SPRay
Score: 46% ESRB: Everyone 10+ Publisher: Tecmo Developer: EKO Software Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - 4 Genre: Action/ Adventure/ Puzzle
Graphics & Sound: Quite a few of the games I've played lately on the Wii have been "mini-game" games. The Wii just lends itself well to that format. So I was glad to come across another interesting looking action adventure game. Interesting is a very good word to describe SPRay. Graphically, I would say it is almost par for the Wii. The backgrounds and characters have a medieval, cartoony look. I know that sounds strange, but imagine a medieval scene and cartoonize it. That's what SPRay looks like. The colors are all very bright, but sometimes things blend together. It can be hard to tell what is where, and due to poor camera angles, it can be very difficult to see anything. The background music is almost non-existent. It is there, but very muted compared to the rest of the game and very bland. The enemies all make generic noises. It is enough to tell you that someone is attacking you from behind, but not enough to tell you what kind of enemy it is. None of the characters actually speak out loud. You'll have to read all the text to figure out what's going on, and sometimes it went by almost too fast for me to read (and I'm a speedy reader!).
Gameplay: On a typical normal day, suddenly chaos breaks out. The old king is killed. He gives his adopted son Ray (know as Spirited Prince Ray, AKA SPRay) his crown to use to save the kingdom from Queen Mordack's evil army. He needs to retrieve the Sun crystals to have the strength to beat the Queen. The crown comes with 2 spirits. One will spray water for you. The other will spray vomit. After you progress in the game some, you'll earn 2 more types of spray to aid you in your quest. You will have to cover or wash away the Queen's darkness, which looks just like the oil slicks in Mario Sunshine, to walk across it. If you step into the darkness, one of her minions will grab you. The layout reminds me of the original Spyro. You have your main land, which is the castle that you start in. From there, you will take various warps to other areas. After you have completed all the requirements for that area, you will warp back to the main land. As a general rule, in each area that you warp to you will have to find four pieces of a parchment. After you find them all, they will reveal a symbol that you will draw onto a lock to let you through to the crystal that you need to collect. After you collect it, you will be taken right back to the main castle. The game autosaves at the beginning and end of each level. You can't just save whenever you want to, which ends up being a very big pain at times. The levels take a decent amount of time to complete, especially the further on you go in the game. If you want (or need) to take a break, you'll have to settle for pausing and leaving it like that. Given that there are at least a few bugs in this game that cause you to get stuck and force you to start over, you'll find yourself leaving it paused a lot while you try and figure out what you need to do, when in reality there is nothing you can do. It ends up leaving you more frustrated than a videogame ever should.
Difficulty: So as I just said, there is a number of bugs in SPRay. We're not just talking minor bugs like getting the camera stuck either. We're talking bugs that cause you to have to start over and hope that they don't occur again. The first two crystals are easy to get. If you talk to the characters, they will tell you where they are all located and a lot of times they will tell you what you need to do to get there. After you get the first crystal, your sword power will be upgraded making your sword useful against enemies instead of just for breaking pots. The enemies will also get harder though. The good news is that you don't have to worry about dying. Your health bar is displayed at the top. When it is depleted, you are simply resurrected, usually somewhere very near to where you died. Sometimes it's even beneficial to die because you will be resurrected nearer to where you needed to go. The compass at the top right points you towards where you need to go (sometimes). You can't always depend on it because the shortest distance doesn't always mean that you can get there. Sometimes you'll have to go up or down to get to where you need to be and other times, you just won't be able to get there, due to the game bugs.
Game Mechanics: The controls feel easy to use in SPRay, so that is at least one positive thing about it. You have to use both the Wii-mote and the Nunchuk. Your movement is controlled with the stick on the Nunchuk. The character will move in whatever direction you move it. The camera doesn't always move exactly the way you want it to, though. To re-center the camera, you lightly tap the (Z) button. If you hold it down any time at all it won't register that you wanted to re-center, so tap as lightly as you can. If you hold the (Z) button down, it will center on an enemy allowing you to strafe. The (C) button will let you pick up boxes. You won't be able to pick up the balls, which makes absolutely no sense. Those you have to try your best to push around like a soccer ball. I found it helped to just use slime to make the whole area sticky. It is slower going, but at least it doesn't go totally wild. You'll definitely need to learn how to control the Nunchuk to spray your enemies. You will see your crosshairs on the screen. Simply point the Wii-mote at the enemy and hold down the (B) button. You will spray whichever substance is listed at the top. To cycle through them, use the D-pad on the Wii-mote. You can also jump over things by pressing the (A) button. After you get the slime power, you can use it to jump to higher places. Simply spray slime on the walls, jump onto it and the jump again to get to the top of a ledge. SPRay looked like it was going to be a fun little game to play. It is a lot of fun, until you get stuck with no way out. After that, you just want to throw the controller because of all the wasted time you've spent and because you can't complete the game because of bugs. If you really want to try, I suggest renting it. Maybe you will have better luck than I did, but don't say I didn't warn you.
-Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl
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