Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Mike Dunn

As the gaming parent of a young gamer, one of the biggest problems I have is finding games that are not only age appropriate, but fun and engaging as well. In a market dominated by licensed characters and rip-offs, its refreshing every once in a while to see a game that provides an appropriate experience for it's core audience while maintaining some originality.

In Scaler, you play the role of Bobby Jenkins, a smart-mouthed 12 year-old who has stumbled into his evil next-door neighbors plot to destroy the world with an army of mutant lizard's. In typical unlikely hero fashion, Bobby gets captured, zapped by a strange energy beam, and turned into a shape-shifting chameleon-like creature before escaping into the lizard realm, where he has to single-handedly stop the lizard army invasion.

This review will include some observations of my 6 year-old son, who really took a liking to this game.

Lush, expansive environments and a stunning color palette really set this platformer above the rest of the pack. The game has a real Technicolor feel to it, with nicely animated characters and fantastical worlds. Animations are very smooth, and there is an overall organic quality to the lushly populated settings. Graphical special effects are really nice, and I particularly like the environment changing 'pollen' that, once released into the air, gives everything a new color scheme in a sparkling yellow cloud. The only real hitch in the graphics come with the game engine cutscenes. Oddly enough, animations seemed a little choppier here than in the actual game, and lip-syncing was a bit off at times.

The voice-over in the game is quite good, and each character has been given a very distinct personality. It seems all of the characters in Scaler have a smarmy attitude, and the actors really play it up to good effect. The music and sound effects are adequate; nothing to scream about but certainly contributing to the overall experience.

Game controls are simplistic yet intuitive.  My son had no problem diving right into the game and was eventually able to pull off some of the more complex moves of the game.  Mind you, they weren't very complex but they never really needed to be.  Sometimes the camera angles would get a little awkward, but I have yet to see a game in this perspective NOT have the occasional camera issue.

Probably the weakest part of Scaler lies in its story.  The setup is pretty vague and confusing, with little explanation given for why Bobby is being held captive, or why he knows the identities of his lizard captors.  It doesn't take very long for the actual game to start, though, and once it does, the story hardly matters. 

Basically, the goal is to travel from level to level, rescuing lizard eggs from the clutches of the evil lizard men who want to mutate them into lizard super-soldiers. Besides the lizard eggs, you also have to collect Crystal Gems and glowing balls called Klokkies. The accumulation of Crystal Gems is what unlocks the various worlds, while Klokkies can be used to upgrade the base set of abilities (such as adding to your health meter, or increasing attack damage) via Leon, a scientist who was also turned into a lizard and transported to the lizard dimension. Leon facilitates power upgrades, game saves, and transportation between levels.

Level design is actually quite ingenious, and all of the abilities of Scaler himself, as well as the creatures heeventually learns how to morph into are all well utilized by the design.  Most platformers today have atendency to get stale in spots, with potential game-killing areas that just seem tedious to work through,but Scaler keeps things fresh, with compelling new styles of play popping up at just the right time as you make your way through it.

Two things really stand out in Scaler's gameplay- The first is the rail-sliding on vines that features prominently on just about every level; Just jump onto a vine and grind across the landscape in rollercoaster fashion, picking up Klokkies and charging up your static bombs along the way (a static bomb is your typical 'clear the screen' type super weapon). Griffin, my son, spent several long stretches just sliding through these segments and had a blast.

Most games would just stop right there and have that be their big gimmick, but the most enjoyable and striking aspect of the game is the shape-changing power that you are able to use in certain levels.  After defeating a set number of any particular enemy, scaler gains the ability to transform into that enemy, which opens up a whole new range of powers and ways to play the game.   One of the creature-forms (Krock) enables you to roll into a ball, novel at first, but leading into almost Sonic The Hedgehog style gameplay and time trial racing levels later on in the game. Another form, Badukan, gives you the ability to generate round bombs, which you can roll bowling style, exploding on target.  The Doozum, Swoom, and Fruzard forms give you flight, swimming, and a projectile weapon, respectively.  Griffin spent hours playing with the various forms just for the sake of playing them.  I even discovered him acting some of the moves
out on his own!

Most experienced gamers will find this game a little on the short side, but most kids, the actual target audience, will probably think its just right.  Like most modern platform games, there are several secondary goals for each level in addition to the primary one that progresses the game.  Collecting extra Klokkies, for instance, can unlock production art.

Ultimately, there's nothing really too terribly compelling to make you replay the game, but it certainly is fun while it lasts.

My son really loved this game.  It's a fine example of game design that adheres to its target audience.  Eye-candy that's fun to play, adult gamers will see it as a guilty pleasure, while kids will consider it an invaluable staple in their library.  Best of all?  It's only twenty bucks!

Gaming Trend Score

86

1. Graphics: 90
2. Audio: 80
3. Controls: 85
4. Gameplay: 88
5. Value/Replay: 85
6. OVERALL:86