Obscure 3D Platformers - Game Sack -

 

hello and welcome to game sack this time around we're gonna take a look at some obscure 3d platformers mm the 3d platformer I really really love this John where are so many awesome games in here it's just you guys know the awesome ones like crash and mario 64 mario odyssey all that stuff but we're gonna talk about some that you may not have heard of or if you have you know here you might get some new information i don't know well let's just get into it

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here's tack in the power of juju on the PlayStation 2 you can also get it on the Gamecube if you like or even the Gameboy Advance the latter won't be an obscure 3d platformer though this game was released in 2003 and I'll be honest I do remember seeing this game on the shelves back then but the cover of the game ruined it for me I really am NOT a fan of the character design tak looks so ugly and he takes up a lot of space there on the front in a roundabout way he looks like the famous mr. bean and I would totally believe it if he was modeled after him anyways back a few years ago I saw it at a local game shop for $3 and figured I might as well pick it up and as it turns out it's actually a fairly decent game you play as tak who has to save his village from an evil shaman who's changing everyone into sheep the game has you gaining new items to help you out as you slowly progress through the story and I do mean slowly since you'll be doing lots of fetch quests if you didn't have to run all over the place to collect items you'd probably get through this game in a few hours tours the fun in that right the developers want you to get your money's worth in they send you all over the place to find stuff I mean you do want to go to each area and collect 9 new boo plants right or how about going around each level and collecting 100 your balls that are spread throughout all the game's levels that sounds amazingly fun doesn't it you'd better hope so because it's all completely necessary since you won't be able to progress in the game if you don't I sound a little sarcastic I know but in actuality is really not that bad the platforming is pretty fun here and you do a lot of it not long into the game you get a blow stick that you can use to pull bought yourself a little bit higher than your normal jump it's a little sluggish but it's really fun to do and you can also use it as a blowgun to stun enemies after you kill an enemy they drop feathers for you to collect firstly they help refill your life when you collect them your life meter is really strange as its the feather you wear on your head it starts out yellow when your life is full and turns purple as the life runs out and if your life runs out and you die don't worry you have infinite lives and start fairly close to where you died which leads me to question why you even have a meter for your life in the first place but dying is annoying as it happens a lot when you're fighting and it takes more than a few seconds for you to regenerate

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to keep you interested in the game a few elements have been added to break up the normal platforming you can write a few animals like this Rhino who can break through fences you can also put on a chicken suit by going into this outhouse when in the chicken suit you can write air that is shot up from ground vents but you can lay egg bombs that you can drop on enemies from the sky and these are fun for a little while so again when you kill enemies they drop feathers you collect them and eventually you have over a thousand of them the first four hours into the game I kept wondering what the point was well eventually you collect icons that let you use juju powers there's a ton of different ones like this one where you can turn enemies into chickens it's nice but it takes 150 feathers every time you use it it wasn't but a few minutes and I had spent all those thousands of feathers I should have been more frugal I guess the game has a lot going for it and it's actually well designed the areas are thoughtfully laid out and the graphics are lush even though at times they are a bit dark the camera is overall good but it does have issues every now and again I really think I would have liked this game back in 2003 if I had bought it then if it wasn't for that ugly tack on the cover I might have gone for it I'm glad I waited though as three dollars is more my style yeah check it this is I ninja from Namco and Argonaut for the PlayStation 2 Gamecube Xbox and PC and I'm playing the ps2 version here you play as a ninja with lots of tude who accidentally kills his sensei and because of this now you need to save the entire world or something it doesn't matter nobody plays these games for the story like most 3d platformers you have a hub world where you can enter the regular stages at your whim completing each stage successfully gets you a grade and after you get so many grades you get a new belt and of course once you upgrade your belt you can enter new doors for example once you get your yellow belt you can finally enter doors that have a yellow shield blocking them sometimes you can play stages again to meet specific conditions like killing all of the enemies in order to get a grade and trust me you'll want to do these because you're gonna need a lot of grades I ninja has quite a few different moves that he can do of course he can double jump and attack with a sword he can also latch on the hooks with this chain and swing from them he can grind rails because he is super cool he can bounce back and forth between walls he can run up and even along certain walls he can even control a ball rolling around the level so basically this game tries to combine the Xbox GameCube and ps2 era ninja gaiden shinobi Sonic Adventure and Super Monkey Ball yeah it not only combines them but it makes them all much worse there are a lot of these super monkey ball style ball rolling segments in the first hour or so of the game it's extremely twitchy and can really make you nervous because it's very easy to fall out the ledges you can do it though I believe in you I mean at least someone does otherwise the control is generally pretty good and I found it very responsive I did occasionally have an issue with wall running in the correct direction and the whole wall running thing kind of feels like an afterthought the camera can cause some issues sometimes the l1 button will kind of snap it to face directly forward but not always you can rotate the camera with the right analog stick but it feels backwards when you move it and you can't look up or down when you use the right stick but usually the camera does do a decent job of following you around in any given stage the graphics are sharp and not bad for the generation it even supports widescreen if you engage it in the option screen at least on the ps2 version according to what I read on the internet neither the GameCube nor the Xbox version support widescreen for this game nor do they run in progressive scan I tell you it truly is a backwards world that we live in when the ps2 version is the one that looks the best in that particular generation of games the music and sound are adequate I'd say they do the job they need to do and nothing more as a whole the game is fairly difficult but not quite too difficult it really teeters on the edge here if you're a novice gamer you'd do well to stay away from this one honestly though even if you're a seasoned 2 gamer there's not a lot for you here I certainly wouldn't say it's awful and it definitely is a bit creative but I feel it could have been much better had they spent more time with the game's design still it's worth having if you see it for cheap and as you might imagine it is indeed a game that does not require the big bucks

