Clocking in at around ten hours, Voodoo Vince may seem a little on the short side, but the developers at Beep Industries have crammed a lot of adventure into that amount of time. You won’t just be wandering around cemeteries and carnivals all day, oh no, you will be flying a rocket plane, racing a rat, using a fanboat, and even getting some serious drain damage in a bumper car. Up until the end of the game you will be on the edge of your seat wanting to know what comes next.
Voodoo Vince even manages to pack in a few impressive boss battles, which usually happen in a epic fashion. My favorite involves a doll who has taken over a scale model of a train set. The entire battle involves you jumping over buildings, navigating around mountains, and eventually making your way to the exactly location where two trains are about to have a head on collision. There are only a few bosses, but each of them are memorable in their own way.
Where the game starts to fall apart is when you get past the style. Unfortunately Vince’s quest is pretty linear, and a little on the short side. All throughout the game your path is clearly laid out in front of you, never offering another path, or multiple ways of completing your goals. There are little nooks and crannies to be found, but not nearly as many as you’d expect in this day and age. This isn’t a big deal the first time through, but with nothing extra to do or see once you’ve beaten it, Vince is left with not a lot of replay.
Also, it would have been nice for a little more depth on the actual Voodoo Vince character. Between his punches and spin attack, he’s a fairly limited character. He’s a slow mover with some pretty ineffective attacks. Perhaps if he could throw rocks or pick up a stick or something it could add a new element to the combat aspect of the game. I wouldn’t have minded earning a new move after every boss, or something to keep the character fresh.
The whole gimmick of hurting yourself to hurt others wears thin the longer the game goes on, and never really plays a prominent part in the game. It would have been nice to have some control over what voodoo power you were going to use, or perhaps have it play a bigger part in the puzzles. The game ends up squandering a lot of the potential it had early on, hopefully to be addressed if a sequel is made.
Otherwise Voodoo Vince is a great second try at the 3D platformer. In just about every way possible Vince has improved on Blinx the Time Sweeper, and even manages to be a character that you can’t help but fall in love with. The gimmick seems a little forced, but given the chance, I think this is a character that could have some pretty creative adventures. It’s no perfect, but it’s a fun Xbox platformer that should not be written off.
B- | There is no reason for Microsoft to beat themselves up over Voodoo Vince, it’s a great game with only a few noticeable flaws. Any gamer patient enough to work all the way through the game will find themselves experiencing a fun adventure that is the best platformer on the Xbox thus far. |
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