Platforming paradise that falls just short of perfection.
As stated by previous people the game from start to finish is a tad bit too easy. But I at least took that in stride to just simply have fun with the game instead of trying to battle through on Veteran difficulty. The variety of weapons has always, and continues to be my favorite part of the game and they're definitely not lacking here. The weapon-select system is also insanely fluid and in less than a second you can switch between everything you've collected. The only fault about the weapons system that I could pick out is that when you've leveled up the Swarmers to V5 with full upgrades, the thing is so powerful that you drop one, stand back, and watch your enemies explode. It takes away a bit of the (little) challenge that's in the game. I usually just switched between all the weapons I had to fight a boss because it's simply more fun that way.
Unlike some of the other titles, you start with all the flying/underwater/gravityboot gear that you normally had to collect. Instead you collect pieces of a blue-print throughout the game that turn into a weapon, or golden bolts that let you unlock extra features of the game i.e. costumes to run around in. Just a little different spin on things to make it less rinse-and-repeat. There are, however, still sections on planets that you cannot get to right away and have to come back to once you get different weapons so, like previously, you've got to remember all the interesting things you found but couldn't get to at that moment.
Arena battles are back but sadly in short supply! They are a fun segment of the game but there just simply aren't enough of them. Also lacking are longer grind-rail segments-the one long one in the game is really just too easy. Unless you have a dog to walk in front of your TV and block your view then you'd be hard-pressed to die at all.
Story-line wise I thought it was pretty good, granted that you know all the quirks of the returning characters. The ending wasn't so blaringly blatant about a sequel as a slap in the face but the programmers definitely have that intention. And why not? Afterall this is the, what, 6th... 7th? installment in this game series. I, for one, wouldn't not complain about more.
Now for the bad.. or rather, just irksome.
The campaign was short. Not super short, just short. And normally that is OK, but the game didn't come with any multiplayer whatsoever; and sans-multiplayer combined with a short campaign is a thumbs-down in my book. With the cost of games nowadays I can't justify spending the same amount of money on something that gets 6-10 hours of my time vs. open-ended multiplayer.
Replay value . . ? Like the others, when you finish you can start immediately over from the beginning, but with everything you've collected throughout the whole game. The only problem is, they didn't seem to make the difficulty harder (or if they did I didn't notice). Also, you cannot continue leveling your weapons up. You can collect massive amounts of bolts because of a "bolt-multiplier" system they integrated but I didn't see anything new to buy, and I had already had everything before I finished the game the first time. Granted I didn't play all the way through the second go so there might have been new things I didn't see after the 4th level.
Other than that I can't really find much fault with the game. The controls were great, the graphics were very crisp and still maintained the normal cartoon-style from previous games. They integrated 6-axis very well in a couple of mini-games/segments. Overall it is a well-polished final product. It's not the best installment of the series but it is a definite play. If more content was included then it would easily be pushing a 9 to 10.
Final score-- 8.0
C. Leschinsky
(Digitalwatch)