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you I ninja Joe is that like before iPod and  I everything I don't know but it got on that wave and it rode it so well yeah they had foresight and he saw that this was what the future was anyway let's get back into it this is vexed by acclaim studios Austin it's another 2003 release and it's available for the ps2 Xbox and GameCube I'm playing the ps2 version here and this one I really don't remember seeing back in the day unlike tack this one has much better cover and the main character of X is much more appealing vex is out to get revenge for the ruination of his village in the death of his grandpa as a regular dude vex has no chance to win but he's been given the legendary astana war talons which gives him the edge these talons are super strong and Becks can do many things with him of course he can kill enemies which is always a must in a game like this he has a handful of moves at his disposal that are easy to do and fun to pull off he can also swim with these talents as they given the ability to swim quickly underwater he can also climb with them and reaching collectables that are high up is not a problem that is if it's an area that he can climb since he just can't climb anywhere he pleases but the meat of the game is how it's played you have a main world that you start in and as you collect shadow Wraith hearts throughout each area you'll open up new worlds to explore I like this style of gameplay much more where you go for one goal at a time it reminds me of Mario 64 in collecting stars if you hit the select button it pulls up a list of hearts that you've collected and hearts that you still need to get under each heart is a little verse which will give you a hint as what you need to do to collect it as you can guess the vast majority of their hearts are visible and you can see them shining in the distance just waiting for you to get your ass over there and pick them up the levels are all well designed and as you go for each heart you won't feel like you're treading the same path over and over again like a lot of games one cool gameplay element that I do like is the ability to make time move by standing on this sundial day turns into night and vice versa and this will open up new ways to find some of those hearts you need to collect and you'll need to collect a lot of them as each new world takes more and more hearts to unlock them the game looks good for the most part I really do like the backgrounds with the floating chunks of rock and a random planet or moon that's hanging out man the way in building this game up you think it's just about perfect but it isn't if there's one thing that's vexing sorry about that is the camera it works okay but I found myself struggling with it more than I wanted to it gets hung up on a lot of tight areas and this game is loaded with tight areas so yeah have fun with it but if it wasn't for the wonky camera I would have liked this game more than I do it's really fun and it does deserve a playthrough it's also insanely cheap and there's really no reason to pass it up so just try it if you come across it in the wild

