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Voltron: Defender of the Universe Review for PlayStation 3 (PS3)

Voltron: Defender of the Universe Review for PlayStation 3 (PS3)

A Lion Without Teeth

Voltron is one of those ’80s series like Robotech and Battle of the Planets/G-Force that was adapted from a differently titled Japanese production and, in some way, fundamentally altered to be more family friendly and appealing to the masses of Saturday morning cartoon-watching kids in the United States. Today, such an act would be met with the full ire of the internet, the anime fandom shouting their lungs out in horrified and virulent messages on boards and via e-mails across the web, decrying these alterations from the pristine Japanese originals. Back then, though, the shows were fun to watch and developed a dedicated fandom, which holds them aloft today. You rarely hear anyone mention GoLion, no? It’s always Voltron, which was popular enough in the West that it not only saw the typical DVD rerelease, but an entirely new series (ongoing) produced by an American studio.

Voltron: Defender of the Universe has nothing to do with this latest addition to the mythology. Maybe it’s intended as a primer for kids who are enamored with the new animation but lack a solid background in the original tales that precede it. If such is the case, it fails spectacularly; its twelve short levels tell a fractured and fragmented version of the story in between-level cutscenes (all ripped from the original animation). It all suffers from a complete dearth of context, disjointed transitions, and a lack of explanation as to just what each mission is actually intended to accomplish for the Voltron Force. It’s an incomprehensible mess, which leaves players with absolutely no understanding of Voltron’s past or investment in the amalgam robot’s future journeys. So, it doesn’t do well at telling its story, but it’s a downloadable title set over only twelve levels, and probably couldn’t hope to cover the entirety of the original series effectively. Does it at least play well?

Voltron: Defender of the Universe Screenshot

No. It doesn’t play well at all.

Well, that’s not entirely true. It has a couple of redeeming gameplay touches, but they’re in the vast minority. One of these is the momentum with which the Lions control. This is a twin-stick shooter, but your vehicles are quadrupeds, bounding through their environments. Appropriately, they can’t turn on a dime, sudden shifts in direction causing their hindquarters to satisfyingly swing around their planted forelegs as they skid to a halt before bolting off on their new headings. As we’ve seen in shooters such as Renegade Ops, this fusion of satisfying momentum and hectic, twin-stick action can be employed to extremely positive effect.

Where Voltron goes wrong, though, is in every other aspect of its core gameplay. One of the keys in Renegade Ops was hectic action, which Voltron lacks early on. The starting levels are dull and lifeless, with most enemies dwarfed by the mecha you control. They go down quickly and easily, rarely presenting any credible threat. Later on, however, it becomes perfectly clear why the developers were reluctant to kick things up a notch; by the end, the game is throwing projectiles at you in bullet-hell densities, but your ungainly vehicles are too busy swinging their hips to dodge between or even around the blasts. It becomes a frustrating task of running in a circle, trying not to be on whichever side of a takes-too-long-to-die enemy this multitude of deadly energy orbs/mines/missiles decides to spawn on.

Voltron: Defender of the Universe Screenshot

This is exacerbated by a game engine that, as low-res and low detail as it appears to be, barely chugs along. At first, I thought the slowdown was intentional, to accurately convey the feel of piloting one of these powerful and massive lion mecha. Then I hit a rare moment of clarity, with no geometry more complex than a flat plain and the lion onscreen. The framerate kicked up and the controls became infinitely more responsive for the only three seconds when it didn’t matter. Further, while we’re on the look of the game, nothing you destroy ever dies or explodes in any kind of satisfying or visceral way. It feels like tearing through a bunch of papier-mâché, minus the tactile fulfillment. That extends to the fact that the game, despite its annoying mechanics, is pretty easy. Extra lives are only a few star shards away, and survivor mode kicks in if your health is depleted, allowing you a chance to re-enter your lion after it starts back up, assuming you can avoid your foes in the interim.

The second shining star within Voltron’s black void is, ironically, space. The game is ostensibly divided into three parts: ground, space, and Voltron combat. Ground combat has already been detailed and Voltron segments are a whole ‘nother can of worms, but space sections are actually a good bit of fun. They control like a vertical scrolling shooter, but the player can shoot in any direction. Here, the action flows smoothly, with no slowdown and a better sense of destruction, more interesting enemy patterns, and responsive controls that allow you to actually dodge between projectiles instead of just around them. It’s nothing spectacular, but it’s a competent effort. In fact, it feels as though this is where the bulk of development went, and only later did the producers realize that not that much of Voltron takes place in space and they’d have to do some stuff on the ground as well. Or they just ran out of ideas.

Voltron: Defender of the Universe Screenshot

I doubt it’s the latter, though, because there are only two space levels in the entire game. Two out of twelve. There are also three Voltron levels, which means that over half of the game—a whopping seven levels—is devoted to unsatisfying ground action, fighting the same few enemy designs over and over again, recolored to fit your locale of choice.

In contrast to the space levels, though, the relative scarcity of Voltron levels is a blessing in disguise. They start out alright, with the player and his lion of choice taking on a massive Robeast while support rains down from on high. Interestingly, this is probably where you’ll experience most of your deaths, since Robeasts do a tremendous amount of damage and survivor mode doesn’t exist during these boss battles. Once the boss’ health is depleted, however, you form Voltron, watching the entire transformation sequence each time, pressing quick-time inputs for points throughout. These inputs have no impact on the transformation’s success.

Voltron: Defender of the Universe Screenshot

So, after you’ve transformed, you get to go full-on robot all over some Robeast’s face, right? Not as such, no. Voltron is a game designed with multiplayer in mind and, since there can only be one Voltron, the battles instead play like a light RPG, with players selecting the robot’s attack from four choices on a timer, then performing a short timing test to decide whether the attack hits. Defense is relegated to pressing the correct button when the enemy Robeast prepares to attack. It has exactly no depth and provides only passing visual entertainment. Once you have defeated your foe, you mash a button to form Voltron’s sword and he gets to slash through the enemy, culminating in an anemic explosion.

And that’s Voltron. Yes, there’s multiplayer, but I wasn’t able to try it because no one was online playing this game. Either that or the matchmaking is entirely broken. Either way, not good. Further, chosing “custom game” from the online menu works more like quick match, while what they call “quick match” actually tends to create a lobby, in which you wait for minutes with no sign of companionship on the horizon. I can confirm, however, that multiplayer in the Voltron segments boils down to taking turns picking attacks and adds additional little tasks for the other players to do to make each attack successful. This increases the difficulty of landing these attacks, and I imagine that, with a full party of players, it’s almost impossible to actually pull off a successful attack.

Voltron: Defender of the Universe is a poorly designed cash-in on a franchise that hasn’t been relevant in years. It’s particularly telling when the announcer is your absolute best feature, stating “Voltron will return after these messages” when you pause, then “And now back to Voltron” when you resume play. That’s right: the best part of the game only appears when you stop playing. I rest my case.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 1.2 Graphics
There is no excuse for performance woes with graphics this poor, but there they are. 2.0 Control
Sluggish on foot, mindless in Voltron, only in space do they come through by being serviceable. 3.0 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
It does sound like Voltron. And there’s the announcer. 0.5 Play Value
When I finished the game, it told me that I’d unlocked a higher difficulty. My only thought in response was: Why 1.3 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:

  • Shoot ‘Em Up – Lions in space! Take out the evil Zarkon forces as you travel from planet to planet.
  • Form Voltron – Team up with up to four friends online and work cooperatively in epic one-on-one confrontations with massive Robeasts.
  • Team up – Work together with your friends to rescue civilians, gather star power, execute special attacks, and form Voltron!

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