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»Code Lyoko
"All these supercomputers and they couldn’t make a decent map..."
I guess this is the new generation of average licensed games. I haven’t
played many since back in the SNES and Genesis days when I was in their
target audience (“A Simpsons game? That has to be good!”), and Code
Lyoko is keeping the dream alive for future generations. Actually, the
game is better than I expected, despite an overall sloppy and rushed
feeling, the game is playable and I got at least some enjoyment out of
it. Considering that the game doesn’t have any of the 16-bit nostalgia
and simplicity going for it, and that I had no knowledge of Code Lyoko
other than that it existed going in, that the game manages to be
average feels like quite an accomplishment, all things considered.
Code Lyoko is a fairly popular cartoon about the lives of children at a
boarding school who have to go into a cyber world to prevent an evil
digital entity named XANA from doing weird stuff in the real world. The
game tries to do a lot, with four completely different gameplay modes
(although two take up over 90% of the game) and a surprisingly long
length. The show’s most distinguishing feature is that it switches
animation styles in each episode, going from traditional animation in
the normal world to computer rendered animation in the digital world.
The game is very faithful in that aspect; the two dominant play modes
are an adventure game style mode in 2D cartoon-like graphics and an
action mode in complete 3D. Quick puzzle game like hacking sequences
and elusive vehicle sequences round out the play modes.
The game’s biggest problem is the adventure mode. It basically consists
of you going from place to place in the main character’s school and the
surrounding areas, getting plot information. There aren’t any real
puzzles in it, you are given a marker showing you exactly where to go,
and it instantly moves whenever you talk to the person or get the item
you needed. It would basically be a series of really long cinemas if it
weren’t for one problem: an absolutely horrible map system. To connect
where you are to where you have to go you need to switch back and forth
between different maps. What really got to me, though, is that the maps
are at different angles. So this means that if the zoomed out map
showing your location and your objective’s location has the objective
to your right, the map showing your immediate area will have the exit
you want above you. And the actual area might contradict both of them!
Once you adjust to the map you won’t spend that long finding the areas
you need to go to, but whether you’ll want to bother is questionable,
and the map is still horribly designed.
The action segments fare better, although only enough to make them
about average. The action sequences have you fighting enemies as one of
four different characters, working your way through mazes, and going
through semi-platforming sections (you can’t jump, but platforms are
happy to always make direct contact so that you can walk to new ones)
from an overhead view. The combat isn’t great but isn’t terrible
either, you just slash or shoot enemies until the barriers disappear.
You can upgrade your character’s stats and buy new combos for them, but
you rarely need a particular strategy to kill enemies. The controls are
kind of loose and your character’s clumsy movement will get you hit by
a lot of projectiles, but you get a good amount of life and life
restoring items from defeated enemies. Each character has a special
power that is necessary to get past certain sections, but they aren’t
put to very creative use. You never use the dash power for anything
except running across platforms that periodically flip over and push
you off, for example. The hacking (puzzle) and racing modes are
probably the most enjoyable, but unfortunately the puzzles are over
quickly and the races come up very rarely.
The graphics in Code Lyoko aren’t particularly impressive, the
adventure segments do a good job of capturing the cartoon’s look, but
the polygonal areas are very poor visually, resembling the very
earliest Playstation 1 or Saturn games, DS has been capable of far
better even at launch. There are a good number of FMV sequences from
the show, and they are very clear and faithful. They aren’t accompanied
by voice, however. The music and sound effects don’t do anything to
stand out, and can get annoying when you’re lost in the adventure mode.
There is barely any replay value in Code Lyoko, the game is completely
linear with no difficulty settings or secrets, and even if you enjoy
the story, the adventure sequences that are basically cinemas are sure
to get annoying if you play through again. The only new thing to do
after beating the game is to play a collection of 100 hacking puzzles
that the game rewards you with upon completion. These are moderately
fun, but not something that will keep you glued to the game.
Overall, Code Lyoko is a very average licensed game. There isn’t
anything to make it stand out, but aside from the map issue it doesn’t
suffer from any truly horrible flaws that make it unplayable. I got
some entertainment out of it, but I wouldn’t have any intention of
buying or playing it for my own enjoyment. If you really love the show
you’ll probably like the game, and it is better than you would expect a
licensed portable game based on a Cartoon Network show to be, but when
judged objectively as a game it barely makes it to average and there’s
really no reason to buy it.
Article by: KI Simpson
Posted on: Jun. 29th, 2007 |
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Review Recap |
| Gameplay |
| Some enjoyable parts and not completely broken, but nothing that really bring out enjoyment. |
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Graphics |
| Decent graphics for half the game and impressive FMVs, but well below par graphics for the other half. |
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Sound |
| Average and unremarkable, the parts where you get stuck for awhile can make it annoying. |
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Replay Value |
| Hardly any, no reason to play again. |
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