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let's talk about a more modern obscure platformer that hardly anybody ever mentions super Lucky's tale for the Xbox one it's also available for Windows of course developed by playful and published by Microsoft themselves super Lucky's tale could easily be considered a hidden gem since it barely received any marketing at all you play as a fox named lucky his sister was hunting down some sort of magical book but the evil cat clan called the kitty litter also wanted the book somehow both you and the kitty litter get sucked into the book and that's where the game takes place if you had fun with the 3d platformers on the Nintendo 64 then it's a pretty good bet that you'll get some enjoyment out of this one there are plenty of large levels to explore and there are often levels within levels within levels instead of collecting stars like in Super Mario 64 for example you collect clover leaves and it's the same basic concept you need a certain number of clover leaves to unlock certain doors which lead to new stages lucky has some moves that can help him accomplish this he can run and jump in any direction but he also has a double jump he can spin his tail for an attack but usually this only stuns enemies you have to hop on top of them in order to kill them completely dead if you press and hold the right trigger lucky can burrow into the ground to find coins brick blocks and other things however you're always moving when you're underground and you can't stop at all so you need to be careful I didn't have any problems with control lag like some reviewers have said that they've had they worked well enough for me and are pretty typical of a 3d platformer the 3d levels are often huge hub world to smaller 3d and 2.5 D levels there's often plenty of coins to collect as well as gems and other things like finding all the letters to Lucky's name to get a cloverleaf you can burrow into holes to accomplish tasks to earn clover Leafs and unlock the next area these usually contain a small but fun puzzle to solve by pushing statues around in the smaller 3d levels which are still pretty big you often have little jobs to accomplish like clearing out a bunch of burrowing moles for this lady once you kill enough of them she opens up a path for you to the next part of the stage sometimes you'll have a specific task for an entire stage like carrying this Gollum head to his body which is way far away you can't touch anything and youcan't jump all holding it some levels  are presented in 2.5 D and these are really fun as well as challenging because sometimes when you dig into a hole it puts you way in the background and you need to do something back there in order to get back into the foreground to continue on with the level it's pretty cool there's always lots to do in this game and honestly sometimes it feels too big wandering around the various hub worlds can be confusing sometimes and you're not always sure where to go next or how even to get there and as with pretty much every 3d platformer the camera isn't perfect usually it just faces straight forward but you can aim it one step to the left or one step to the right with the right analog stick and that's all the freedom you get with the camera honestly it's not that bad but I feel it has led to a few deaths where I couldn't see exactly what was going on lucky can only take three hits before he dies and sometimes it's hard to see what's hitting you the visuals are nice and sharp and very colorful this one is enhanced for the Xbox one X which I'm playing it on here the only real advantage that the Xbox one X seems to give it other than running in 4k is that it runs at 60 frames per second when I first played this on my regular ass Xbox one back in December I noticed that it only ran at about 30 frames per second for some reason I'm not sure why it couldn't run at 60 frames per second even only on the lowly regular Xbox one but whatever the music has done well and it fits giving a flight fulfilling to the overall world it's good I mean it kind of feels like it's inspired by Super Mario Galaxy maybe I don't know maybe that's just me so it's not a perfect game but it's still a very good one it's cheap it exists physically and I suggest you get it if you actually own an Xbox one

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follow gamesack on twitter at game sec and at game sec dave on instagram at game sack official and check out our patreon if you want alright Dave so do you think there's a chance that you may pick up super Lucky's tale for your Xbox one being that you have probably next to no games for the thing yeah I mean not only that it'd be good to add to my collection but being a physical copy and cheap sure and to boot it all up my favorite genre why not come on as well mm-hmm anyway well let's get back into it

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here's enslaved Odyssey to the West developed by ninja theory and published by Namco it's available for your PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and I'm playing the ps3 version here which shouldn't surprise anybody the game is set in a future time after a huge war between humans and robots there's only a few humans left alive and a bunch of robots so it looks like the robots won that war if you like the color green then you're gonna love this game it's set mainly in New York City where the earth is reclaiming everything building streets and all that you can see are covered with plants and vines it's very common kind of tranquil until the robots come around and then it's game on you're equipped with your gloves in a staff these are enough to take out almost everything in your way the staff is cool as it also has the ability to shoot plasma and stun ammo but your shots are limited so you won't be using it as much as you'd like - as you can see there's a ton of orange orbs that I'm collecting you use these to upgrade pretty much everything from how much health you have to more powerful attacks and more ammo for your staff this is a nice evolution of the platforming genre instead of having you do a bunch of fetch quests the game is story driven and you platform your way from one part to the next this makes for a more clean experience where you never see the same areas over and over again and you'll never get lost in this game everything that you can platform on is highlighted which makes the past perfectly clear you've probably also noticed that there's some girl tagging along in the beginning after your ship crashes she puts a slave headband on you while you're knocked out she can control you with this thing and she forces you to make a deal with her to get her back home and then she'll take it off your head at first I really didn't like the idea of having to help some NPC throughout the game she can't fight and needs you to protect her and help herget around but after a little bit she actually turns out to be really helpful the most handy thing that she does is she can distract all those robots while you make your way close enough to destroy them there's lots of cutscenes as you progress which are really well done your character is voiced by Andy Serkis whom you might remember from the Lord of the Rings movies great this just gets better and better the girl is voiced by Lindsey Shaw and yeah I really don't know who she is but she did a good job here so I'll give her credit it could be because of your headband it is effectively wired brain maybe it causes hallucinations anyway instead of just boring cutscenesthey at least add a little quality to the story there's another little fun fact about monkey your character if he looks a little familiar it's because he's loosely based off the monkey from Journey to the West whereas I originally thought he looked a lot like Capcom sonson character who's also based on Journey to the West monkey controls a tad bit on the loose side and doesn't feel as solid as I'd like him to be it's not a big deal in over time you'll get used to it and it really won't hinder the gameplay other than that I have no complaints about this game it's really well made even though it's 8 years old already and is slightly showing its age I would really love to see a remake of this game in the future but until then you should play it if you haven't his dirt cheap so give it a try

