Controls at once' rule is not present in Blinx 2.
- REW - Two purple chevrons pointing to the left. Time Crystal - Purple chevrons pointing down. This causes time to run backwards for everything in the world except Blinx himself. Bridges and other elements previously destroyed can be restored with this Time Control no matter how long ago they were destroyed. Many of the scripted necessary uses of REW in Blinx 2 are accompanied by a cutscene and mid-level checkpoint.
- FF - Two orange chevrons pointing to the right. Time Crystal - Orange chevrons pointing up. This Time Control is wildly different from its Blinx 1 counterpart. Blinx 2's FF causes time to slightly speed up for the world and its inhabitants but imbues the player's cat with Time Energy, allowing them to run faster, jump higher, and fall slower. The player is no longer invulnerable during FF, and, as with all Blinx 2 Time Controls, any contact with an enemy during FF will cause the Time Control to be cancelled and the player to take damage.
- PAUSE - Two light blue rectangles. Time Crystal - Blue PAUSE symbol. This causes time to stop for everything in the world except the player. Scenery elements are frozen during PAUSE, and can be jumped on to reach hidden areas.
- REC - Green circle. Time Crystal - Green REC symbol. The first phase of REC is 10 seconds of 'recording' time, where the player is invulnerable to all damage, and can move as normal. When 10 seconds has elapsed (or the player has been lost to an unrecoverable environmental hazard), the world and Blinx will be rewound backwards for 10 seconds, and the same period of time will be played. During this 'playback', the actions taken by the player during the 'recording' will be shown as a green ghost, allowing for enhanced combat tactics to be used, or puzzles that would require two players to be solved. Many of the puzzles presented during two player cooperative play can be solved by a single player using REC wisely.
- SLOW - Yellow triangle pointing to the right. Time Crystal - Yellow triangle. This causes time to run slowly for everything in the world except the player. Scenery elements are slowed during SLOW, and can be jumped on to reach hidden areas.
The sixth Time Control, RETRY, is triggered manually in Blinx 2, but it can only be triggered when the player is knocked out by an enemy or lost to an infinite chasm.
- RETRY - Red heart. Time crystal - Red heart. RETRY causes everything in the world, including the player, to rewind to a point where the player should be safe.
In Blinx 2, each Time Sweeper has its own Time Control capacity, and each Time Control is stored separately. The starting Sweepers can only store two PAUSE, two REW and two RETRY. Upgraded Sweepers can hold up to five of each Time Control.
There is an upgrade available for each Time Sweeper which allows two Time Controls (except RETRY) to be mixed into a hybrid Time Control, which can exhibit powers possessed by both its parent Controls. For example, the player can mix REC and SLOW into a hybrid Time Control SLOW + REC, which is the same as a REC, except its 'recording' and 'playback' are both doubled (20 seconds instead of 10), and the world is afflicted by the power of SLOW. All pairings of REW, FF, PAUSE, REC and SLOW are possible (except pairing a Time Control with itself), but some combinations are more useful than others.
At certain points in the game, the player is confronted by large weapons. When this happens, the game freezes for few seconds asking the player to choose one of two REACTIVE Time Controls. REACTIVE Time Controls are free Time Controls (triggered by the player's Operator back at the Time Factory) that allow the player to dodge or eliminate the impending threat. If the player fails to choose a REACTIVE Time Control, then the game is resumed, and the player is free to use one of the regular Time Controls as normal, or to simply dodge out of the way of the threat.
- PAUSE REACTIVE - This is the same as a regular PAUSE, but it lasts for slightly longer. If the player wanders out of range of the threat during PAUSE REACTIVE, and then back into the threat if the weapon fires for a second time, then the player is offered a second REACTIVE, but only the PAUSE REACTIVE is available.
- SLOW REACTIVE - This REACTIVE slows down the threat, roots the player to the spot, and challenges the player to dodge the incoming threat by moving the analog thumbstick to match on-screen commands. If the player does not react in time or pulls the wrong direction then the threat will instantly kill the player.
[edit] Plot
[edit] The Big Crystal
The game starts off with the Tom Toms in a dark cave trying to steal the Big Crystal. Unfortunately, foolish Benito (leader of the Tom Toms) jumps on the crystal, and it breaks. They then run out and escape.
Then it cuts to a scene in the sky where the Time Goddesses talk about how valuable time is and that so few understand its true value. Then, back in the Time Factory, an alert goes off that time energy is decreasing in all universes. The CEO is astonished when he realises that the Big Crystal broke and at that moment green Tom Toms come in ships into the Time Factory. This crash into the building chips off a large clock off the building threatening to kill many Time Sweepers. Blinx suddenly pauses time and shouts "Hurry, Move it!" getting all Time Sweepers to safety. The Tom Toms get ID'ed as the Tom Tom Gang and a fight emerges, and when one Tom Tom fires a gun which shoots a bomb, Blinx slows time, and they all run to safety. Blinx then gets scratched by a rock. (This helps the user identify that it is Blinx.) When Blinx later shoots at a Tom Tom and they survive and heal, the Time Factory notices that they are invincible and they are part of the mother computer's core.
