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Invizimals: The Lost Kingdom Review for PlayStation 3 (PS3)

Invizimals: The Lost Kingdom Review for PlayStation 3 (PS3)

Feel Like Punching Boxes?

The console world could use more kid-friendly games, and what’s more fun for kids than turning into awesome animals and going on a grand adventure? That’s the premise of Invizimals: The Lost Kingdom , a classic-style 3D platformer starring a kid who turns into cool-looking fighting critters. Sadly, that concept is completely wasted on this poorly-designed, downright boring title.

Remember the original PlayStation era, when we suffered through a slew of shoddily designed licensed 3D platformers? Remember how people got tired of that formula very quickly, and nobody does it anymore? Well, Sony’s Invizimals crew is bringing us a blast from the past complete with the clunky controls and horrible camera we all remember without fondness. Sure, the kids this game is aimed at don’t remember those days, but is that any excuse to make the same design mistakes as the low-budget software of the past?

Invizimals: The Lost Kingdom Screenshot

Invizimals: The Lost Kingdom tosses its player character, a boy named Hiro, into a mysterious world inhabited by bipedal animals based off real and mythological beasts from our world. Of course, everything has gone wrong in Invizimals land, which is under attack by a bunch of angry robots. The story is simple and bears an environmental message (though you won’t get that until some hours into it), but it’s delivered via voice acting that is often so ethnically stereotyped as to be offensive. Most of the game isn’t really focused on the story, but on running around and beating things up in Invizimals forms, all of which have different abilities and are gained by challenging the appropriate Invizimal in a QTE battle.

If only running around and beating things up were more fun. While the game’s controls aren’t the absolute worst I’ve encountered, they are slow, clunky, and unreliable. Every Invizimal, no matter how supposedly lithe, fights with the speed and grace of a dazed rhinoceros. The platforming controls are slightly better, when they work. Unfortunately, standing on a slightly raised piece of terrain such as a cobblestone can cause the jump button to fail to operate. I had other times when the controls failed to operate, but that was the most common issue I found. Even worse than the clunky controls, though, is the completely uncontrollable fixed camera. It doesn’t follow your character, so if you backtrack at all (which is frequently necessary), you’re traveling nearly blind. It’s never fun to fail a jump because the camera flipped on you partway through, and that sort of thing happens constantly in Invizimals .

Invizimals: The Lost Kingdom Screenshot

All of this would be more problematic if the game hadn’t set its difficulty level to “brain dead.” Enemies telegraph attacks at least a full second before actually attacking, and platforming puzzles are rendered un-puzzles because Hiro’s guide and/or the tutorial text tell you exactly what to do every single time—even if you’ve done the exact same thing twenty times already. If I were one of the upper elementary kids that this game seems to be aimed at, I’d be offended by its assessment of my abilities and intelligence level. As it was, I was just extraordinarily bored by the entire thing.

Invizimals: The Lost Kingdom Screenshot

Speaking of boredom, a poor reward system combines with the low difficulty level to make the game a snoozefest. Most platformers of this type have collectable items and secrets to find, but nearly the only thing to collect in The Lost Kingdom is currency. This currency is used to unlock new attacks for the Invizimals, even though special attacks are hardly needed to win the simple battles, and it’s nearly always found in chests and urns that must be punched several times to break open. With sparse battles and sparser special collectables, you’ll end up spending the majority of your gaming time punching boxes for currency you don’t really even care about. It’s a real let-down to battle the camera and discover an optional or secret area, only to see that it’s filled with nothing but punchable boxes.

I’ve seen some discussion of this game that suggests that the low difficulty and other dull design decisions are forgiveable, because it’s a game aimed at kids. I thoroughly disagree with that idea. Kids need and deserve games that allow them to use problem-solving skills and solve puzzles on their own. Overcoming fair and age-appropriate challenges is fun and interesting to gamers of all ages, and especially young gamers. Kids deserve games that are engaging, control well, and allow them to set and meet goals that improve their skills. This is not one of those games.

Invizimals: The Lost Kingdom Screenshot

The only real positive attribute I could find was that The Lost Kingdom is attractive. The graphical style has a bit of an Alice in Wonderland feel to it, with whimsical, oversized foliage. The Invizimals themselves look pretty cool, especially to the target age group. There was potential here to create a fascinating world to explore, but it was squandered by level design that’s completely divorced from reality and the lack of any signs that Invizimals actually live in the world. As far as I could tell, this Lost Kingdom is actually the home territory of the punch-boxes. The background music, consisting of dull, repetitive atmospheric bits, doesn’t help, either.

If you’re not a kid, I can say with certainty that this game is not one of those kid-friendly games that also appeals to adults. If you have or know a kid, she or he might be temporarily diverted by the cool Invizimals, but I suspect that most kids who are old enough to read the game’s text will be quickly bored. Stick with the kid-friendly standbys of Minecraft , Nintendo offerings, and LEGO games, and give this one a big ol’ skip.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.5 Graphics
The Invizimals are cool and the game looks quite attractive at first, but all the areas look a bit too similar. 2.0 Control
Slow and unreliable, with a terrible camera to boot. 1.9 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
The background music is boring, and the voice acting is downright offensive. 1.5 Play Value
Anybody old enough to read the game’s text will probably be bored within twenty minutes. 1.9 Overall Rating – Avoid
Not an average. See Rating legend below for a final score breakdown.

Review Rating Legend
0.1 – 1.9 = Avoid 2.5 – 2.9 = Average 3.5 – 3.9 = Good 4.5 – 4.9 = Must Buy
2.0 – 2.4 = Poor 3.0 – 3.4 = Fair 4.0 – 4.4 = Great 5.0 = The Best

Game Features:

  • Explore the world of the Invizimals as the smash hit series comes to PS3 in a thrilling third-person adventure.
  • You are Hiro, a young explorer who discovers a magical portal that teleports you to the Lost Kingdom – a land under attack from a cruel, rampaging robot army.
  • Transform into 16 of the most popular Invizimals, using their unique powers and abilities to solve puzzles and battle against your enemies.
  • Link up with players of Invizimals: The Alliance on PlayStation Vita to swap bonus game items and stage electrifying four-player battles via Cross-Platform play.

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