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ah this is Toy Story 2 Buzz Lightyear to the rescue it's on the PlayStation Nintendo 64 and the Sega Dreamcast and of course I'm playing the Dreamcast version I didn't know that this game even existed until recently for any system it loosely follows the plot of the movie with you trying to rescue woody but since it's a game you need to do a lot of nonsense along the way that doesn't really have anything to do with rescuing woody at all like racing a few laps around the garage against the RC car to get a Pizza Planet token and you can't advance if you don't have the tokens and the other toys make you earn them why they gotta be like that I guess they don't care very much about woody do they the levels are very large and it can explore almost everywhere grabbing coins and lots of other items but this often just shows how bad the collision detection is because sometimes you don't grab them when you think you should be able to you have a few moves like your laser attack to destroy the hordes of evil toys that are everywhere as well as the spin attack you can double jump rides if lines climb poles and smash certain objects as you can probably already tell this games biggest issue is the camera it always seems to be moving and it certainly isn't subtle about it there is however an option for a more passive camera that doesn't swing to follow buzz at every turn but honestly I can't say that it's any better because you're constantly turning it with the Ellen the art triggers the framerate is all over the place and the detail is pretty poor for the Dreamcast I mean just look at this blocky ass grass texture it doesn't feel like they tried very hard here there are some FMV clips from the movie but they've all been reavoice tanned a couple of actors have been replaced but whoever they got for Rex the dinosaur is pretty bad the music will start to drive you nuts after a while as well I couldn't play this game for much more than half an hour as it  gave me motion sickness as you can imagine you know what just play toy   commander if you want a good toy game on the Dreamcast trust me you'll have lotsmore fun but avoid this one like the  plague

oh well let's take a quick look atanother Disney property called 102 Dalmatians puppies to the rescue this is available for the PlayStation and the reamcast and once again I'm playing it  on the Dreamcast this one is based on the movie of the same name my guess but I've never seen the movie so your guess is probably better than mine anyway Cruella Deville has stolen everyone's pets and now it's up to you to get them back you control a dog named Domino who's voiced by Frankie Muniz from Malcolm in the Middle there are a lot of things lying on the ground like bones and food should I pick them up as you run around the levels you can use your bark to destroy Cruella's toys your brothers and sisters are being kept in crates just lying around and you just need to smash through them to free them along the way you'll get tips from other random talking animals you can switch puppies between Domino and his sister oddball at almost any time though I didn't notice any difference between them other than one of them doesn't have any spots the control is mostly good with one exception and that's that you can't seem to run in a straight line at all when you're using the analog stick in fact the game plays a lot better with the d-pad so I just recommend using that I wish that they had taken a bit more time to finding the analog controls the frame rates not super hot but otherwise the graphics are decent for the system overall it's an alright game but if you're like me you'll probably get bored quickly oh and you can also get this on the PC in the Game Boy Color

you all right there you go a bunch of obstacles applaud any of these or even heard of them yeah and do you have any more that you think we should try out that we may not have heard of her just you know don't really get a lot of attention these days let us know in the meantime thank you for watching games

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I get this naturally no it's right around the corner but Jill's right in the way I know what's going on dude Oh a day that's going that's great man hey did you know Chucky millenniums right there oh hi Johnny wait you tricked me there's no Johnny millennium over there you're right you're right you know it's actually Billy from the game chasers Dave I'm not falling for that one I'd smell Billy a mile away huh you're right he does smell this for sure Joe dude there's a time portal opening up from when sega was relevant seriously look green dog green dog I hate green dog he knows dead I tricked you you're not getting my snatcher

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