During your time on Invizimals you will play as a character called Hiro. It seems he works for a secret organization that send him through a portal into another world inhabited by talking animals – Invizimals. On your travels you will meet many such creatures each of which sport their own abilities to help Hiro travel around the world. Although you have to ‘prove’ yourself first by fighting them in a brief QTE scene. After you’ve beaten them up they let you take their powers so you can transform into them at will. OK, why not?
Collecting small floating orbs called ‘Z sparks’ essentially acts as currency for you to spend on upgrading your creature’s abilities – and unlocking the occasional secret door. Sadly each creature only has three heavy attacks and three ‘special’ moves for you to acquire. The difference between the heavy attacks is minimal and basically will just allow you to choose between a weaker attack that you can use more frequently and a more powerful one that you can use less.
On top of that you can only unlock them in order so to acquire a final move you must first acquire the five before it. Also there is an unbelievable abundance of z-sparks and you will have more than enough to purchase upgrades almost, if not, immediately after you acquire a new creature. There are a few ‘secret’ areas that allow you to briefly get off the main path but not enough to make for any decent exploration. So considering you’re never really in need of extra sparks there is very little incentive to go searching even if you do have the option.
There’s no other way to put it, the combat is rigid and repetitive. And time and time again I would get stuck on tiny pieces of uneven ground, unable to attack, reduced to mashing the jump button until I was free from my invisible prison. Even when things go right it’s a case of pushing square until the enemies die. You can throw in a heavy attack if you want but there’s no need. All this can be done without ever taking noticeable damage because enemies are far too forgiving. They’re so slow it becomes difficult to actually get them to attack you. And even if they do you’ll take minimal damage.
Unfortunately there’s not much else to it. You do some clunky platforming, you collect some sparks, you fight what may as well be a dummy and you start again. It takes very little time to get thoroughly bored on Invizimals. And the knowledge that it doesn’t get any more varied or interesting ensures any enthusiasm you may have dies long before you reach the end.
On the plus side the environments that surround your adventure are vibrant and colourful. Even though the combat is reduced to repetitively pressing a single button at least the areas give you something to look at. Considering the scope of the rest of the game there are even some surprisingly good looking moments. Sadly they are hindered by a fixed camera which varies between frustrating and game-breaking, especially during some of the already clunky platforming the camera can be a death sentence. Nobody wants to replay sections from a checkpoint just because the camera flips and you sarcastically walk of a ledge to your doom.
Every part of Invizimals feels cheap and poorly put together. That’s possibly unfair given the game’s budget but the final product is plagued by problems that shouldn’t be present on a PS3. Fixed cameras, unresponsive platforming and rigid combat sour Invizimals so much that it becomes very difficult to enjoy any part of the game. And even if you let yourself enjoy the gameplay briefly you will likely become bored quickly.
It’s difficult to imagine someone painstakingly spending months making sure Invizimals is the best it could be. The whole game feels rushed and put together directly from a last-gen platformer tick list. There’s no need for the patronisingly simple ‘puzzles’ and lack of threat during combat. The more than formidable selection of Lego games have proved time and time again that using simple mechanics a game can be packed with stuff to do and appeal to gamers of any age.
The only real victory for Invizimals are the graphics. Both the environments and the Invizimals themselves look surprisingly good. So too do the cutscenes that are dotted about to move the dubious plot onwards. But scratch the surface even lightly and the illusion is broken. Nothing in Invizimals feels anywhere near what other platformers currently offer. Apart from those who are big fans of Invizimals it’s hard to see who would get enjoyment from The Lost Kingdom. It feels so dated and rushed it’s difficult to even get deep enough into the game to allow the fixed camera and turgid combat and platforming to ruin your experience. And unfortunately there’s no fun in upgraded and acquiring new moves because they’re all handed over to us like we couldn’t cope without the game’s charity.
Without an original thought or design idea Invizimals: The Lost Kingdom comes off as generic as possible. It’s difficult to care about a game that seems to have been made without care. The Lost Kingdom just seems like the product of market research rather than because a developer had a good idea for a game.