Things get worse when the whole Time Factory loses all power. A weird shadowed face appears on their screen and weird symbols appear below. The CEO suddenly realises it is the Ancient language of the Time Goddesses and gets the Time Sweepers to open the portal to the Ruins of time (with coordinates zero). He orders Blinx to go to the portal and save the day, but he refuses as he is still currently fighting the invincible Tom Toms. His fellow Time Sweeper tells Blinx he can't win. Blinx hurries off to the portal but a lot of his fellow Time Sweepers follow him in. In total 252 cats jump in the portal (250 named Time Sweepers, Blinx and the player).
[edit] The game begins
After the first cutscene, the player begins as a Time Sweeper. After some training from Jimmy the shopkeeper on how to play, the real game begins. In Time Sweeper's mission 1 the player first has to blow down/open a door, collect batteries to operate a helicopter, and kill the stone monster by shooting at its chest while its on the ground.
The game then goes to another cutscene, showing the Time Goddesses saying to their daughter, "Mina what are you going to do, now? They cut the string of time. We're afraid your wish cannot be granted." The game flashes back to the Time Factory Invasion, this time from Benito's point of view. Then it goes back to the face in the picture the CEO of the Time Factory saw, of Mina. Benito instantly falls in love with her. Mina asks Benito to find all the big crystal fragments before they—she does not say why, because by then the other Tom Toms wake up Benito. He shouts, "That dream was just getting good." They say that he is in the news as the Tom Tom Gang are invading the Time Factory, but the Tom Tom Gang aren't invading. They're on their island, relaxing. Benito laughs and goes off to get the big crystal fragments.
Carlos, the Tom Toms' shopkeeper, then trains the player to be a Tom Tom.
[edit] The final boss
After the final mission of the game, another cutscene plays. The Destroyer of Time then drops her pair of scissors. It crashes to earth and morphs into a giant red mutated demon. A sixth portal appears in the Time Factory which the player can enter for the final boss.
In the final level, the whole team of Time Sweepers are on a small island in A-000. On the island are 21 eggs which when near, turn into spiked monsters with blue barriers. The player must suck up the pause icons there to pause time, and shoot them with the bombs and food on the ground. Then the player must very quickly hit the scissor demon in the head with a bomb—if done too slowly, the scissor demon will attack, and a chunk of the island might come off. In a brief cutscene they find out the bombs don't work and they have to fire the Big Crystal now. It has no effect, so the player must beat more monsters with blue barriers to again retrieve their fragments of the Big Crystal.
Then the player's 4 members of the Tom Tom gang appear. The player's Time Sweeper wonders what they're doing here and what light is coming off them. The player's Tom Tom says that their big crystal fragments are resonating, and gives the player's Time Sweeper a multi-lock-on system.
The player must lock-on and aim at all 8 of the targets of the Scissor Demon (now flying in the air); if done too slowly, the Scissor Demon will attack with usually drastic consequences and fly again (giving another opportunity for lock-on). Once locked on, the Time Sweeper shoots the 8 Big Crystal fragments at the Scissor Demon, killing it. A final cinematic sequence plays.
[edit] Time Monsters
[edit] Spiker
This monster has 1 foot and spikes. When it sees the player it will roll at them in spikes. When it is in spike mode it can also be hit.
[edit] Octoballoon
This monster has a balloon body and it has 2 tentecals (not 8). This monster floats and shoots trash.
[edit] Kerofish
This monster eats trash and shoots them. To beat one the player must hit it from behind or it will just eat the trash the player sent at it, it can also be killed if it eats a bomb.
[edit] Ghosts
This monster is skeleton bobing around. When is hit it its head will bounce around, stunned, if not hit soon after, it will turn into a skeleton again.
If the player requires a certain Time Control to complete a puzzle, many of the Time Monsters in Blinx 2 will respawn, allowing the player to collect the Time Control and continue with the adventure.
[edit] Criticisms
This game had a huge amount of harsh criticism for its name, Blinx 2. The name implied that Blinx had a major role in the game, but Blinx only plays very loosely in its plot, and rumors abounded on this issue, stating that the player can only play as Blinx with a cheat that is hard to activate.
Blinx 2 was also criticised because its final boss bears a resemblance to Tarasque from Dungeons and Dragons, reflecting badly on the game's tone.
From a different point-of-view, Blinx 2 was criticised also for its significant additions of violence from its prequel.
The aforementioned may have very well earned the game an "E10+" rating later on by the ESRB if they were to re-rate the game.
[edit] External links
- Blinx 2 official website, which has some help as well.
