|
|
Game Information
|
Preview
|
Review |
Screenshots
|
Forum |
»Psychic World
"It's hard to get psyched about this piece of crap."
You know, considering all the decent-to-good games
I’ve covered so far for the Game Gear, you’d think that it could’ve
done a little better against the Game Boy. Well, I’ve only scratched
the surface of the Game Gear’s library, but for this review, I’ll be
delving into the depths of video game mediocrity. Psychic World
was originally released in Europe on the Master System, but was ported
to the Game Gear in all three major regions. Unfortunately, considering
the shoddy gameplay and otherwise bland attributes, it may as well have
stayed as is.
The storyline for Psychic World
is pretty straightforward. In an isolated science lab, Dr. Knavik
researches Extrasensory Perception (or ESP). Twin sisters Lucia and
Cecile assist the doctor with his research. One day, there was an
explosion at the lab. Lucia rushed to see if Cecile and Dr. Knavik were
alright. As it would turn out, the creatures used for ESP experiments
escaped and took Cecile captive. Donning a headset known as the ESP
Booster, which gives her powerful psychic abilities, Lucia sets off to
save her sister.
The
gameplay’s pretty simple. Players play the part of the aforementioned
Lucia, as she uses psychic power to blast through hideous creatures,
including a chimera and a dragon made of ice. Lucia has more tricks up
her sleeve than just the standard psi-attack. She can also find other
abilities throughout the world in the form of icons. Some give off new
forms of the basic attack (like fireballs, ice blasts and... some kind
of wave), while others give her enhanced abilities for a short time at
the cost of some of her ESP gauge (for example, one gives her an insane
jumping ability that borders on flight). Finding additional icons boost
the corresponding abilities strengths vastly, eventually ending up at
triple the power of the original. On the surface, it may sound like the
game is awesome, but let me assure you: I’ve left some things out.
There
are three major problems with the gameplay. The first (and
least-pressing) problem has to be the control scheme. Not the basic
control scheme, mind you. I’m talking about the controls to switch ESP
abilities: Down on the D-Pad and the 1 & 2 buttons simultaneously.
I mean, c’mon. It freezes the game anyway, why not just use Start, and
make it the pause screen? Second, there’s only one life per continue,
and Lucia’s health doesn’t recharge between levels or continues. So, if
you were to make it through the first level with minimal health
remaining, the second level’s going to be nigh-impossible to clear. The
third (and most aggravating of all) problem would be getting hurt.
Whereas in most video games, when damage is dealt to the player
character, they recoil and/or get a few seconds of invincibility; this
is not the case in Psychic World. Instead, walking into an
enemy can drain half of Lucia’s HP or more, and God help you if you get
trapped in a corner by an enemy. There are a few other minor annoyances
in the gameplay, but they don’t really warrant mention.
The
graphics are probably the game’s best quality, but that really isn’t
saying much. I’ve seen some shots of the original version for the
Master System, and while the Game Gear incarnation boasts a better
palette, it falters in numerous other areas. For example, the various
cinematics and animations are actually graphically superior on the SMS
version of the game. Also, the game’s look is scaled oddly, and many of
the stages shrink significantly in overall length. The audio’s nothing special either. Music’s not really so much bad, as it is bland. Very
bland. It fits right into the SMS-style of music so flatly, it’s barely
even recognizable. The sound effects follow suit, there’s really
nothing worth mentioning. You could play this game with the sound on or
off: neither setting would really make a difference.
The replay
is
the game's worst quality. First off, there’s the shoddy gameplay, which
is generally the saving grace for bare-bones games of this genre, but
instead works against it. There’s also the fact that the game only has
four relatively small stages. Finally, this game doesn’t really have
anything going for it in other qualities, it’s not even generic, it’s
bad. Bottom line: play this game at your own risk.
Article by: Wolfdogg
Posted on: Jul. 14th, 2007 |
|
|
|
Review Recap |
| Gameplay |
| It has potential, but there are a lot of aggravating problems that hinder this game. |
 |
|
|
Graphics |
| Not bad for the time, but nothing awe-inspiring either. I mean, most of the graphics were downgraded from the Master System. |
 |
|
|
Sound |
| Eh, the music’s not good. Same goes for the sound effects. |
|
|
|
Replay Value |
| With 4 stages, little to no fun factor, and no truly unique attributes, this game has “trade-in” written all over it. |
 |
|
|
Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
